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Politics

California Hires Former Attorney General Eric Holder To Combat Trump

Former Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey at a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., June 30, 2014.
Associated Press
Former Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey at a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., June 30, 2014.

Vowing to protect California's values and constitutional guarantees, Democratic leaders in the state Legislature announced Wednesday they have hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as outside counsel to advise their legal strategy against the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

Holder will help legislators resist any attempts to roll back liberal progress on issues such as climate change, health care, civil rights and immigration, said California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount.

"With the upcoming change in administrations, we expect that there will be extraordinary challenges for California in the uncertain times ahead," the leaders said in a joint statement. "We have an obligation to defend the people who elected us and the policies and diversity that make California an example of what truly makes a nation great."

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Rendon, de Leon and Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown have talked tough since Trump's election in November, vowing to aggressively confront the Republican president. California voted overwhelmingly for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The arrangement with Holder, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, will give the former attorney general a broad portfolio including addressing potential conflicts between the state and the federal government. He'll lead a team of attorneys from the firm Covington & Burling.

Holder served as the nation's top lawyer from 2009 through 2015, focusing on civil rights and criminal justice reform.

Rendon and de Leon agreed to pay Holder's firm $25,000 a month, plus expenses such as travel and printing, for three months beginning Feb. 1. After that, the parties will renegotiate the deal, said Kevin Liao, a spokesman for Rendon.

The contract was signed by Daniel Shallman, a partner in Covington's Los Angeles office who is the brother of John Shallman, a political consultant who represents de Leon and other Democratic elected officials.

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The California Department of Justice, headed by the state attorney general, typically represents the state in disputes with the federal government. Lawmakers are scheduled next week to begin confirmation proceedings for Xavier Becerra, a Democratic congressman whom Brown selected to succeed Kamala Harris, who resigned this week to take her to seat in the U.S. Senate.

The Legislature wanted its own legal representative independent of the executive branch, Liao said.

"It's to supplement the AG's work, not replace it," Liao said. "The attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer for California but doesn't represent the Legislature itself."

The legislative counsel's office, which has hundreds of attorneys to advise the Legislature, can't offer policy advice, Liao said.

Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, criticized Holder's hiring, pointing to the botched "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling investigation. The investigation became a political problem for Holder and President Barack Obama when a gun that federal agents allowed to be smuggled into Mexico was later used to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

"The goal of the California Democrats is clear: an open border with no restrictions on human traffickers, gun runners and drug smugglers," Allen said in a statement. "Eric Holder has the record to help them accomplish this goal."

Asked about the propriety of Holder's new position, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said he saw nothing inappropriate about it.

"It's not surprising to me, at all, that the state of California, would want to choose somebody as smart and as experienced and well-versed in these policy issues as Mr. Holder is," Earnest told reporters Wednesday. "Obviously, Mr. Holder is a telegenic, articulate advocate for a full set of issues, and I suspect that the people of the state of California will benefit from him putting those same skills to work advocating for them."

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