President Donald Trump has installed Chad Mizelle, an attorney tied to top White House advisor Stephen Miller, to run the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Office of the General Counsel. Miller is largely seen as an anti-immigrant extremist and white nationalist. Mizelle has been an attorney for under 10 years, and will now be in charge of 2500 other attorneys, as CNN reports.
An unverified Twitter account under the name of Chad Mizelle, which includes tweets about Cornell University, his alma mater, shows a Chad Mizelle retweeted a Federalist Society tweet quoting attorney Charles Cooper that says: “Requiring complete diversity may well be unconstitutional.” Cooper has represented Jeff Sessions, John Bolton, and John Ashcroft.
Mizelle also retweeted this from Cardinal Timothy Dolan:
CNN reports American Oversight Executive Director Austin Evers “said the qualities the Trump administration values the most are loyalty and an ability to push through its political agenda.”
“By putting a lawyer with little overall experience and no direct experience, it is reasonable to conclude that his qualifications are just those things — loyalty to the President and the ability to carry out Stephen Miller’s agenda,” Evers added.
Mizelle is yet another political appointee who “will be replacing a career official,” CNN adds, noting Mizelle “filled the void left after the previous Senate-confirmed general counsel, John Mitnick, was fired in September — months after Miller wanted him out.”
Former Special Counsel at the Dept. of Defense, Ryan Goodman, calls Mizelle “unqualified and a Trump loyalist.”
The nonpartisan oversight watchdog American Oversight, unsurprisingly – given Mizelle’s ties to Miller – says it is “seeking communications of [DHS Acting Deputy Secretary] Ken Cuccinelli and Chad Mizelle with anti-immigration groups.”
American Immigration Council Policy Counsel Aaron Reichlin-Melnick is expressing concern:
University of Michigan Law asst. professor: