President-elect Trump announced Tuesday evening that William McGinley, a lawyer who worked in the former president’s first administration, will be White House general counsel in his second term.
McGinley served as White House Cabinet secretary in Trump’s first administration. In a statement, Trump said McGinley played a “major role” in his election victory as the Republican National Committee’s outside counsel for election integrity.
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“Bill is a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement,” Trump said.
McGinley also previously served as general counsel for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
In Trump’s last administration, Don McGahn and Pat Cipollone held the role of White House counsel. Cipollone represented Trump during his first impeachment trial and reportedly attempted to sway the former president to concede after losing the 2020 presidential election, insisting there was no evidence of widespread fraud as Trump claimed.
The selection marks another addition to Trump’s Cabinet, which he is quickly assembling before taking office in January. He must nominate leaders for 15 government agencies and other top administration jobs requiring Senate confirmation, in addition to appointing senior staff.
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So far, he’s selected top Republicans including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to serve as his secretary of State and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of Homeland Security, in addition to House GOP conference Chair Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel.
Other selections for his administration include former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Trump campaign manager Susie Wiles as his chief of staff.