President Donald Trump on Friday said he would nominate Florida attorney Carlos G. Muñiz to be general counsel of the Education Department. It’s the first high-level position that Trump has sought to fill at the agency since Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was confirmed last month.
— Muñiz is well-connected in Florida Republican politics: He has spent much of his legal career working for prominent Republicans in Florida. He was Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top lieutenant and served on her transition team. The Tampa Bay Times once described him as a “protege” of Marco Rubio, whom he worked for in the Florida House of Representatives. And Muñiz was previously former Gov. Jeb Bush’s deputy general counsel. If confirmed, Muñiz will join a cadre of Bush acolytes at the Education Department as the Trump administration pursues an agenda that aligns closely with his views on education.
— He also worked on a high-profile campus sexual assault case: Muñiz represented the Florida State University Board of Trustees in a lawsuit filed by a student who accused the star football quarterback Jameis Winston of raping her – a case that became a focal point in the national debate over combating campus sexual assault. FSU last year agreed to pay $950,000 to settle the lawsuit, but the Education Department’s Title IX investigation into the university’s handling of the case remains ongoing.
— He led an ethics investigation at the University of Florida: Muñiz was hired last year by the University of Florida to investigate whether the school’s former president had violated state ethics laws as he worked on a deal for the university to acquire a research institute whose board he chaired. Muñiz’s investigation concluded that Bernie Machen, the former UF president, did not violate state laws but that his involvement with the deal was “inconsistent” with university policy.
— He helped advocate for school vouchers: Muñiz has represented organizations that advocated school choice policies, including vouchers. In 2005, he co-wrote an amicus brief on behalf of several organizations that were fighting to fend off a legal challenge to Florida’s voucher system that allowed taxpayer funding to flow directly to private and religious schools. The Florida Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the program, supported by then-Gov. Jeb Bush, violated the state’s constitution.