[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 123 (Thursday, July 17, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4436-S4437]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Judicial Nominations

  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, in a moment, we will begin the process of 
confirming four outstanding new judges to the bench in the State of 
Missouri. This has been a long road for my State. We have waited a long 
time to have these four vacancies filled, and I am absolutely delighted 
that in just a few moments, we will begin to fill them. And I want to 
thank President Trump for nominating four truly outstanding individuals 
to these roles: Josh Divine, who is the current solicitor general of 
the State of Missouri and whom I had the privilege of having serve on 
my staff as my chief counsel, among other roles, for a number of years; 
Judge Cris Stevens, who is currently serving the Missouri State courts 
with distinction; Maria Lanahan, who is serving the Missouri Attorney 
General's Office even now; and Zachary Bluestone, who is a Federal 
prosecutor in the State of Missouri. Each of these four individuals 
will soon take his or her place on the Federal bench and I am confident 
will be a great credit not just to my State but to the United States, 
where I hope they will serve as Federal judges for a very long time to 
come.
  I want to say just a brief word about each of them. I want to start 
with Josh Divine, whom we will be voting on here just shortly. Josh 
currently serves as Missouri's solicitor general, and before that, as I 
said, he served here in the Senate as my chief counsel. In fact, I have 
had the opportunity to work with Josh on a number of occasions. I first 
hired him to the Missouri Attorney General's Office when I was attorney 
general, and he was just a young deputy. He served there and then came 
to the Senate and served on my staff and clerked at the U.S. Supreme 
Court, then came back here to the Senate as my chief counsel and then 
back to the State of Missouri.
  Josh's record as solicitor general of Missouri is truly exceptional. 
He has argued--litigated--numerous cases in our State courts and 
Federal courts, from the trial court level all the way to the U.S. 
Supreme Court, and here is the thing that really strikes me about 
Josh's record. If you total up his courtroom victories for Missouri, 
the dollar amounts that he has won on behalf of the State of Missouri, 
you won't believe the total. It is $725 billion--billion--in successful 
judgments on behalf of the people of Missouri. That includes a 
successful lawsuit against the Chinese Communist Party for their role 
in the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent coverup and the many harms that 
it caused to the people of Missouri.
  This is a very successful litigator. This is a very successful trial 
lawyer, a very successful appellate lawyer, and he is going to make an 
absolutely outstanding judge on the Federal bench for the State of 
Missouri.
  I want to share just one personal story about Josh that I think 
illustrates his character more even than his win record does. You know, 
just a few years ago in the midst of an intense period of work for the 
State of Missouri, Josh and his family were taking a brief vacation, 
and he was catastrophically injured in a skiing accident that left him 
unable to walk. In fact, for a number of days, doctors feared for his 
life. I remember getting the call; people saying that, you know, Josh 
Divine has been seriously, seriously injured. We don't know if he is 
going to live.
  He lived, thank God, and then they told him: You may or may not walk 
again. Do you know, over a period of months that followed, Josh set 
himself to regaining, with 100 percent confidence, his ability to walk. 
And I remember talking to him while he was yet in intensive care and 
then in the hospital for a long period of time and seeing the pictures 
of him propped up there in his bed already back to work for the State 
of Missouri, with his briefs around him, his laptop in front of him, 
writing briefs, on calls, trying to direct motions, argue them, if 
possible, over the phone. It was incredible.
  And what he did then for a period of months after that is he taught 
himself to walk again. You will see him, I am sure, walking in and out 
of the courthouse soon in his new role on the bench. He has regained, 
with 100 percent capacity, his ability to walk, and it really is a 
testament to his determination, to his grit, to his faith, and also to 
his family.
  Who really deserves the praise here is his exceptional wife 
Elizabeth, mother

