President Trump announced that he intends to tap Eugene Scalia, the son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to lead the Labor Department.

After reports about the pick began to surface Thursday evening, Trump took to Twitter to confirm the news.

"I am pleased to announce that it is my intention to nominate Gene Scalia as the new Secretary of Labor. Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience...

"...working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 ½ years than perhaps any Administration in history!" Trump said.



....working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 ½ years than perhaps any Administration in history! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2019



The move comes after Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, 50, resigned because of scrutiny surrounding a 2008 plea agreement for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Acosta served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 2005 to 2009.

Eugene Scalia, 55, is a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He attended law school at the University of Chicago and later received a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

The elder Scalia served as a staunch conservative on the Supreme Court from 1986 until his death in 2016.