Jack Smith extra a Supreme Court expert. Trump has the Missouri attorney who sued Joe Biden.

The two teams could collide before long in a high-stakes skirmish at 1 Initially Road. Past 7 days, Smith
petitioned the Supreme Court docket to swiftly weigh in on Trump’s assert that he is immune from becoming prosecuted for his initiatives to overturn the 2020 election. Smith hopes the courtroom will take the case on an expedited basis in buy to preserve Trump’s Washington, D.C., trial — scheduled to commence March 4 — on observe.

If the justices just take the case and Dreeben and Sauer go head to head, it will be a research in contrasts. Dreeben is an institutionalist who invested 3 many years at the Justice Section defending the electrical power of the government department to examine and prosecute crimes — knowledge that certainly will be suitable as he backs Smith’s prosecution of Trump. Sauer, meanwhile, is a veteran of the conservative legal local community who’s best known for his involvement in Republican-backed lawsuits that
blocked Joe Biden’s college student-financial debt cancellation and
accused the Biden administration of social-media censorship.

Smith recruits a SCOTUS veteran

Smith’s Supreme Court petition came as a shock, not the very least simply because of the notable identify on
the protect site. Dreeben was detailed as “counsel of record” in the situation and as “counselor” to Smith. That was the first general public sign that Dreeben was doing the job with Smith, and it is a potent signal that, if the justices take the situation, Dreeben will be the 1 arguing.

He’s a trusted and acquainted experience to the justices. Immediately after expending more than three decades in the U.S. solicitor general’s place of work, where he specialized in prison law, Dreeben moved to the regulation organization O’Melveny & Myers in 2020. There he preserved a strong Supreme Court practice, such as a 2022 scenario in which he
romped to a 9- victory, persuading the justices to reverse the conviction of a New York developer accused of wire fraud.

“He is cerebral, he is considerate, he is good,” claimed Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department formal who overlapped with Dreeben.

Dreeben’s profile on the O’Melveny site was recently taken down, presumably to reflect his move to the special counsel’s group. A spokesperson for the distinctive counsel’s workplace declined to remark.

This isn’t the to start with time Dreeben has helped a specific counsel investigating Trump. While Trump was president, Dreeben worked on exclusive counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of one-way links in between Trump’s campaign and Russia. He helped do the job on litigation relevant to Mueller’s authority.

Trump provides a trio of lawyers from outside the house the beltway

Trump seems most likely to deal with a number of battles at the Supreme Court docket in the coming months. In addition to Smith’s petition on Trump’s assert of presidential immunity in the prison scenario, the justices seem to be all but specified to review a
Colorado final decision on Tuesday that declared Trump ineligible to turn out to be president under the 14th Modification.

So considerably, Trump has not included any veteran Supreme Court advocates to his crew. Alternatively, he will be represented by a trio of conservative lawyers from the Clearly show-Me Point out. They will bolster an currently expansive crew of lawyers defending Trump in various felony and civil cases throughout a number of jurisdictions.

Sauer, the most senior of the three lawyers, is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Legislation graduate who clerked for the late Supreme Court docket Justice Antonin Scalia. He was solicitor normal of Missouri from 2017 to 2023, helming the state’s affairs right before the Supreme Court underneath two attorneys general: Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, both now U.S. senators. In that posture, Sauer argued his
only Supreme Court scenario, which he gained 5-4 when the court turned down a dying-row prisoner’s challenge to Missouri’s execution techniques.

Sauer has drawn countrywide awareness for encouraging spearhead a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of pressuring social media organizations to interact in censorship. In September, an appeals courtroom sided with Missouri and other crimson states in the situation, restricting the Biden administration’s electric power to interact with tech firms. But the Supreme Courtroom temporarily paused that injunction and will listen to the situation in its present-day phrase.

Scharf, who is functioning for Missouri lawyer normal, also graduated from Harvard Legislation. He labored at the conservative advocacy group Judicial Crisis Network, in which he supported political efforts backing the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Then he used two and a half yrs doing the job as a federal prosecutor in St. Louis. For the duration of that time, he was comprehensive to Justice Department headquarters to function on Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. He now operates at the James Otis Law Team, a agency helmed by Sauer.

Talent, the third member of the workforce, graduated from Stanford Legislation and clerked for Decide James Ho, an outspoken appellate judge appointed by Trump. He also labored as a staffer on the National Security Council at the stop of the Trump administration.

“He’s the hardest working young law firm I’ve ever found,” stated a previous NSC official granted anonymity mainly because of legal sensitivities. “His IQ will have to be 150, 160. He’s a good child.”

Soon after his time at the White Property, Expertise headed to the Missouri solicitor general’s place of work. He labored there underneath Sauer on the state’s lawsuit alleging censorship by the Biden administration and a thriving obstacle to the White House’s college student credit card debt cancellation program.

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, praised the legal workforce as “some of the most seasoned, capable and determined minds in American jurisprudence.” And he mocked Smith for introducing Dreeben to his roster.

“Deranged Jack Smith and his workforce have been so terribly outmatched by President Trump’s powerhouse attorneys, that ‘Deranged’ had to beg a tainted Democrat operative, who assisted engineer the uncovered Mueller hoax, to occur to consider and conserve them. That pathetic try will fall short,” Cheung stated.

John Lauro and Todd Blanche, two trial attorneys defending Trump in decreased courts, are also concerned in Trump’s Supreme Court docket-connected work, according to a human being close to the lawful staff. A further notable Trump law firm, Chris Kise, previously served as Florida solicitor general and has gained four scenarios ahead of the high court. He is at present operating on the New York civil fit versus Trump and is not included in Supreme Court operate at existing but is obtainable to advise, that individual extra.