Josh Hawley And Eric Schmitt Throw Support Behind 'Outstanding' Judicial Nominees For Missouri Bench

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) spoke about four judicial nominees for the Missouri bench.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, in a moment, we will begin the process of confirming four outstanding

00:08new judges to the bench in the state of Missouri. This has been a long road for my state. We've

00:15waited a long time to have these four vacancies filled, and I'm absolutely delighted that in just

00:20a few moments, we will begin to fill them. And I want to thank President Trump for nominating

00:25four truly outstanding individuals to these roles. Josh Devine, who is the current Solicitor

00:33General of the state of Missouri and who I had the privilege of having served on my staff

00:38as my chief counsel, among other roles, for a number of years. Judge Chris Stevens, who

00:43is currently serving the Missouri state courts with distinction. Maria Lanahan, who is serving

00:48the Missouri Attorney General's office even now. And Zachary Bluestone, who is a federal

00:53prosecutor in the state of Missouri, each of these four individuals will soon take his

00:58or her place on the federal bench. And I am confident it will be a great credit, not just

01:02to my state, but to the United States, where I hope they will serve as federal judges for

01:09a very long time to come. I want to say just a brief word about each of them. I want to start

01:13with Josh Devine, who we'll be voting on here just shortly. Josh currently serves as Missouri

01:20Solicitor General. And before that, as I said, he served here in the Senate as my chief counsel.

01:25In fact, I've had the opportunity to work with Josh on a number of occasions. I first hired

01:29him to the Missouri Attorney General's office when I was Attorney General, and he was just

01:33a young deputy. He served there, then came to the Senate and served on my staff and clerked

01:39at the United States Supreme Court that went back here to the Senate as my chief counsel and

01:43then back to the state of Missouri. Josh's record as Solicitor General in Missouri is truly

01:50exceptional. He has argued, litigated numerous cases in our state courts and federal courts

01:58from the trial court level all the way to the United States Supreme Court. And here's the

02:02thing that really strikes me about Josh's record. If you total up his courtroom victories for

02:08Missouri, the dollar amounts that he has won on behalf of the state of Missouri, you won't

02:14believe the total. It's $725 billion, billion dollars in successful judgments on behalf of the people

02:24of Missouri. That includes a successful lawsuit against the Chinese Communist Party for their role

02:30in the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent cover-up and the many harms that it caused to the people of

02:36Missouri. This is a very successful litigator. This is a very successful trial lawyer, a very successful

02:43appellate lawyer, and he is going to make an absolutely outstanding judge on the federal bench

02:48for the state of Missouri. I want to share just one personal story about Josh that I think illustrates

02:54his character more even than his win record does. You know, just a few years ago, in the midst of an

03:00intense period of work for the state of Missouri, Josh and his family were taking a brief vacation and he

03:07was catastrophically injured in a skiing accident that left him unable to walk. In fact, for a number of

03:16days, doctors feared for his life. I remember getting the call of people saying that, you know, Josh

03:21Devine has been seriously, seriously injured. We don't know if he's going to live. He lived, thank God. And then

03:27they told him, you may or may not walk again. Do you know, over a period of months that followed, Josh set

03:35himself to regaining with 100% confidence his ability to walk. And I remember seeing, talking to him while he was

03:43yet in intensive care and then in the hospital for a long period of time and seeing the pictures of him propped up

03:49there in his bed, already back to work for the state of Missouri. I mean, his briefs around him, his laptop in

03:55front of him, writing briefs, on calls, trying to direct motions, argue them if possible over the phone. It was

04:01incredible. And what he did then for a period of months after that was he taught himself to walk

04:06again. You'll see him, I'm sure, walking in and out of the courthouse soon in his new role on the bench. He

04:13has regained with 100% capacity his ability to walk. And it really is a testament to his determination, to

04:21his grit, to his faith, and also to his family. Who really deserves the praise here is his exceptional

04:28wife Elizabeth, mother of six children with Josh. I think a seventh is on the way. They are an

04:34incredible family. They are an incredible couple. They have already served the state of Missouri with

04:40distinction. And I know Josh is going to continue to serve the state with distinction for years to

04:44come. Judge Chris Stevens is such an exceptional jurist. And I know that my good friend and colleague,

04:49Senator Schmidt, will have more to say about him in just a moment. They work very closely together.

