How the Legal Mastermind of Trump’s Most Damaging Policies Stays Anonymous

Jurisprudence Aug 04, 20263:25 PM The powers behind the throne. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images, Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, and Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. Sign up for Executive Dysfunction, a newsletter that highlights one under-the-radar story each week about how Trump is changing the law—or how the law is pushing back. You’ll also receive updates on the latest from Slate’s Jurisprudence team. Mark Paoletta is not a household name. Despite this, over the past decade, he has quietly become one of the conservative legal movement’s most influential operators, making Paoletta an underrated political power in his own right. Over a career spanning roles in both House and Senate Republican leadership, the George H.W. Bush White House, the cou