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

Brett J. Talley.
(Image credit: Screenshot / YouTube / Liberty Day Institute)

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.

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Kelly O'Meara Morales

Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.