The two teams may collide soon in a high-stakes skirmish at 1 First Street. Last week, Smith
petitioned the Supreme Court
to swiftly weigh in on Trump’s claim that he is immune from being prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Smith hopes the court will take the case on an expedited basis in order to keep Trump’s Washington, D.C., trial — scheduled to begin March 4 — on track.
If the justices take the case and Dreeben and Sauer go head to head, it will be a study in contrasts. Dreeben is an institutionalist who spent three decades at the Justice Department defending the power of the executive branch to investigate and prosecute crimes — experience that surely will be relevant as he backs Smith’s prosecution of Trump. Sauer, meanwhile, is a veteran of the conservative legal community who’s best known for his involvement in Republican-backed lawsuits that
blocked Joe Biden’s student-debt cancellation
and
accused the Biden administration of social-media censorship
.
Smith recruits a SCOTUS veteran
Smith’s Supreme Court petition came as a surprise, not least because of the notable name on
the cover page
. Dreeben was listed as “counsel of record” in the case and as “counselor” to Smith. That was the first public indication that Dreeben was working with Smith, and it’s a strong signal that, if the justices take the case, Dreeben will be the one arguing.
He’s a trusted and familiar face to the justices. After spending more than three decades in the U.S. solicitor general’s office, where he specialized in criminal law, Dreeben moved to the law firm O’Melveny & Myers in 2020. There he maintained a robust Supreme Court practice, including a 2022 case in which he
romped to a 9-0 victory
, persuading the justices to reverse the conviction of a New York developer accused of wire fraud.
“He is cerebral, he is thoughtful, he is brilliant,” said Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official who overlapped with Dreeben.
Dreeben’s profile on the O’Melveny website was recently taken down, presumably to reflect his move to the special counsel’s team. A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.
This isn’t the first time Dreeben has helped a special counsel investigating Trump. While Trump was president, Dreeben worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of links between Trump’s campaign and Russia. He helped work on litigation related to Mueller’s authority.
Trump adds a trio of lawyers from outside the beltway
Trump appears likely to face multiple battles at the Supreme Court in the coming months. In addition to Smith’s petition on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in the criminal case, the justices seem all but certain to review a
Colorado decision on Tuesday
that declared Trump ineligible to become president under the 14th Amendment.
So far, Trump has not added any veteran Supreme Court advocates to his team. Instead, he will be represented by a trio of conservative lawyers from the Show-Me State. They will bolster an already expansive team of lawyers defending Trump in numerous criminal and civil cases across multiple jurisdictions.
Sauer, the most senior of the three attorneys, is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Law graduate who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He was solicitor general of Missouri from 2017 to 2023, helming the state’s affairs before the Supreme Court under two attorneys general: Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, both now U.S. senators. In that position, Sauer argued his
only Supreme Court case
, which he won 5-4 when the court rejected a death-row prisoner’s challenge to Missouri’s execution procedures.
Sauer has drawn national attention for helping spearhead a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of pressuring social media companies to engage in censorship. In September, an appeals court sided with Missouri and other red states in the case, limiting the Biden administration’s power to interact with tech companies. But the Supreme Court temporarily paused that injunction and will hear the case in its current term.
Scharf, who is running for Missouri attorney general, also graduated from Harvard Law. He worked at the conservative advocacy group Judicial Crisis Network, where he supported political efforts backing the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Then he spent two and a half years working as a federal prosecutor in St. Louis. During that time, he was detailed to Justice Department headquarters to work on Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. He now works at the James Otis Law Group, a firm helmed by Sauer.
Talent, the third member of the team, graduated from Stanford Law and clerked for Judge James Ho, an outspoken appellate judge appointed by Trump. He also worked as a staffer on the National Security Council at the end of the Trump administration.
“He’s the hardest working young lawyer I’ve ever seen,” said a former NSC official granted anonymity because of legal sensitivities. “His IQ must be 150, 160. He’s a smart kid.”
After his time at the White House, Talent headed to the Missouri solicitor general’s office. He worked there under Sauer on the state’s lawsuit alleging censorship by the Biden administration and a successful challenge to the White House’s student debt cancellation plan.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, praised the legal team as “some of the most experienced, qualified and determined minds in American jurisprudence.” And he mocked Smith for adding Dreeben to his roster.
“Deranged Jack Smith and his team have been so badly outmatched by President Trump’s powerhouse attorneys, that ‘Deranged’ had to beg a tainted Democrat operative, who helped engineer the exposed Mueller hoax, to come to try and save them. That pathetic attempt will fail,” Cheung said.
John Lauro and Todd Blanche, two trial lawyers defending Trump in lower courts, are also involved in Trump’s Supreme Court-related work, according to a person close to the legal team. Another prominent Trump lawyer, Chris Kise, previously served as Florida solicitor general and has won four cases before the high court. He is currently working on the New York civil suit against Trump and is not involved in Supreme Court work at present but is available to advise, that person added.