WASHINGTON (CN) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced 20 new nominees to courts across the country, including three to federal appellate courts.
The announcement is the largest of the Trump administration and the first since February.
Two of the nominees, Paul Matey and David Porter, would serve on the Third Circuit if confirmed, joining fellow Trump nominee Stephanos Bibas, who the Senate approved in November.
Matey worked as senior counsel and deputy chief counsel to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie from 2010 to 2015, having worked as a federal prosecutor under the future governor and from 2005 to 2009. Matey was one of the Christie aides interviewed as part of a law firm's investigation into the New Jersey Bridgegate scandal, according to NJ.com.
Matey also worked with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, authoring two papers with the future Trump nominee about securities fraud class actions. Matey and Gorsuch overlapped for two years at the Washington, D.C. law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel.
Matey currently works as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for the Newark, N.J., University Hospital.
If confirmed, Matey would join Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney shareholder David Porter on the Third Circuit. Porter has worked at the Pittsburgh law firm since 1994 and leads the office's higher education industry group.
Porter has a history representing companies and universities during his time in private practice, with lawsuits touching on subjects from civil rights to defamation.
In a list of his most significant cases published on his profile on his law firm's website, Porter lists his work representing the New York Times in a $54 million defamation lawsuit, as well as his defense of a publisher after Mumia Abu-Jamal attempted to stop the publication of a book about his trial.
Abu-Jamal, a journalist and political activist who was convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, filed the suit in 2001 seeking to enjoin the release of Executing Justice: An Inside Account of the Mumia Abu-Jamal Case.
The third circuit court nominee Trump nominated on Tuesday is Britt Grant, who is currently a justice on the Georgia Supreme Court. Up for a spot on the 11th Circuit, Grant served as the state's solicitor general from 2015 to 2017.
Grant is a veteran of the Bush White House, having served as the deputy associate director of the Office of Cabinet Affairs and assistant to the director of the Domestic Policy Council before she attended law school.
Republican Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal appointed Grant to the state Supreme Court in 2017. Grant worked in Deal's congressional office after she graduated from Wake Forest University, according to her profile on the Georgia Supreme Court's website.
"President Trump has made an excellent choice in selecting Justice Britt Grant to serve on the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals," Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said in a statement. "As both a Georgia Supreme Court justice and as Georgia's former solicitor general, Justice Grant has displayed the highest level of integrity and professionalism in her career and I am certain that will continue with her service on the 11th Circuit."
All of the other nominees Trump put forward on Tuesday would fill seats on federal district courts if confirmed, with the exception of Emin Toro, a partner at the Washington firm Covington and Burling who would serve on the U.S. Tax Court.