# Will Scharf **White House Counsel since September 1, 2026**, succeeding **[[David Warrington]]** — announced August 9–10, 2026 and timed to seat him two months before the midterms, in the office that handles executive privilege, subpoena response, congressional testimony and judicial selection if the House changes hands. Before that he spent nineteen months as **White House Staff Secretary**, the official who controls the paper flowing to and from the President and who physically hands Trump the executive orders at signing ceremonies. He is, in one person, most of the vault's [[Conservative Legal Movement]] apparatus: Harvard Federalist Society chapter president, [[Judicial Crisis Network]] consultant on the Kavanaugh confirmation, DOJ nominations counsel on Barrett, Trump's personal appellate lawyer, and now the lawyer who runs judicial selection. ## Background Born **March 29, 1986** in New York City; raised Modern Orthodox in New York and North Florida; Phillips Academy 2004, **Princeton** BA in history *magna cum laude* 2008, **Harvard Law** JD 2011, where he was president of the [[Federalist Society]] chapter. He clerked for **Judge Raymond Gruender** of the Eighth Circuit, then practiced at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and taught as a fellow in Harvard's Department of Government. ## Missouri Scharf's political career was built in Missouri. He was policy director for Catherine Hanaway's 2016 gubernatorial campaign, moved to **[[Eric Greitens]]**'s campaign when Hanaway lost the primary, and served as Greitens's policy director from December 2016 — writing anti-abortion legislation, vice-chairing the tax-reform committee, and by his own later account cutting the state's historic-preservation tax credit and designating its opportunity zones. The Greitens administration ended in scandal. In **May 2018** the Missouri House's Special Investigative Committee on Oversight sought Scharf's testimony about a **memorandum he had written stating that Greitens had obscured some of his donors**; Greitens resigned the following month and Scharf left in June. He then consulted for the **[[Judicial Crisis Network]]** on the **[[Brett Kavanaugh]]** confirmation and worked for CRC Advisors. In **June 2020** he became an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri's violent-crimes unit, and was detailed that September as **nominations counsel in DOJ's [[Office of Legal Policy]]** for the **[[Amy Coney Barrett]]** confirmation. He resigned from the U.S. Attorney's office in November 2022. ## The 2024 attorney general race Scharf announced for Missouri attorney general on February 1, 2023, challenging appointed incumbent **[[Andrew Bailey]]** from the right on a corruption message. The money was extraordinary for a state AG primary: $505,000 of his own, [[Leonard Leo]] among early donors, then **$500,000 from [[Club for Growth]]'s federal PAC and $1 million from the [[Concord Fund]]** in March 2024 and three checks totaling $3 million in April. He said publicly in May 2024 that the 2020 election was "stolen" and "rigged." **Bailey beat him in the August 6, 2024 primary.** A **Guardian** review in July 2024 found his self-presentation as a hardened prosecutor overstated: his actual docket had been largely felony firearm possession and supervised-release violations. ## Trump's lawyer Trump called Scharf in August 2023 and asked him onto his appellate team; he formally joined the defense in October, working the federal election-obstruction case and the appeal that became **[[Trump v. United States]]** — the immunity decision. (**[[D. John Sauer]]**, whose James Otis Law Group Scharf had joined, argued it and became Solicitor General.) On **November 16, 2024** Trump named him White House staff secretary, succeeding Stefanie Feldman. In **July 2025** Trump made him chair of the **[[National Capital Planning Commission]]**, where he ruled that the commission could not stop the East Wing demolition (September 2025), voted to approve the **[[White House Ballroom Project]]** (April 2026), and voted to advance the proposed United States Triumphal Arch (June 2026). > [!important] The habeas memoranda — internal dissent, documented > Per *Regime Change* (2026) and New York Times reporting of **June 15, 2026**, Scharf wrote **confidential memoranda to Chief of Staff [[Susie Wiles]] objecting to [[Stephen Miller]]'s push to suspend [[Habeas Corpus]]** for undocumented immigrants, and to invoking the **[[Insurrection Act]]** against deportation protests. It is the only documented instance of a senior White House lawyer putting objections to the [[Suspension Clause]] plan in writing — and it is worth reading against Miller's public statement of **May 9, 2025** that suspension was "an option we're actively looking at." **No suspension followed.** See [[Habeas Corpus Timeline]]. ## Why He Matters for the KB Three reasons, in ascending order. He is the **paper valve**. Staff secretary is a low-profile job that determines what reaches the President and in what form; White House Counsel determines what leaves the building in response to a subpoena. Scharf has now held both, consecutively, going into a midterm that could hand the House's investigative machinery to the opposition. He is a **complete Federalist Society career** — chapter president to [[Judicial Crisis Network]] consultant to nominations counsel to the office that now runs judicial selection. The [[Conservative Legal Movement]] does not need to lobby this White House Counsel; it produced him. And he is the **rare documented internal brake**. The habeas memoranda make him the one senior figure in the vault's 2025–26 emergency-powers cluster who is on record objecting in writing — which is a fact about him and also a fact about how close the plan came. ## See Also - [[David Warrington]] — his predecessor as White House Counsel - [[Habeas Corpus Timeline]] — the suspension plan he objected to in writing - [[Trump v. United States]] — the immunity appeal he worked on - [[National Capital Planning Commission]] · [[White House Ballroom Project]] — the D.C. building fights he chairs - [[How a Nominee Becomes a Federal Judge]] — the pipeline his office now runs - [[Conservative Legal Movement]] · [[Federalist Society]] · [[Judicial Crisis Network]] — the apparatus he came through