Gary M. Restaino – U.S. Attorney with the District of Arizona
Speculation is running rampant about who might become the U.S. Attorney in Arizona under the Trump administration.
Quiet conversations in key corners are focused on a handful of attorneys who are believed to be best qualified to follow through on the clear mandate voters issued when they re-elected President Donald Trump to his second term earlier this month.
Those conversations heated up in response to a social media post by Congressman-elect Abe Hamadeh in which he tweeted, “I’m looking forward to whoever becomes the new US Attorney for the District of Arizona… there is a cabal of corruption that must be rooted out in the great State 48!”
Among the names most likely capable and willing to “root out corruption,” say Trump associates, are attorneys Tim LaSota, Dennis Wilinchek, Rep. Alex Kolodin, Jennifer Wright, Anthony Martin, and James Rogers.
According to sources, Hamadeh is a close ally to President Trump and FBI Director nominee, Kash Patel. As noted by the Epoch Times, “pending Senate confirmation, Patel will work closely with Pam Bondi, who was recently nominated by Trump to lead the Justice Department.
Trump, Patel, Bondi, and others understand that Hamadeh has a vested interest in rooting out corruption after he found no justice in the Arizona courts despite the fact that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs hid evidence from the court regarding problems with the ballot count in his 2022 General Election bid for Arizona Attorney General.
Hamadeh was swept into office this year as the representative for Congressional District 8, easily defeating his Democratic Party challenger. Hamadeh ran on an anti-corruption message, and vowed to be an advocate for a strong US Attorney to “clean up the corruption in Arizona.”
All of the names currently being bandied about have strong conservative leanings and in the cases of LaSota, Wilinchek, Kolodin, and Wright, have put themselves at personal and professional risk at the hands of Democratic Party operative Marc Elias and others who desired to thwart any election challenges by conservative and “MAGA” candidates.
In fact, just prior to the 2024 General Election, Republican attorneys in Arizona received targeted online threats warning them to think twice before considering a challenge of the 2024 General Election.
The threats are part of a progressive dark money organization’s ad campaign designed to prevent legal consequences for any botched elections that might have occurred in 2024 swing states.
According to Influencewatch.org, “The 65 Project is a campaign targeting lawyers who aided attempts by then-President Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 election results using advertisements, threats of disbarment, and changing rules within the American Bar Association, ostensibly to deter future similar efforts.”
Attorneys said the ads popped up nearly every day, leaving them concerned about the justice system itself.
Influencewatch.org reports:
The 65 Project was “devised” by Democratic consultant and former Clinton administration official Melissa Moss. It is a project of Law Works, a group with no website or public financial disclosures. Law Works has previously received grants from public policy-oriented foundation Democracy Fund and is a fiscal project of the Franklin Education Forum, a nonprofit organization that provides training and support to, “advance and broaden the appeal of the progressive cause.”
The name “65 Project” refers to the number of lawsuits filed by supporters of President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The 65 Project was launched to punish lawyers who supported President Trump and to dissuade future attempts to overturn elections on illegitimate grounds.
In March 2022, the 65 Project launched by filing ethics complaints against 10 lawyers who worked on lawsuits to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Trump. The group seeks to disbar 111 lawyers from 26 states in total…”
Former Congressman Matt Gaetz had been Trump’s first pick for the U.S. Attorney spot, but his supporters say “he came under attack for his fearless grilling of Biden administration officials including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray for he weaponization of the justice system. So, Trump is likely going to expect Bondi to choose U.S. Attorneys who have already demonstrated a willingness to be as fearless.
“If she survives the nomination process,” one politico told the Arizona Daily Independent referring to the US Senate’s Advice and Consent process presidential appointees must go through, “Bondi will not be picking shrinking violets are back-ups on the state level. She is going to go for the attorneys who have already proven that they are committed to a government for and by the people not the powerful.”