Former Biden Campaign Lawyer Now Works in Trump Justice Department

A lawyer who worked for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and for two different offices in the Biden White House now works in President Donald Trump’s administration as an ostensibly nonpolitical staffer at the Justice Department.

While presidents appoint more than 3,000 people for political positions, the federal government directly employs roughly 2.3 million people, most of whom serve in purportedly nonpolitical, career positions. The Office of Personnel Management tracks when political appointees transition to career positions—a process often referred to as “burrowing in” to the bureaucracy—and Sarah Scheinman did so in 2022.

Earlier this year, Scheinman posted a photo of herself with President Joe Biden.

“So proud to have served in the Biden-Harris administration these past four years,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “I have worked with the most dedicated public servants in the White House, OMB, and the Department of Justice who every day seek to make things better for all of us.”

According to OPM records, Scheinman transitioned from a political role to a career position on Oct. 31, 2022. She left her position as associate general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget to take an attorney-advisor position in the Justice Department’s antitrust division. In the transition, she went from an annual salary of $84,766 to $112,890.

A Justice Department official confirmed to The Daily Signal Tuesday that Scheinman still works at the DOJ. An OMB official confirmed that she previously worked at OMB.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Scheinman worked on the Biden campaign legal team from September to December 2020, before joining the White House Presidential Personnel Office in February 2021. She transitioned to OMB in September 2021.

Before joining the White House, she worked as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell. The law firm did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Deep State Opposition

A recent poll found that 75% of Washington, D.C.-based federal employees making $75,000 or more per year who voted for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November said they would not follow a lawful Trump order if they considered it bad policy.

While some political appointees who took “career” positions may faithfully work for the U.S. government under any president, this poll suggests that some staff inside the federal government may work against the goals of the current president, in this case Trump.

Furthermore, a February Foundation for Government Accountability study found that Democrat employees outnumber Republican employees by a 2-to-1 margin across federal agencies. In the 2024 presidential election, 84% of the money that federal employees gave in political contributions went to Kamala Harris.

Federal workers enjoy workplace protections that make them very difficult to fire. The new administration is seeking to reform these rules to enable the president to fulfill his duties as head of the executive branch without facing opposition from hostile bureaucrats.

Scheinman did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

This is the latest in a series on bureaucrats burrowing in. Part one covers eight appointees. Part two focuses on a former Russiagate advisor who works at the Federal Aviation Administration. Part three reveals a former lawyer for then-Sen. Kamala Harris who now works at the Defense Department.

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