President Donald Trump's decision to install Will Scharf as White House counsel drew scorn from legal analysts Saturday, who saw the move as another reward for personal loyalty.
Trump announced on Aug. 9 that Scharf, currently White House staff secretary, will replace David Warrington on Sept. 1. Attorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian, analyzing the appointment on Michael Popok's Legal AF podcast, called Scharf a "clone" of Stephen Miller, whom they refferred to as Trump's "brain," and cast Scharf as yet another ideologically driven young loyalist being handed a premier legal role.
CBS News reported that the 40-year-old holds degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law, clerked for federal appeals Judge Raymond Gruender on the 8th Circuit, and later worked as a federal prosecutor in Missouri's Eastern District.
He came aboard Trump's private defense operation in October 2023. From there, Scharf worked on the election-interference charges pursued by special counsel Jack Smith, the civil fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the E. Jean Carroll defamation appeal, and the Manhattan hush money prosecution. Trump lost most of them, though Scharf helped secure the Supreme Court's landmark presidential immunity ruling in 2024.
Scharf ran unsuccessfully in the 2024 Republican primary for Missouri attorney general, losing to incumbent Andrew Bailey by 26 points. In 2023, he co-founded Jews Against Soros with commentator Josh Hammer, a group built around opposing the billionaire Democratic donor. As a Princeton senior in 2008, he was charged with serving alcohol to minors at the Charter Club eating club he presided over; the charges were later dropped.
As chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, Scharf helped clear approvals for Trump's $400 million White House ballroom and his planned triumphal arch at the Memorial Bridge, according to Axios.
Still, The New York Times reported that Scharf has occasionally pushed back internally, warning against Miller-backed proposals to suspend habeas corpus for undocumented immigrants and invoke the Insurrection Act.
Kabateck delivered a withering assessment of the pick.
"The scientists under the White House, hundreds of feet below the White House, took Stephen Miller and they cloned him," he joked, eliciting a laugh from his co-host. "I mean, honestly, though, Shant, this guy, though he doesn't necessarily look like Miller, he seems like ideologically he's another Miller."
Kabateck noted Trump seems to be surrounding himself with his personal lawyers and suggested what he acknowledged might be an offensive theory.
"I apologize if I offend somebody. But I don't know if, at the end of the working day, does he go down to that basement 100 feet below the White House and get in a little box and they close the box?" he joked.
"Yeah, I was going to say, because there's less sunlight there. That's probably where they keep him," replied a grinning Karnikian.
"And the little rats and mice and things like that," said Kabateck.
"Yeah. Other rats like Stephen Miller," Karnikian replied.
Trump Adds Failed Lawyer as White House Implodes! by Legal AF
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