By: Tim Carpenter
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The U.S. Senate confirmed on a party-line vote one of three Kansans nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as judges in U.S. District Court.
Nominee Jeff Kuhlman, an attorney from Great Bend, was confirmed 52-46 by the U.S. Senate. Two others nominated to fill openings on the federal bench, Kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Tony Mattivi and Kansas Solicitor General Anthony Powell, were forwarded to the full Senate for consideration. The Senate has yet to vote on their nominations.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, voted for Kuhlman’s appointment this week after encouraging Trump to forward his nomination to the Senate.
“I would not have done that but for my sincere and real impression of his expertise, his legal experience and his commitment to serving the people of Kansas,” Moran said. “I’ve always had a desire to see — growing up in a small town in rural Kansas — that there might be federal judges who could come from small towns.”
Kuhlman grew up in Ness City, earned a history degree at Kansas State University, completed a law degree at George Mason University and clerked for Eric Melgren, a senior judge in the U.S. District Court. He worked as an associate at a Wichita law firm before joining a Great Bend firm as a partner.
His nomination also was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, who said Kuhlman would serve “with honor and with a commitment to the rule of law.”
Kuhlman, Mattivi and Powell testified as a group in April before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C.
Mattivi and Kuhlman were questioned about their role in the controversial law enforcement raid of the Marion County Record in 2023.
Mattivi was asked about KBI’s role in considering legal issues surrounding the Kansas newspaper raid. He had expressed support for the raid based on “credible allegations” of wrongdoing at the newspaper. Special prosecutors cleared the Record’s journalists, and a portion of lawsuits filed in aftermath of the raid was settled for $3 million.
Kuhlman responded to inquires about being hired to represent the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Marion County public officials in suits filed by the newspaper and staff members.
Powell served in the Kansas House, as a Sedgwick County District Court judge and on the Kansas Court of Appeals before being appointed by Attorney General Kris Kobach to be the state’s solicitor general.
Mattivi, who was a federal prosecutor for 20 years, lost the GOP nomination for attorney general to Kobach. After Kobach was elected to that job, he appointed Mattivi to serve as director of the KBI.