[[Page S4437]]

of six children with Josh. I think a seventh is on the way. They are an 
incredible family. They are an incredible couple. They have already 
served the State of Missouri with distinction, and I know Josh is going 
to continue to serve the State with distinction for years to come.
  Judge Cris Stevens is such an exceptional jurist, and I know that my 
good friend and colleague Senator Schmitt will have more to say about 
him in just a moment. They worked very closely together, and Judge 
Stevens, as I said, is already serving the State with distinction on 
the State bench. We look forward to having him on the Federal bench for 
many years to come.
  And Maria Lanahan and Zach Bluestone both have rendered 
distinguished--distinguished--service to the State of Missouri; in 
Maria's case, in the Missouri Attorney General's Offices, arguing cases 
for the State, winning judgments for the State; and Zach Bluestone, a 
Federal prosecutor who has been prosecuting violent crimes, going after 
child sex abusers, and taking the worst of the worst off of our streets 
in the State of Missouri. He is an exceptional Federal prosecutor. He 
is going to be an exceptional Federal judge.
  As we come to the end of what has been a long road, to be honest, for 
these judicial nominations in the State of Missouri, I just couldn't be 
more grateful. And I want to end by how I began by thanking President 
Trump for his exceptional leadership, thanking him for choosing these 
four outstanding individuals who I know are going to make the State of 
Missouri proud. They are going to make the United States proud, and in 
just a few minutes here, I look forward to casting the first vote to 
begin this process to seeing them on the Federal bench.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The other Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I ask for unanimous consent to speak up 
to 5 minutes before the scheduled rollcall.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I want to echo the comments from Senator 
Hawley. This is a very proud day for the State of Missouri and 
significant that the first district court judges that are coming before 
this body under President Trump's second term in office will be filling 
the bench, the four vacancies, in the Eastern District of Missouri: 
Josh Divine, Cris Stevens, Maria Lanahan, Zach Bluestone.
  I want to talk about Mr. Divine and Mr. Stevens, briefly, here, both 
of whom worked in the office when I was attorney general, Josh very 
briefly. He came on, originally, with Senator Hawley. But Cris Stevens, 
I want to talk about him first.
  You know, when you are in a role like attorney general, you need a 
lot of good people around you, and you have a core team. And for me, 
that process, you kind of rely on a lot of social capital over the 
years, and you ask around. You have some relationships, but you have 
people who then refer you to people, and you go through an interview 
process. And Cris Stevens was the name that just kept coming up. And I 
didn't know Cris before that. I knew his reputation just a little bit.
  But when he and I got together and visited about the vision for what 
we wanted to do with the office, we instantly clicked. He is an 
incredible family man, a devout Catholic, his wife Leigh--they have 
great kids. He is a wonderful father.
  And before he came to my office, he was probably one of the more 
decorated and storied criminal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's 
Office in generations. I mean, if there was a tough criminal case, Cris 
Stevens was the guy. And so I brought him in originally as our criminal 
chief. He later--when Tom Albus, who was my first assistant, went on to 
become a judge, Cris Stevens then took that first assistant role. And 
what I was always impressed by Cris was not only his work ethic but his 
willingness to work with younger lawyers, to be a mentor. His legal 
acumen was beyond reproach. He is a brilliant guy. He is going to do an 
incredible job on that court.
  I am just so proud for him and his family today as this vote happens, 
and he will ascend to that really important role, a lifetime 
appointment, and will do the business of the people on that bench. We 
need more people like Cris Stevens so it is really a special day.
  Josh Divine, as Senator Hawley mentioned, is a very, very smart guy. 
He has done a great job in the Solicitor General's Office with the 
current attorney general, Andrew Bailey. He will do a phenomenal job on 
the bench.
  We are really lucky to have such a deep legal bench in the State of 
Missouri. As these nominees came forward, we just have an embarrassment 
of riches in Missouri. I think that is true, and the first two of them 
will be voted on here today.
  And as I mentioned, Maria Lanahan and Zach Bluestone will come after 
that.
  So I just want to wish congratulations to them as this vote takes 
place, and I can't recommend both of them more strongly. And, again, it 
is a real honor for the State of Missouri to have these two incredible 
jurists before this body for their confirmation vote.
  I yield the floor.