Trump to nominate state natural resources attorney to vacant Alaska federal judge position

President Donald Trump has signaled he plans to nominate Aaron Christian Peterson, a longtime state natural resources attorney and former prosecutor, to one of Alaska’s long-vacant federal judicial seats.

Trump has not made any formal nomination of Peterson to the position but forwarded judicial candidate materials for Peterson to the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to a spokesperson for the committee’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The committee considers judicial nominations. Trump has recently forwarded materials from candidates before formally announcing the nominations.

If confirmed, Peterson would take one of two vacant roles for U.S. District Court judges for Alaska. Chief U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason is the state’s only active full-time federal judge.

The last person nominated and confirmed as a judge, Joshua Kindred, resigned in disgrace in 2024 after a 9th Circuit investigation found he’d made sexual advances toward a law clerk and a federal prosecutor, among other misconduct.

On Tuesday, Alaska congressional leaders said they expect Trump to formally announce Peterson’s nomination.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she’d “been informed by the White House” that Trump intended to nominate Peterson and had spoken with him last week.

“Peterson has a strong record of practicing law here in our state,” Murkowski said in a statement.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said his hand-picked federal judiciary council had vetted nominees, including Peterson, and that the Trump administration had worked “closely with my office on identifying outstanding judges who will serve Alaska and our country well.”

Peterson could not immediately be reached on Tuesday.

Alaska officials on Tuesday praised Peterson, who in his mid-40s would continue Trump’s formula of nominating younger conservatives to the federal bench, with the potential to influence the ideological makeup of the courts for many decades. Of the nominees who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2025, some two-thirds were younger than 44, according to Bloomberg Law.

According to a biography submitted with his nominee materials, Peterson was born and raised in Anchorage and served for three years in the U.S. Air Force before receiving an honorable discharge in 2003. He attended the University of Alaska Anchorage for a degree in finance in 2007 and then Gonzaga University for a law degree, graduating in 2010, according to a public questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judicial Council shared by Grassley’s office.

After clerking for Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Spaan, Peterson worked as a municipal and then state prosecutor. He also worked for the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions before becoming an assistant attorney general working in the Alaska Department of Law’s natural resources division, where among other roles he represented the Board of Fisheries.

In a statement Tuesday, Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox praised Peterson, a longtime Department of Law attorney, as an “outstanding choice.”

Peterson “demonstrated a remarkable ability to navigate complex issues with fairness and integrity, including during his representation of the Board of Fisheries. His extensive understanding of both civil and criminal law, honed through his experience as a prosecutor, makes him uniquely qualified for this position,” Cox said.

Murkowski and Sullivan have been split over how to approach filling Alaska’s vacant judge positions, with Murkowski favoring a traditional bar poll that lets Alaska lawyers give feedback on qualified applicants. Sullivan diverged from Murkowski and set up his own panel to advise him on potential judges.

In the application materials, Peterson described his route to the nomination, which appeared to be largely through Sullivan.

Peterson wrote that he was first contacted by someone on Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s federal transition team who encouraged him to apply to Sullivan’s judiciary panel, and subsequently interviewed with Sullivan, the panel members and finally with White House officials.

Sullivan said in a statement that Peterson has “extensive legal experience spanning criminal prosecution, natural resources law, and national security.”

“Throughout his career, which includes military service, Aaron has demonstrated a commitment to the rule of law and federalism,” the statement said. “He also understands the principle that the job of a federal judge is to interpret the law, not to make policy.”

Murkowski’s statement said she’d support Peterson’s nomination, but was concerned about a remaining vacancy.

“Alaska’s District Court has had two vacancies for far too long, and I hope the White House will soon announce a second qualified nominee whom I can support to fill out the bench,” the statement said.