The Senate Committee on Judiciary started confirmation hearings Tuesday for Christina Nolan and Michael Drescher, two veteran federal prosecutors whom Gov. Phil Scott appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court.
“It is the position for which I believe I can do the most to positively impact the lives of Vermonters of today and for generations to come,” Nolan said during the hearing. “It is a chance to uphold the rule of law and protect our rights.”
Nolan joined the U.S. attorney’s Vermont office in 2010 as an assistant U.S. attorney before being appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the office in 2017. She stepped down in 2021 after President Joe Biden was sworn into office, a common practice when a new administration takes over.
After leaving the U.S. attorney’s office, Nolan started working in private practice at Burlington-based law firm Sheehey, Furlong and Behm. Nolan also ran as a Republican in 2022 to replace former Sen. Patrick Leahy, but lost in the primary to Gerald Malloy.
During Tuesday’s hearing, state lawmakers questioned Nolan about an incident last summer during which she brought a gun into the Windham County criminal courthouse.
Nolan told the committee the gun had ended up in her bag after she’d brought it downstairs the previous night because someone was banging on her front door. She said she didn’t realize it was with her at the courthouse until security found it.
Nolan said she completed a pre-charge diversion program and took a gun safety course afterwards.
“I wanted to just take accountability — I’m a rule follower,” Nolan said. “I wanted to take all of the steps that I could take to try and ensure that this, this particular mistake, which is a very serious one, would never happen again.”
The committee started Drescher’s confirmation hearing, but ran out of time to finish it.
Drescher has spent more than two decades as a federal prosecutor in Vermont. Most recently, he led the office following the resignation of U.S. Attorney Nikolas Kerest, who stepped down when Trump began his second term.
In the past year, Drescher has represented the federal government in several high-profile and controversial immigration cases. He told the committee on Tuesday that his role in those cases was to represent the government in court.
“I think it would be unfair to conclude that I somehow personally supported the policies of the government simply because I was an advocate for those policies in court,” Drescher said. “It would be similar to suggesting that a criminal defense lawyer should be responsible for her client’s crimes, right?”
Drescher said he also took the lead on high-profile cases, such as that of Rümeysa Öztürk, after the Trump administration accused a federal attorney of sabotaging a deportation case and fired him.
“I could not, in good conscience, subject anybody in the office to being in that position,” Drescher said. “Would I have preferred somebody else to have been in the trenches in that case? Absolutely, but that would have been the wrong thing to do as a leader of the office and as a leader of people about whom I care deeply.”
The committee will finish Drescher’s hearing at a later time. The full Senate will then vote on whether to confirm Drescher and Nolan’s appointments.
Nolan and Drescher were forwarded to the governor on a list of qualified candidates from the Judicial Nominating Board. Scott selected them to replace Justices William Cohen and Karen Carroll, who retired from the high court last year.
