Timothy James Kelly (born 1969) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...

and former chief counsel for national security and senior crime counsel to the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...

Biography

Kelly received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

, ''cum laude'', from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, and his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Georgetown Law The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

, where he was a senior associate editor of the ''

American Criminal Law Review ''The American Criminal Law Review'' is a student-edited scholarly journal published at Georgetown University Law Center. The ACLR is a journal of American criminal law and white-collar crime. Overview ''ACLR'' adopts a mix of symposia, articles, ...

''. Kelly spent a decade as a federal prosecutor, serving first as an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...

in the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and then as a trial attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division. Kelly also spent several years as a civil litigator at

Arnold & Porter Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP is an American multinational law firm. A white-shoe firm, Arnold & Porter is among the largest law firms in the world, by both revenue and by its number of lawyers. History Arnold & Porter was founded in 1946 ...

. He clerked for Judge

Ronald L. Buckwalter Ronald Lawrence Buckwalter (born December 11, 1936) is an inactive Senior status, senior United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Education and career ...

on the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, E.D. Pa.) is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It originally sat in Independence Hall in Phila ...

. He also served as the Republican staff director for the Senate's Caucus on International Narcotics Control, and from 2013 to 2017 Judge Kelly served as Chief Counsel for National Security and Senior Crime Counsel to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley.

Federal judicial service

On June 7, 2017, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

nominated Kelly to serve as a United States District Judge of the

, to the seat vacated by Judge

Rosemary M. Collyer Rosemary Mayers Collyer (born November 19, 1945) is an inactive Senior Status, Senior United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and a Judge of the United States Fo ...

, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on May 18, 2016. A hearing on his nomination before the

took place on June 28, 2017. On July 13, 2017, his nomination was reported out of committee by a

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

. On September 5, 2017, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed his nomination by a 94–2 vote. He received his judicial commission on September 8, 2017.

Notable cases

Kelly presided over ''

English v. Trump ''Leandra English v. Donald Trump, et al.'', No. 1:17-cv-02534 (D.D.C. 2017), was a lawsuit before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiff, Leandra English, alleged that the defendants, Donald Trump and Mick Mu ...

'', a lawsuit related to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and the successor to the Director of the

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortg ...

Richard Cordray Richard Adams Cordray (born May 3, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the COO of Federal Student Aid in the United States Department of Education. He served as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFP ...

, who had resigned in November 2017 to kick off a run for Governor of Ohio. Before resigning, Cordray appointed

Leandra English Leandra English is an American political advisor serving as an advisor to the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. She formerly was the Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from 2017 ...

as his deputy. President Trump appointed

Mick Mulvaney John Michael Mulvaney (born July 21, 1967) is an American politician who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from February 2017 until March 2020, and as acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2019 until March ...

, the Director of the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

, to serve as acting director. Kelly declined to issue a temporary restraining order and held that Mulvaney could remain as acting director. Kelly presided over ''

CNN v. Trump ''CNN v. Trump'' is a lawsuit filed on November 13, 2018, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs are the Cable News Network (CNN) and their chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, and the defendants a ...

'', a lawsuit about President Trump's decision to revoke

Jim Acosta Abilio James Acosta (born April 17, 1971) is an American broadcast journalist, anchor and the chief domestic correspondent for CNN. Previously, Acosta served as the network's chief White House correspondent during the Trump administration, in w ...

's White House press credentials, denying him access to the White House grounds. CNN filed a lawsuit in order to challenge this decision and alleged this violated Acosta's first and fifth amendment rights. On November 16, 2018, Kelly ruled that Acosta could return to the White House, pending a trial. On November 19, 2018, CNN dropped the suit. On December 28, 2021, Kelly refused to dismiss an indictment against four members of the

Proud Boys The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States.Far-right: * * Fascist: * * * * * Men only: * * * Political violence: * * * It has ...

who were charged with

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

in the

2021 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The mob was seeking to keep Trump in pow ...

Memberships

He has been a member of the

Federalist Society The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (abbreviated as FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered ...

since 2009.

Personal life

Kelly lives in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, with his wife and two children.

References

External links

*
Biography at District Court for the District of Columbia
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Timothy James 1969 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Arnold & Porter people Assistant United States Attorneys Duke University alumni Federalist Society members Georgetown University Law Center alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Lawyers from Washington, D.C. People from Glen Cove, New York United States district court judges appointed by Donald Trump Washington, D.C., Republicans