Obama lawyers move fast to join fight against Trump
Source: Reuters
13 MAR 2017 AT 09:21 ET
When Johnathan Smith resigned from the U.S. Justice Department on Inauguration Day, he looked forward to spending time with his infant son, but that plan unraveled a week later when President Donald Trump unveiled his explosive foreign travel ban.
Within two weeks, Smith had a new job as legal director of civil rights group Muslim Advocates and was drafting briefs for a successful court challenge to the ban, joining other former top Obama administration lawyers now fighting Trump.
It is not surprising that Smith and some of his colleagues, political appointees of Democratic President Barack Obama, would leave the Justice Department now led by Republicans. What is unusual is how fast they have signed up to be Trump adversaries.
Some Republican lawyers say they were less hasty in moving into oppositional roles post-election. George Terwilliger, a senior Justice Department official under President George H.W. Bush, described the Obama lawyers’ actions as “unprecedented to my memory – and really bad form.”
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/obama-lawyers-move-fast-to-join-fight-against-trump/
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Republican lawyer of the year. Headed the team that installed Bush in the White House in 2000. Lives out in Oakton, Virginia, I think.
His son Zach Terwilliger is part of the "beachhead team" at the Department of Justice: Zach Terwilliger: Associate Deputy Attorney General (Detail – USA EDVA). See my post earlier today:
D-Day At DOJ: The Trump Administration's 'Beachhead' Team For The Justice Department
Slow connection. Pix and more later.
ETA, Tuesday morning:
George J. Terwilliger III (born June 5, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician. He is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuireWoods LLP and is a former United States Deputy Attorney General and acting United States Attorney General. Terwilliger, of Vermont, was nominated on February 14, 1992, by President George H.W. Bush to be Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. He would succeed William Pelham Barr. As Deputy Attorney General, Terwilliger became the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the Department, serving in that position from 1991 through 1993. He was appointed to the position after serving as the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont. In addition, he currently serves on the Advisory Board of Intellaine, LLP, a U.S. defense and risk engineering firm located in Arlington, Virginia.
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2000 Florida recount
During the Florida 2000 election recount, Terwilliger led Republican President-elect George W. Bush's legal team and was "an advisor to the Bush-Cheney Transition and counselor to designated cabinet and other prospective appointees."
August 15, 2013
Terwilliger Named GOP Lawyer of the Year
NAFUSA member George J. Terwilliger III has been named the 2013 Republican Lawyer of the Year by the Board of Governors of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA). Terwilliger was selected in recognition of his outstanding professional accomplishments and years of service to the Republican Party and its ideals and was honored at a reception on June 25, 2013, at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C. He is shown above (left) with his son, Zachary Terwilliger, an AUSA, and Senator Cruz (right).
Terwilliger has served in many proceedings involving political affairs, most notably as a leader of the Bush-Cheney legal team in the 2000 Florida recount and as counsel to President George W. Bush in litigation over his right to have prayers said in the 2005 Inauguration.
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Associate Deputy Attorney General & Acting Chief of Staff at Department of Justice