The husband of White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway – and a former top prospect to lead a Justice Department division – on Monday criticized President Trump for bashing the DOJ’s “politically correct” revision of his original travel ban executive order.
“These tweets may make some ppl feel better, but they certainly won't help OSG get 5 votes in SCOTUS, which is what actually matters. Sad,” tweeted George Conway, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
The remark was posted above a retweet from Trump’s Monday morning Twitter tear, in which he wrote: “The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.”
Conway also tweeted a link to a Washington Post analysis speculating that the president’s tweets could hurt the administration’s defense of the travel ban at the Supreme Court.
“Very good analysis,” he wrote.
The commentary came as Conway’s wife Kellyanne was on air Monday morning defending the president’s agenda.
In a string of subsequent tweets, Mr. Conway made clear he continues to “VERY, VERY STRONGLY support” Trump, his policies, the executive order, “and of course, my wonderful wife.”
But he said, “Every sensible lawyer in WHCO and every political ... appointee at DOJ wd agree with me (as some have already told me). The pt cannot be stressed enough that tweets on legal matters .. seriously undermine Admin agenda and POTUS--and those who support him, as I do, need to reinforce that pt and not be shy about it.”
The American Civil Liberties Union said on Twitter that they “may incorporate” Trump’s tweets on the ban “into our Supreme Court argument.” But asked Monday whether the White House was concerned about tainting the case, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “not at all.”
Conway, who had been considered a frontrunner to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Division, took himself out of consideration for the job on Friday.
“I have reluctantly concluded, however, that, for me and my family, this is not the right time for me to leave the private sector and take on a new role in the federal government,” Conway said in a statement at the time. “Kellyanne and I continue to support the President and his Administration, and I look forward to doing so in whatever way I can from outside the government.”
Conway has only tweeted 93 times and the last time was in December 2015, when he retweeted a video about the New York Giants.
Fox News' Cody Derespina contributed to this report.