A Republican turncoat courts a Trump judgeship

At first glance, Erin Nealy Cox might seem like a safe bet for traditional Republicans. She calls herself a “Texas Republican” and served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas under President Donald Trump, confirmed in late 2017.

But like many Trump-era appointees, she quickly revealed herself as just another creature of the swamp. Republican voters shouldn’t trust her.

Cox, whose family roots run deep in Texas Republican politics, expects to glide into a federal judgeship without scrutiny.

Cox is now one of nearly two dozen candidates seeking a federal judgeship in North Texas. Her record deserves scrutiny.

In the aftermath of January 6, she issued a statement condemning the protesters — without acknowledging that every person who died that day supported Trump. “Forcibly storming a government building is a reprehensible betrayal of the rule of law,” she wrote. In a post amplifying her statement, she added, “Those who committed violence in Washington today are anarchists, not patriots. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Cox has never addressed the growing body of evidence that contradicts the official January 6 narrative.

She stepped down from her post just two days later, on Jan. 8, 2021. Although her resignation had been announced in December and wasn’t formally tied to the events at the Capitol, the timing still raises questions. She claimed she was making way for a Biden appointee — a routine move when the presidency changes hands. Even so, the context matters.

On Jan. 7, the day before she left office, Cox filed a controversial deferred prosecution agreement in the case involving Boeing’s 737 MAX crashes, which killed 346 people. The deal shielded Boeing executives from criminal charges and didn’t require a guilty plea. Columbia Law Professor John Coffee called it “one of the worst deferred prosecution agreements I have seen,” and “without precedent.”

Boeing’s criminal defense team included Mark Filip, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

Just months later, in June, Cox joined the same firm — now a partner herself. In plain terms: She let one of Kirkland’s clients off the hook, then took a job at the firm.

Kirkland hasn’t exactly been friendly to Trump or his policies. During his first term, the firm provided pro bono representation to asylum seekers, migrants, and others held in ICE detention. They actively opposed the administration’s “family separation” policy.

That section of their website has vanished. Only archived versions on the Wayback Machine remain, and even those appear to have been pulled sometime around March.

The firm also fought Trump’s efforts to end DACA, offering free legal services to recipients and filing lawsuits on their behalf. Like the rest, that work has disappeared from their website. The same goes for their involvement in lawsuits challenging Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban,” as reported by the legal blog "Above the Law."

In the end, Trump may have had the last laugh, but Cox’s career trajectory speaks volumes.

Kirkland would later cut a deal with the second Trump administration in April to provide $125 million worth of pro bono legal services to avoid punitive executive orders and resolve investigations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into the firm’s DEI practices.

Meanwhile, Cox’s husband, John “Trey” Cox, has donated extensively to Democrats over the past decade. Here are some lowlights:

• Judge Tonya Parker, who received $4,000, is a darling of the progressive legal elite. She’s refused to perform marriage ceremonies after taking office until same-sex marriage was legal. She’s received awards for her commitment to DEI and spearheaded a task force to require “implicit bias” jury instructions, which are based on the dubious premise that white people (and only white people) have racial bias in decision-making.
• Judge Emily G. Tobolowsky, who received $5,000, struck down Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s bid to block a gun ban at the Texas State Fair. (Erin Nealy Cox claims to oppose gun control.) Tobolowsky also issued an order to allow a biological male’s name and gender to be changed on his birth certificate to female.
• Judge Francisco X. Dominguez, who received $2,500, boasts ties to an advocacy group called Legal Aid Society that helps illegal immigrants. He’s also denied Ken Paxton’s attempt to shut down a shelter for so-called migrants.
• Judge Eric V. Moye, who received $13,500, has openly opposed voter ID laws, sharing articles decrying them as voter suppression, and even likened Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler in a 2016 Facebook post.

These donations, some as recent as 2023, paint a clear picture: This is not a household aligned with Republican priorities. Yet Cox, whose family roots run deep in Texas Republican politics, expects to glide into a federal judgeship without scrutiny.

Republicans can’t afford that mistake.

Cox’s condemnation of January 6 protesters, her husband’s funding of judges who undermine conservative goals, and her post-resignation alignment with a firm hostile to Trump all signal the same thing: She’s not on our side.

She may be one of nearly two dozen candidates for the North Texas seat — but her record should take her out of the running.