Trump's federal judge pick for Montana takes tough questions on experience, 2020 election

President Donald Trump's pick for the federal bench in Montana fielded some tough questions from Senate Democrats on Wednesday about her relatively short career and how she would publicly characterize the events following the 2020 election.

Katie Lane, a former state justice department attorney now working as senior counsel for the Republican National Committee, sat before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary this week alongside three other Trump nominees for federal judgeships.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines opened the hearing with high praise for Lane during her time as deputy solicitor general at the Montana Attorney General's Office from 2021 to 2023.

"Katie worked zealously to defend Montana's laws and challenge federal overreach," he said. "She litigated cases in both state and federal courts on issues important to Montanans, including defending the Second Amendment, multiple land-use and grazing rights' cases, as well as defending Montana's coal industry."

Daines then turned to the tension between the federal courts and the executive branch. Trump's policies in his second term have seen mixed results against legal challenges, a dynamic Republicans have cast as the result of an unyielding judicial branch. But in Montana, the GOP is particularly loathsome of the repeated federal rulings that stall out matters like logging and mining for failing to adequately analyze environmental impacts and potential harm to wildlife.

"For many years, we've dealt with an activist judiciary that repeatedly rules against the interest of Montana," Daines told the committee. "And that's why it's essential we pick principled jurists who are committed to upholding the Constitution and making decisions based on the rule of law, not personal politics or viewpoints."

Lane never raised criticism of any federal judges but said she was prepared by complex cases that often dealt in complicated regulatory schemes that required her to learn a lot on the fly.

"And if I have the privilege of being confirmed to the State of Montana I would take that same diligence with me, working very hard to get up to speed on the cases before me, understanding the facts and the law before deciding the cases," Lane said.

If confirmed, Lane would replace U.S. District Judge Susan Watters who announced last year her upcoming retirement.

Under pressure

Lane graduated from Bozeman High School in 2010 and George Mason University's law school in 2017 with honors. She then clerked for a federal district judge in Tennessee and for a judge on the Tenth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. She left the Montana Attorney General's Office in 2023 to practice at Consovoy McCarthy, a conservative firm that's been retained by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in a handful of cases, and in 2025 began working as senior counsel for the RNC, the Republican Party's primary campaign organization.

The American Bar Association's standing committee on the federal judiciary has stated it believes a nominee to the federal bench should have at least 12 years experience.

Several Democrats on the committee zeroed in on her lack of trial experience in that time. Lane has conducted only one cross examination of a witness during the single bench trial she's tried as the second-or-third most-senior lawyer on her team for those proceedings.

"How many years have you actually practiced law?" Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, asked her.

"I have worked on over 50 cases, I've filed over 100 motions in federal and state courts at every level," she said without measuring her answer in years. "I currently manage a litigation docket of over 100 cases. I'm very grateful for the wealth of experience that I've had."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the committee, noted on Wednesday that 24 state attorneys general endorsed Lane's nomination to the bench, as well as 33 current and former state solicitors general.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, threw Lane a lifeline in between the brow-beating by Democrats by asking about her time practicing the private sector.

"In many of those cases, these involved complicated administrative law issues, constitutional law issues," Lane responded. "I had to get up to speed very quickly on the facts and the law and grasp complicated issues quickly. I would take that same diligence with me and not only work really hard to get it right but to also manage my docket really efficiently."

2020 hindsight

Senators spent much of the two-hour hearing on the past social media use of Kara Westercamp, nominated by Trump for the U.S. Court of International Trade. Some highlights that made it into the hearing included Westercamp's controversial posts disputing the 2020 election results and social media mentions of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell as "Cocaine Mitch."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, grilled the nominees over the 2020 election results that remain in dispute by the president who nominated them.

Westercamp tried over and over to answer how the Constitution sets out rules for determining who won the election, raising the electoral college and certification by Congress. Blumenthal did not seem to enjoy or accept her answer, and pivoted to the other nominees.

"I am amazed, I'm just amazed, by the insult to this committee of witness after witness, seeking to be a federal judge, subverting our Constitution, and showing how you have no independence, which is essential to the federal judge," Blumenthal said, before hopping to the next nominee. "Ms. Lane, who won the 2020 election?"

"The Constitution outlines the process and as a judicial nominee I’m here to talk about what the Constitution requires which is an electoral vote and certification by Congress and in 2020 —," Lane responded.

"Who won the election?" Blumenthal interjected.

"In 2020, President Biden was —," Lane responded before Blumenthal interrupted again, moving to the next nominee.

Next up, was Jan. 6.

"Ms. Lane, was the Capitol attacked?" Blumenthal asked.

"Senator, the characterization of Jan. 6 is ongoing, subject to ongoing controversy and debate and as a nominee it would be inappropriate for me to characterize it," Lane said.

Blumenthal described the answers by nominees on Wednesday as "canned" and "Orwellian in their denial of reality."

"They also fundamentally show a complete lack of independence and backbone and impartiality, which are the fundamental requirements of a United States district court judge," he said.