Courtesy of Pam Martens
Don McGahn With President Trump and First Lady Melania
Lawyers from Jones Day have been functioning like a Praetorian Guard around the president since the day he took office. How the firm landed so many of its partners into key positions in the Trump administration has baffled the media, especially since its partners were big supporters of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. According to Bloomberg News, Jones Day’s lawyers contributed $7,422 to Trump’s campaign while showering Hillary Clinton’s campaign with $267,899.
Wall Street On Parade has previously reported that Jones Day lawyers in Trump’s White House Counsel office had previously represented Freedom Partners, the front group of Koch Industries, the giant fossil fuels company majority owned by the billionaire Koch brothers. Freedom Partners had quickly provided the Trump administration with a list of regulations it wanted gutted – like the Paris Climate accord (which Trump revoked on June 1, 2017) and numerous EPA rules. Jones Day had also been a lead law firm for Koch Industries’ mergers and acquisitions for years. SourceWatch reported last year that a dozen people who previously worked at Freedom Partners were given jobs in the Trump administration. Among that group was Marc Short, former Freedom Partners President, who became Director of Legislative Affairs for Trump. Short stepped down in July of last year after many of his key objectives had been achieved.
On the same day that Donald Trump was sworn into office, the Jones Day law firm issued a press release indicating that 13 of its lawyers were heading to the Trump administration. Key among the posts were Don McGahn, who had been General Counsel to Trump’s campaign committee, and was now going to be serving as White House Counsel. McGahn’s Chief of Staff was also coming from Jones Day, Annie Donaldson. Both had previously represented Freedom Partners.
McGahn had another curious item on his resume, he had been the former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, where he was credited with loosening regulations on campaign spending – an agenda that benefited men like the billionaire Koch brothers who have been setting up and funding front groups to meddle in elections for the past forty years.
Four Jones Day lawyers were heading to the Justice Department: Noel Francisco (Principal Deputy Solicitor General), John Gore (Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division), Chad Readler (Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division), and Michael Murray (Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General).
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