Trump Moves to Nominate DOJ Legal Chief Elliot Gaiser to a Texas Federal Judgeship

President Donald Trump is moving to nominate T. Elliot Gaiser, the Justice Department lawyer who heads the Office of Legal Counsel, to a lifetime seat on the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, according to a Senate aide cited by Reuters. The Senate Judiciary Committee received Gaiser's nomination paperwork on Sunday, Bloomberg Law reported, with no public announcement from the White House.

Gaiser, 37, runs the office that writes legal opinions the executive branch treats as binding. If confirmed, he would sit in Dallas on a court covering 100 counties in North and West Texas.

A race against the new Senate

The paperwork starts a race against the calendar. Democrats won control of the Senate in the November 3 midterm elections and take over on January 3. The White House hopes to confirm Gaiser and other pending judicial nominees during the lame duck session before the handover, Reuters reported. Bloomberg Law reported that Democrats are widely expected to block most, if not all, of Trump's remaining judicial nominees. A Justice Department official said Gaiser is expected to stay in his post if he does not reach the bench.

Five days from first call to paperwork

Gaiser's Senate questionnaire shows how fast the process moved. The office of Senator Ted Cruz contacted him about the vacancy on November 4, the day after the midterms, according to the questionnaire reported by Bloomberg Law and Reuters. He spoke with staff for Senator John Cornyn on November 6, and the White House Counsel's Office told him the same day that he was under consideration. A White House official told Reuters the administration had no new judicial nominations to announce and that Gaiser is being actively considered. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment from either outlet.

Thin ties to Texas

Gaiser was born in Ohio and lives in Virginia, according to his Senate paperwork. He served as Ohio's solicitor general before Trump put him at the Office of Legal Counsel. His clearest Texas link is a clerkship with Judge Edith Jones of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2016 and 2017. Bloomberg Law reported that the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, the panel Texas senators have long used to screen nominees, does not appear to have played a role in his selection, a break from Trump's other Texas picks.

The opinions that will follow him

The Senate confirmed Gaiser as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in July 2025 by a vote of 53 to 45. The office has since signed off on some of the most contested legal positions of Trump's second term. In April it said the president did not need to comply with the Presidential Records Act. In May it said the Justice Department could seek statewide voter lists and share them with the Department of Homeland Security. Gaiser also authored the opinion, released in January, that justified the operation to seize former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and he signed a non-public memo that concluded US strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean were lawful, Bloomberg Law reported. Senators are expected to press him on those opinions at his confirmation hearing. No hearing date has been announced.