Bill McGinley
William “Bill” McGinley, is a longtime GOP lawyer who President-elect Donald Trump placed in the Department of Government Efficiency, a position that does not apparently require Senate confirmation. McGinley worked in the previous Trump administration as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary for two years, after serving as a lawyer for the Trump campaign in 2016.
During the 2024 election, McGinley worked at the Republican National Committee as outside counsel for the newly created “election integrity division.” The division, which was created in 2024, was headed by Christina Bobb, a former anchor at the far-right One America News Network and election denial activist who was involved in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and was later indicted in Arizona over the false elector scheme in that state. During the 2020 election season, McGinley appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast arguing that, in a contested election wrapped up in legal challenges, the House of Representatives could choose Trump in a “contingent election.”
While serving as outside counsel to the RNC, McGinley was a partner at the Republican-leaning law firm Holtzman Vogel and its lobbying firm, the Vogel Group. McGinley joined Holtzman Vogel in 2019 after two years in the Trump administration. Holtzman Vogel has longstanding ties to far-right lawyer and architect of the U.S. Supreme Court takeover, Leonard Leo, and has been linked to several entities in the Leo network including: the BH Fund, BH Group, America Engaged, the Judicial Crisis Network, and Leo’s $1.6 billion donation he received from industrialist Barre Seid, the Marble Freedom Trust. Holtzman Vogel’s address was listed as the address for Trump’s inauguration committee in 2016 and for the BH Group when it gifted $1 million to the committee.
While at Holtzman Vogel, McGinley became a registered lobbyist for several entities. He served as a lobbyist in 2024 for the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, a Leo-associated group, which filed a brief before the Supreme Court supporting the repeal of *Chevron *deference, a legal principle that “gave federal agencies wide powers to interpret laws and decide the best ways to apply them.” In 2021, OpenSecrets noted that several Trump-connected lobbying groups, including the Vogel Group, “posted record revenues in 2020.”
Prior to his service in Trump’s first administration, McGinley worked at the law firm Jones Day, which represented the 2016 Trump campaign. One article noted that Trump became linked to the firm by McGinley, Don McGahn, and Ben Ginsburg. During the campaign McGinley was specifically tasked with advising “the Trump campaign on delegate selection battles in the upcoming states and on possible challenges to the credentials of delegates to the Republican National Convention.” McGahn, who was “Trump’s top political attorney,” became White House Counsel following the election and was intimately involved in the effort to stack the courts with right-wing judges. During the 2016 campaign, the Jones Day offices were the site of a meeting where Trump reportedly tasked McGahn and Leonard Leo with spearheading a list of potential Supreme Court nominees that he would pledge to appoint if elected president.
McGinley’s role in the 2016 Trump campaign follows numerous other positions with Republican candidates and entities including serving as deputy general counsel at the RNC, counsel to National Republican Senatorial Committee, and counsel to the 2012 Republican National Convention’s rules committee. McGinley also specialized in representing individuals undergoing ethics investigations, including Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL), who reportedly “resigned from Congress after using taxpayer money for lavish expenses.”