A dozen lawyers from Jones Day are joining Donald Trump's administration, and it transpires that most of them could melt a snowflake into hot liberal tears with one glance.

Trump regularly instructs Jones Day and appointments from the firm were expected, though not as many as 12. But as biographies of several of the departing partners reveal, they are ideally suited to Make America Great Again. Even if that means just suing people who mock the Commander-In-Chief's hand or crowd size.


  Don for Don

Donald McGahn, who is taking the critical role of White House Counsel, previously served as the Trump campaign's general counsel. But between 2008 and 2013 McGahn headed up the Federal Election Commission, where he was accused of deliberaetly gridlocking the agency in order to block efforts by advocacy groups to reduce the influence of money in US elections. In its press release announcing his move to the White House, Jones Day characterised McGahn's FEC work as a "revolution". He also worked closely with the climate change-denying Koch brother oil billionaires, helping their network award grants of $236 million to right-wing groups including the Tea Party. Trump said McGahn, who as White House Counsel will be expected to advise him on ethical issues, has an "excellent character".

    McGinley: Likely to be busy

Given the nepotistic kleptocracy Trump is building, his selection of William 'Bill' McGinley as deputy assistant may prove a canny one. While at Jones Day, McGinley specialised in defending Republican politicians accused of ethical lapses. He represented members of Congress, candidates, and corporations in investigations before the Office of Congressional Ethics, and is presumably already on his ninth stress ball as he contemplates the next four years.

    Down with Barack Hussein Obama

A third partner, Gregory Katsas, will be Trump's deputy counsel. Katsas and fellow Jones Day partner Mike Carvin unsuccessfully fought against Obamacare in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a lobbying group funded by Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. They argued that provisions in the Affordable Care Act requiring people to purchase health insurance were incorrect and unconstitutional. Katsas can afford fine private health care with ease.

    Rosa who?

In a controversial move, John Gore will serve as deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, despite spending much of his career fighting against, er, civil rights. Gore, who was promoted to the Jones Day partnership in 2014, defended the discriminatory North Carolina bill which blocked transgender people from using public bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. A specialist in restricting areas of claim for civil rights violations, he also acted for the state of Florida when it was found to have violated the National Voter Registration Act by purging voters it suspected of being non-citizens, who happened to be overwhelmingly Hispanic and Democrats.

In the RollOnFriday Firm of the Year 2017 survey, a Jones Day lawyer in London said that the worst thing about the firm was "the fact that Jones Day is the official counsel to the Trump campaign". In a carefully-worded statement announcing the appointments, Jones Day Managing Partner Stephen J Brogan avoided endorsing Trump and said, "We are proud of the Firm's heritage of having lawyers serve in the government", and "are gratified for those who have the chance to again serve in such critical capacities". RollOnFriday asked Jones Day if it was proud of its close links with this particular administration and for its estimate of how many people attended Trump's inauguration, but it did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Maybe it will reply on Twitter.
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Comments

Anonymous 31 January 17 11:11

Is this the Huffington Post or ROF?

Some lawyers might have different political views than you do - get over it.