Today President Donald Trump nominated Lawrence Keefe – a Hillary Clinton campaign donor – to become the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
The position was previously held by Pam Marsh who was appointed by President Obama.
U.S. Attorneys require confirmation by the Senate and are usually proposed with the concurrence of the senators from that state.
Sources told Tallahassee Reports that two candidates with strong conservative credentials – Ken Sukhia and C.B. Upton, both of Tallahassee – were passed over for the position.
Sources also said that prominent lobbyist Brian Ballard was supporting Keefe’s nomination.
Publicly available records show that Keefe is a partner in the law firm of Keefe, Anchors & Gordon. This is the same law firm that has employed U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz for more than 10 years.
Gaetz is a close ally to President Trump.
Also, Keefe is a past gubernatorial appointee to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida and he was elected to the Executive Council of the Trial Lawyers Section of the Florida Bar in 2017.
In addition to a $500 donation in 2015 to the Clinton presidential campaign, Keefe also made a $2,300 donation in 2007 to the CLINTON/KAINE campaign via HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT.
Records show no donations to a Republican candidate for president in 2016.
Keefe also donated $1,000 to Bill Nelson in 2006 and 2007 for the Florida U.S Senate race and he donated $500 to the Bob Graham’s presidential campaign in 2003.
In Florida campaigns, records show that Keefe donated to prominent Democrats on several occasions. These donations include the following:
$1,000 to Dan Gelber’s campaign for attorney general in 2010
$500 to Alex Sink’s campaign for governor in 2010
$500 to Rod Smith’s campaign for governor in 2005
$500 to Jim Davis’ campaign for governor in 2005
Campaign records also show Keefe made donations to prominent Republican candidates. These candidates include Jeff Atwater ($500) in 2007 & 2009, George Lemieux ($1,100) in 2011, and Rudy Giuliani ($2,300) in 2008.
Trump Nominates Clinton Donor for US Attorney in the Northern District of Florida added by Staff on
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Wow…yall got ur tinfoil hats on today….
The question is, how do we get this information to President Trump? Excusing the players of this Tallahassee FBI investigation would be disastrous. I would be surprised if Matt Gaetz recommended this guy to the President, but someone surely did.
While the majority of Trumps nominations have been good, he can’t possibly know everyone personally and must depend on advice from people he trusts for most of these judicial nominations. This could be one of those that he later regrets…like Rex Tillerson and Jeff Sessions. If he took advice from a close friend of Adam Corey for this nomination…someone should clue him in about the Tallahassee swamp…for which he is probably unaware.
This is a terrible development for the FBI case against insider in Tallahassee. People I know have told me Rep. Gaetz is a close friend of Adam Corey. Decide for yourselves how that may have factored into to this issue.
Mr. Scott has a good point there. Having this Hillary supporter oversee a Federal trial of our local “usual suspects” would be the same as having that uber ultra liberal leftist Federal Judge Robert Hinkel as the Judge…”Not Guilty”.
Same as it ever was…
Maybe those movie star teeth implants were a deciding factor. Does kind of make one wonder about the wisdom behind that DeSantis for Governor endorsement over Putnam though.
Yes, let’s put unyielding loyalty to Trump over every other qualification…let’s forget about high profile Republican appointees to cabinet positions by Clinton (Cohen) and Obama (Gates)…on the basis of their knowledge and experience. We must eliminate free speech and free thought in the justice system…otherwise campaign CEOs involved in tax and bank fraud will end up in jail even though they are “very good persons”.
It sounds like a typical attorney/politician to me. If you checked most of their donor contributions, you will find that most make contributions to both sides of the fence. I think it is called “an insurance policy”.
Could be that Trump’s people got some bad advice on this one. The fact that he donated to Hillary Clinton should send up a red flag.