Trump picks lawyer who served in Bevin administration for federal judgeship in Kentucky

Republican President Donald Trump is reviving his Democratic predecessor’s choice for a federal judgeship in Kentucky.

Chad Meredith, who served in the Republican administrations of Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Daniel Cameron, is Trump’s choice to succeed Judge Danny Reeves in the Eastern District of Kentucky, Trump announced on social media.

Trump announced his plan to nominate Meredith in a post  on X, calling him a “courageous Patriot who knows what is required to uphold the Rule of Law, and protect our Constitution. Congratulations Chad!”

Meredith’s chance to be nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 was tanked by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican. Biden abandoned his plans to nominate Meredith after Paul vowed to block his confirmation in the Senate.

This time Paul is supporting Meredith, the Associated Press reports.

Meredith, the son of state Sen. Stephen Merdith, R-Leitchfield, is a partner in the law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

He served as Kentucky’s solicitor general from 2019 to 2021 when Cameron was attorney general and before that as chief deputy counsel in Bevin’s administration.

As part of Bevin’s legal team, Meredith was involved in decisions about hundreds of controversial criminal pardons and commutations Bevin issued after losing reelection to Democrat Andy Beshear in 2019. Among those pardoned was a man convicted of reckless homicide during a robbery whose family had held a fundraiser for Bevin. 

In his prior roles, Meredith also defended laws and policies restricting abortion, a record that drew loud objections from Democrats when Biden considered nominating him. At that time Meredith had the enthusiastic support of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, then the Senate’s Republican leader. 

On Thursday the Kentucky Democratic Party issued a statement criticizing the nomination and highlighting Meredith’s role in Bevin’s pardons. “Chad Meredith has no business being on the federal bench after helping orchestrate pardons of murderers and child rapists.”

After graduating from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2007, Meredith clerked for Judge John M. Rogers on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and also for Judge Amul R. Thapar, now a federal  appeals court judge, when he was a judge in Kentucky’s Eastern District.

Reeves, who has taken senior judge status, was nominated in 2001 by Republican President George W. Bush.