DOJ Criminal Chief Pick Misspoke to Senate on White House Policy

A senior Trump Justice Department nominee told senators he “inadvertently misspoke” when declaring at his confirmation hearing that DOJ rescinded its policy on communicating with the White House about criminal cases.

Tysen Duva, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead DOJ’s Criminal Division, said that after his Oct. 22 hearing, he discovered the previous policy from Joe Biden’s administration remains in force, according to a copy of his Oct. 24 letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders that was obtained by Bloomberg Law. Duva’s letter didn’t retract or address his additional remark at the hearing that DOJ would soon be issuing an updated White House contacts policy, after review from the attorney general and deputy AG.

His correction comes during a year in which Trump and other White House officials have routinely undercut DOJ’s post-Watergate independence—including about individual case decisions. If confirmed, Duva would become a key decisionmaker on sensitive charging decisions for white collar and violent crime investigations.

It’s common for a new administration to update the preceding attorney general’s White House contacts policy. Designed to protect criminal and civil case decisions from partisan influence, the guidelines traditionally restrict discussions about pending or contemplated cases to a small number of high-level personnel.

When questioned about the policy at his hearing by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Duva responded, “I believe at the beginning of this administration there was a blanket memo that rescinded prior policies, including the contacts policy.”

His letter two days later noted that, “After the hearing, I had the opportunity to further research the issue” and learn that the policy “has not been rescinded and is publicly available” in the Justice Manual—DOJ’s internal rules for staff.

In February, the Washington Post reported on an updated White House memo that more clearly specified the president’s broad ability to discuss matters with the attorney general. Duva’s letter, by pointing to DOJ’s prevailing policy from 2022 on White House communications, indicated that the department and the White House may have separate and inconsistent rules about who is permitted to talk to one another.

Media representatives for DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the status of Duva’s preview of a “forthcoming” DOJ contacts policy.

The prior DOJ guidelines state that the department won’t advise the White House about ongoing cases “unless doing so is important for the performance of the President’s duties and appropriate from a law enforcement perspective.”

Duva, a veteran federal prosecutor based in Jacksonville, Fla., awaits a vote from the judiciary panel on whether to advance his nomination to the Senate floor.