04:53And Judge Stevens, as I said, is already serving the state with distinction on the state bench. We look

04:58forward to having him on the federal bench for many years to come. And Maria Lanahan and Zach Bluestone

05:03both have rendered distinguished, distinguished service to the state of Missouri. In Maria's case,

05:10in the Missouri Attorney General's offices, arguing cases for the state, winning judgments for the

05:16state. And Zach Bluestone, a federal prosecutor who has been prosecuting violent crimes

05:23going after child sex abuse, child sex abusers, and taking the worst of the worst off of our streets

05:31in the state of Missouri. He's an exceptional federal prosecutor. He's going to be an exceptional federal

05:35judge. As we come to the end of what's been a long road, to be honest, for these judicial

05:41nominations in the state of Missouri, I just couldn't be more grateful. And I want to end how I began by thanking

05:46President Trump for his exceptional leadership, thanking him for choosing these four outstanding

05:51individuals who I know are going to make the state of Missouri proud. They're going to make

05:56the United States proud. And in just a few minutes here, I look forward to casting the first vote

06:02to begin this process to seeing them on the federal bench. I yield the floor.

06:07Mr. President. The other senator from Missouri. Thank you, Mr. President. I ask for unanimous

06:14consent to speak up to five minutes before the scheduled roll call. A lot of objection. Thank

06:19you, Mr. President. I want to echo the comments from Senator Hawley. This is a very proud day for

06:23the state of Missouri, and significant that the first district court judges that are coming before

06:27this body under President Trump's second term in office will be filling the bench, the four

06:33vacancies in the Eastern District of Missouri. Josh Devine, Chris Stevens, Maria Lanahan, Zach Bluestone.

06:38I want to talk about Mr. Devine and Mr. Stevens briefly here, both of which worked in the office

06:43when I was Attorney General. Josh, very briefly, he came on originally with Senator Hawley. But Chris

06:49Stevens, I'll talk about him first. You know, when you are in a role like Attorney General, you sort of,

06:57you need a lot of good people around you. And you have a core team. And for me, that process

07:03you kind of rely on a lot of social capital over the years, and you ask around. You have some

07:08relationships, but you have people who then refer you to people, and you go through an interview

07:11process. And Chris Stevens was a name that just kept coming up. And I didn't know Chris before that.

07:16I knew his reputation just a little bit. But when he and I got together and visited about the vision

07:21for what we wanted to do with the office, we just instantly clicked. He's an incredible family man,

07:27a devout Catholic, his wife, Lee. We have great kids. He's a wonderful father. And before he came

07:36to my office, he was probably one of the more decorated and storied criminal prosecutors in

07:41the U.S. Attorney's Office in generations. I mean, if there was a tough criminal case,

07:47Chris Stevens was the guy. And so I brought him in originally as our criminal chief. He later,

07:52when Tom Albus, who was my first assistant, went on to become a judge. Chris Stevens then took that

07:58first assistant role. And what I was always impressed by Chris was not only just his work

08:03ethic, but his willingness to work with younger lawyers, to be a mentor. His legal acumen is beyond

08:10reproach. He's a brilliant guy. He's going to do an incredible job on that court. And I'm just so proud

08:15for him and his family today as this vote happens. And he will ascend to that really important role,

08:22a lifetime appointment. And we'll do the business of the people on that bench. And we need more people

08:30like Chris Stevens. So it's really a special day. Josh Devine, Senator Hawley mentioned, he's just

08:36a very, very smart guy. He's done a great job in the Solicitor General's Office with the current

08:41Attorney General, Andrew Bailey. He will do a phenomenal job on the bench. We're really lucky

08:46to have such a deep legal bench in the state of Missouri. As these nominees came forward,

08:52we just, an embarrassment of riches in Missouri. I think that's true. And the first two of them

08:57will be voted on here today. And as I mentioned, Maria Lanahan and Zach Bluestone will come after

09:04that. So I just want to wish congratulations to them as this vote takes place. And I can't recommend

09:10both of them more strongly. And again, it's a real honor for the state of Missouri to have these two

09:15incredible jurists before this body for their confirmation vote. With that, Mr. President,

09:19I yield the floor.

Category

Transcript

Recommended