On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm two federal prosecutors in North Carolina to be trial judges on the federal bench. Senators voted 53–45 to make David Bragdon a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Reuters said they also voted 60–39 to confirm Lindsey Ann Freeman to the same court. There are now 21 judges who have been appointed during President Donald Trump’s second term.
During his first term, Trump appointed 234 judges, which changed the federal court system to be more conservative.
Bragdon’s most recent job was as the appellate chief at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Freeman was the second-in-command at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina.
In August, Trump announced Bragdon’s nomination on social media and talked about how he had worked as a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Bragdon told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Trump called him to congratulate him and said, “Justice Thomas spoke highly of me.”
Democrats and progressive groups were against Bragdon’s confirmation because he ran a Geocities website from 1997 to 2000 while he was in college where he shared his political views.
BREAKING: The US Senate has confirmed Lindsey Freeman as Trump’s judicial nominee for the Middle District of North Carolina with a vote of 60-39.
MORE confirmations mean that there are fewer activist judges in the federal judiciary 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wRsNgC0ejF
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 2, 2025
The site had statements that said things like “abortion is wrong because a fetus has just as much right to life as an infant does” and “there is enough of a logical link between the death penalty and deterrence to call for an increased use of the death penalty.”
He also said, “Our welfare system should be a safety net, not a hammock.”
Alliance for Justice, a group that fights for social justice, said that confirming Bragdon would “legitimize his extreme rhetoric and pave the way for dangerous shifts in the rule of law.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and other Democrats pushed Bragdon to say if he still agreed with what he had written in the past.
Bragdon said in writing, “A lot of my views have changed or grown over time, and there are only a few things I would write the same way now that I did then.”
Thanks to @LeaderJohnThune, who is once again breaking through Senate Democrats’ roadblocks and confirming 88 more Trump nominees at once.
Thune is really taking charge. https://t.co/3cooHeow4V
— Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) December 2, 2025
The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate approved three ambassadors appointed by President Donald Trump last week. They will be stationed in the UK, Turkey, and Italy, respectively. Warren Stephens, Tom Barrack, and Tilman Feritta, the three new ambassadors, have all publicly said they support Trump.
A vote of 59 to 39 in the Senate made Stephens the new ambassador to the UK and Northern Ireland.
Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton spoke out in favor of Stephens, an investment banker from his home state, calling him a “family man, businessman, philanthropist, and patriot.”
Cotton said, “He is the right person to lead our strong, unique relationship with the UK.”
Until January, Stephens was the president and CEO of Stephens Inc., an investment banking firm based in Little Rock.
Federal Election Commission records show that Stephens gave $1 million to “Our Principles PAC,” a nonprofit that was against Trump’s first run for president.
FEC records show that he gave money to groups that supported Trump in 2019 and 2020. In 2024, he gave $3 million to MAGA Inc., the main Super PAC that backed Trump.
“Warren has always wanted to work for the United States full-time. As the top diplomat for the U.S.A., he will now have that chance to represent one of America’s most cherished and loved allies, Trump said.
The Senate voted 60 to 36 to confirm Barrack, a private equity executive and longtime Trump supporter.
