Trump judicial nominee forgot to mention he is married to a White House lawyer

Brett J. Talley, a lawyer who has never tried a case but has been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Trump, failed to disclose that he is married to a White House lawyer in congressional paperwork, The New York Times reported Monday. Talley's wife, Ann Donaldson, is the chief of staff to White House counsel Don McGahn and is apparently a person of interest in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

The 36-year-old Talley was nominated by Trump to be a U.S. district judge in September. Just weeks later, his wife was interviewed by Mueller's investigators. The Times reports that investigators' interest in Donaldson revolves around notes she took about her conversations with McGahn regarding Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that Talley, whose nomination was advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday along party lines, received a unanimously "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association — becoming the second of Trump’s judicial nominees to receive such a rating. Two more of the president's picks have been deemed "not qualified," though via split decisions.

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