George Conway, the husband of senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, is set to be nominated to run the Justice Department’s civil division, according to people familiar with the matter, a job that would put him at the forefront defending the controversial immigration executive order and other lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Conway, a partner at Wall Street law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, had also been in the running for other jobs at the Justice Department.

He has worked on major securities law cases and deal litigation, according to his law firm biography.

Conway didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Conway, a longtime Republican pollster who helped turn around Donald Trump’s Republican presidential campaign, has been a common presence on television defending Trump. She took on a senior role in the campaign last summer, when Mr. Trump trailed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by 16 percentage points in a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll.

This week Ms. Conway was criticized for comments she made defending Mr. Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that he was wiretapped by his predecessor. A bipartisan statement from the Senate Intelligence Committee leaders said Thursday they have seen no evidence for such a claim.

Conway’s nomination is set to come as the Justice Department prepares appeals of rulings that blocked Trump’s revised executive order on immigration. That dispute could arrive soon at the Supreme Court.

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