Published on Sep 19, 2025
Senator John Thune (R-SD) will include Stanley Woodward, the president’s choice to become DOJ’s No. 3 official, in a second batch of nominees that Republicans plan to bring to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote, a spokesperson for the majority leader said.
Woodward, whose nomination to be associate attorney general was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in June along party lines, has faced criticism for his role in the department’s settlement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that allowed the company’s $14 billion acquisition of rival Juniper Networks to proceed.
Woodward is among more than 100 nominees who are now part of the package, according to the spokesperson, who didn’t provide a date on when the vote will take place.
The move of Woodward, who’s currently counselor to Attorney General Pam Bondi, to associate attorney general raises questions about the role he’ll play in antitrust enforcement going forward. Roger Alford, a former senior antitrust division official who said he was fired for “insubordination” for opposing the HPE/Juniper settlement, singled out Woodward and DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle for inking the consent decree despite the division’s concerns about the deal’s impact on competition.
In an August 18 speech, Alford said Woodward and Mizelle had “perverted justice and acted inconsistent with the rule of law,” and called for Bondi to “remove the compromised Chad Mizelle and Stanley Woodward from any antitrust oversight, and have Gail Slater report directly to [Deputy Attorney General] Todd Blanche.”
Public Citizen, a government watchdog group, has called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a second hearing on Woodward’s nomination in part based on allegations Alford made in his speech.
“It would be a mistake for this particular nomination be buried amidst a pile of others,” said Jon Golinger, democracy activist for Public Citizen, in an interview. “His nomination and confirmation is about the future … what role did he play?”
A DOJ spokesperson, however, has said Alford’s comments were self-serving and that he was “pursuing blind self-promotion and ego while ignoring reality.” A DOJ spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Senate Republicans’ plans for Woodward’s nomination.
Woodward’s nomination would be part of a second wave of names the Republican majority plans to confirm. The Senate yesterday confirmed the first batch of Trump nominees—a total of 48—in a single vote of 51-47. The vote followed Thune and other Republicans invoking the “nuclear option”—a significant rule change that allowed the chamber to confirm multiple nominees with a simple majority instead of the traditional 60-vote margin required. Thune said yesterday that his party was driven to the nuclear option because Democrats have been blocking many of the president’s nominees, refusing to approve them under unanimous consent.
“For almost eight months now, Democrats have dragged out the confirmation of every one of President Trump’s nominees,” Thune said in a floor speech yesterday. “He’s the first president on record not to have a single civilian nominee confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.”
But Democrats, who unsuccessfully opposed the rule change, said that their actions were motivated by stopping nominees who were selected for their loyalty to Trump and not their qualifications.
Minority Leader Charles Schumer has described the nominees as “historically bad.”
The nominees approved yesterday included John Squires to lead the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Jonathan Morrison as head of the National Traffic Safety Administration, and Kimberly Guilfoyle and Callista Gingrich as ambassadors to Greece and Switzerland, respectively.
