{"id":2412,"date":"2026-06-29T19:31:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2412"},"modified":"2026-06-29T19:31:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:31:59","slug":"top-trump-attorney-daniel-epstein-named-interim-dean-at-fiu-law-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2412","title":{"rendered":"Top Trump attorney Daniel Epstein named interim dean at FIU law school"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><!-- --><!-- --><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Florida International University has a new law school dean with deep ties to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2410\">Arrest made in Broward McDonald\u2019s shooting that wounded father and daughter<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Daniel Epstein, who served as counsel to the Trump White House in the president\u2019s first term and has also worked as his personal attorney, was announced as interim dean at FIU\u2019s College of Law on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Epstein will take over for Michelle D. Mason, who has served in the interim role since May 2025, when <u>former dean Antony Page stepped down<\/u>. He will start in August.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Page is now dean at Chapman University in Orange County, California.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Epstein is one of several politically connected Republicans to have earned top roles at one of Florida\u2019s public universities in recent years. Former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez was hired as president of FIU last year at the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas was named the new president of Polk State College; Kamoutsas\u2019 predecessor, Manny Diaz, Jr., was hired to lead the University of West Florida in January; former Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner took the top job at Florida Atlantic University last year.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>In higher education, Epstein has served as the chair of Palm Beach State College for nearly one year. He has also worked as a professor at St. Thomas University\u2019s Benjamin L. Crump College of Law for more than three years, according to <u>his LinkedIn profile.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Epstein has an extensive background in conservative legal circles.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>He represented Trump in a personal <u>capacity in the president\u2019s suit against the Justice Department for its investigation<\/u> into possible ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign as well as a 2022 FBI-led search for classified documents at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>In Trump\u2019s first term in office, Epstein worked as \u201cSenior Associate Counsel and Special Assistant to the President\u201d in the White House. He was nominated to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in 2019, but his nomination was returned to the president after the Senate neither confirmed nor rejected the nomination in six months.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Epstein now serves as vice president of America First Legal, the conservative litigation group founded by Trump advisor Stephen Miller, who has led the president\u2019s crackdowns on illegal immigration. He has also been an advisor to the U.S. Department of Commerce under Secretary Howard Lutnick.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2409\">Broward wildfire grows, and smoke is visible from the Sawgrass Expressway<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Epstein <u>founded Cause of Action<\/u>, a public interest law firm that represented plaintiffs in the Supreme Court of the United States case that curtailed federal agencies\u2019 regulatory power, a ruling cheered by anti-regulation conservatives.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>In Florida, Epstein was a member of Attorney General James Uthmeier\u2019s transition team. He\u2019s also a member of the judicial nomination committee for Florida\u2019s Fourth District Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Epstein earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from Kenyon College in Ohio. He got his law degree from Emory University and earned his PhD from George Washington University in 2022.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Before Epstein was named interim dean, FIU had conducted a months-long search process for a permanent dean. Epstein was not one of the finalists announced in March.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Finalists included David Brennen, former dean of the University of Kentucky\u2019s law school; Andrew Dawson, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at University of Miami\u2019s School of Law; and Sean M. O\u2019Connor, formerly of George Mason University\u2019s Antonin Scalia Law School.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Prior to Page\u2019s tenure as dean, from 2018 to 2025, the previous dean for eight years was Alex Acosta, a Miami native and former U.S. Secretary of Labor in Trump\u2019s first term. Acosta resigned from his Washington role after facing scrutiny over a plea deal brokered with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (no apparent relation to Daniel Epstein).<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>FIU\u2019s College of Law was founded in 2000. U.S. News &amp; World Report ranks it as the 77th-best law school in the country, behind schools at Florida State University and the University of Florida, which are tied for 34th.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2407\">Riled up by red-light cameras? This South Florida city is scaling back enforcement<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--]--><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New interim Florida International University Law dean is Daniel Epstein, a key legal counsel to President Donald Trump in personal, White House capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Top Trump attorney Daniel Epstein named interim dean at FIU law school - Florida Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=2412\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top Trump attorney Daniel Epstein named interim dean at FIU law school - 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