By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — President Donald Trump nominated the director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the state attorney general’s top appellate lawyer and a Great Bend attorney in private practice to fill three vacancies on the U.S. District Court in Kansas.
The president Wednesday nominated Tony Mattivi, director of the KBI since 2023 and a former prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice; Anthony Powell, the state’s solicitor general and a former member of the Kansas Court of Appeals; and Jeffrey M. Kuhlman, who clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Eric Melgren in Kansas.
Trump previously appointed the three other federal district court judges assigned to Kansas. Judge Holly Teeter of Kansas City, Kansas, and Chief Judge John Broomes of Wichita were confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2018, and Judge Toby Crouse of Topeka followed in 2020.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said the nominees would bring “rare depth of professional experience” to the bench and possessed an unwavering commitment to the rule of law.
“These nominees understand the Constitution, respect the law as written and have dedicated their careers to serving and protecting Kansans,” Marshall said. “I’m grateful to President Trump for selecting such highly qualified individuals, and I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to confirm them swiftly.”
Mattivi sought the Republican nomination for Kansas attorney general in 2022, but he lost the primary to Kris Kobach, who went on to won the statewide election. Kobach subsequently selected Mattivi to lead the KBI.
Mattivi was a federal prosecutor for more than 20 years and worked cases involving drug trafficking, violent crime, racketeering, organized crime, gangs, money laundering and terrorism.
He was lead prosecutor for the capital case against the Al-Qaida operative who masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. He was on the team who convicted three Kansas militia members for plotting the murder of Somali Muslim immigrants in Garden City. He graduated from Washburn University’s law school and earned an undergraduate degree at Metropolitan State College in Denver. His wife, Mary Mattivi, is a judge on the Shawnee County District Court.
Powell, 64, was named Kansas’ solicitor general by Kobach in 2023, and he has served as the state’s top appellate attorney since then. He was appointed by then-Gov. Sam Brownback to the Kansas Court of Appeals in 2013 and retired in 2022. He was a member of the Sedgwick County District Court from 2003 to 2013. He served in the Kansas House from 1995 to 2003.
He earned a political science degree from George Washington University and completed a law degree at Washburn University in Topeka.
Kuhlman, of Great Bend, graduated from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University in 2015. He clerked for two years with Melgren, who transitioned to the role of a senior judge on the U.S. District Court in September.
Kuhlman entered private practice and litigated cases in courtrooms across the state. His legal work has focused on civil litigation and municipal law. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Kansas State University in 2012.
