California hires former AG Holder to defend against Trump
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — Bracing for an adversarial relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, the California Legislature has selected former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as outside counsel to advise the state’s legal strategy against the incoming administration.
The unusual arrangement will give Holder, leading a team of attorneys from the firm Covington & Burling, a broad portfolio covering potential conflicts between California and the federal government.
“He will be our lead litigator, and he will have a legal team of expert lawyers on t he i s sues of c l imate change, women and c ivi l r i g ht s , t he environment , i mmigrati on, vo t - ing rights — to name just a few,” said Senate leader Kevin de León, a Democrat.
Such a task typically falls to the state attorney general. On Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown formally nominated Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra to replace former state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who was elected in November to the U.S. Senate.
But de León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a fellow Democrat, began contemplating hiring out- side legal counsel for the Legislature almost immediately after Trump’s election, in hopes of protecting existing state policies that are at odds with the president-elect’s stated positions.
“While we don’t yet know the harmful proposals the next administration will put forward, thanks to Donald Trump’s campaign, Cabinet appointments and Twitter feed, we do have an idea of what we wi l l be deal - ing with,” Rendon said in a statement. “The Covington team will be an important resource as we work with the governor and the attorney general to protect Cali- fornians.”
The two legislative leaders have taken an unabashe d l y c o mbat i v e p o s t u r e against Trump. Rendon, in remarks last month at a swearing-in ceremony for lawmakers, described the incoming administration as a “major existential threat,” and asserted “Californians do not need healing. We need to fight.”
De León said the additional counsel would offer “more legal firepower” that would complement and bring additional heft to the state attorney general’s efforts.
“Hiring the former attorney general — the nation’s top lawyer — it shows that we’re very serious in protecting the values of the people of California against any attempt to undermine the policies that has made us the fifth-largest economy in the world,” de León said.
Bringing on outside counsel is not unprecedented for the Legislature. The state Senate hired special counsel for a select committee investigating price manipulation in the wholesale energy market by Enron in the early 2000s.
But it is far more unorthodox for both houses to join together in retaining counsel in a preemptive bid to prepare for as-yet-unknown litigation and policy-making at the federal level. Much of the arrangement remains murky, including how Holder’s efforts will differ from or align with Becerra’s.
Also unclear: the price tag. Aides to legislative leaders declined to specify how much Covington & Burling’s services will cost the state, citing still-unfinished contracts, but said the payment would come out of both chambers’ operating budgets and would not require additional state funds.
Holder, who was a partner at Covington from 2001 until 2009 before rejoining the firm in 2015, will direct the efforts from the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.