According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

When Pai took over as FCC chairman, he couldn’t wait to roll back consumer protections enacted under the Obama administration. Many of his actions were done late on a Friday with virtually no public notice. “With these strong-arm tactics, Chairman Pai is showing his true stripes,” Matt Wood, of the consumer group Free Press, told The New York Times. “The public wants an FCC that helps people. Instead, it got one that does favors for the powerful corporations that its chairman used to work for.”   read more

Puzder withdrew his nomination after loss of support from Republican lawmakers showed he wouldn’t have enough votes to be confirmed. The reasons for his dwindling support included his hiring of an undocumented immigrant as his housekeeper and the resurfacing of claims by his ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, of violent physical assaults. A videotape of Fierstein’s 1990 appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” in which she recounted the abuse, circulated among senators considering Puzder’s nomination.   read more

Although forbidden to lobby Congress, Wilson directed Lockheed in its quest for contract renewal without competitive bidding. Her deals with Lockheed and other contractors were found to have violated government rules. In 2012, she criticized a bill to cut bullying of LGBTQ children, and voted for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Wilson was named by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress.   read more

Among the cases that Gershengorn supervised at the DOJ—and often personally argued in court—was the Obama administration’s defense of the Affordable Care Act against dozens of challenges filed against it across the country. Other high-profile court battles involved the rights of Guantánamo detainees, policy on gays in the military, embryonic stem cell research, and state secrets. “Every day, I deal with two or three cases of a lifetime,” he then told The New York Times.   read more

New York Jets owner Johnson sought some tax dodges and, in 2006, was brought before a Senate panel to testify about shelters in the Isle of Man that were used to offset profits from sales of investments. He eventually settled with the IRS, paying back taxes and interest. Johnson was a big donor to Sen. John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. He initially backed Jeb Bush in the 2016 contest, even serving as his finance chairman, but threw his support to Trump in May 2016.   read more

Flynn’s tenure in the White House lasted all of 25 days. On February 13, he resigned after a behind-the-scenes controversy brewing at the highest levels of government exploded into the open, its focus being Flynn’s alleged lies to U.S. officials about his private calls to Russian officials. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell once wrote that Flynn was “abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management,” and “has been and was right-wing nutty ever since.”   read more

Shulkin’s work has frequently involved looking at managed and accountable care, in which patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. In 2008, for example, he studied why patients who are admitted at night are more likely to die than patients admitted during the day. One of his innovations was to champion 24-hour visiting hours for its healing effect on patients.   read more

Two weeks after Goodling sabotaged her promotion at the Department of Justice in 2005, Ashton left her job. The Obama administration later hired her as head of OPR, a division within the DOJ that has weathered a fair amount of controversy over the years. That includes accusations that the lethargic pace of investigating legal opinions issued by the George W. Bush administration laid the groundwork for the torture inflicted by American interrogators on post-9/11 detainees.   read more

McCord is in charge of the division’s 400 employees who collectively are tasked with carrying out the counterterrorism, counterespionage and counterintelligence functions of the Justice Dept. In her post, McCord has interacted with the 94 U.S. Attorney offices across the country. She replaced Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Carlin, who left the division to enter the private sector as chair of the global risk and crisis management team for the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster.   read more

If Goldman Sachs had been allowed to appoint the head of the SEC, which is supposed to keep an eye on the financial industry, it might’ve chosen Jay Clayton. Attorney Clayton has handled many deals for Goldman Sachs and is even married to one of its wealth managers. Goldman Sachs didn’t have to worry, because that’s exactly who Donald Trump, who declared during his campaign: “I’m not going to let Wall Street get away with murder. Wall Street has caused tremendous problems for us,” nominated.   read more

Friedman’s most radical position rejects the “two-state solution” that every U.S. administration has advocated since at least 1967. He has even said that Trump would support Israeli annexation of the West Bank—something most Israel supporters oppose because it would make Israel a Muslim-majority nation. To avoid the conclusion that his policies would destroy the Jewish character of Israel, Friedman claimed without any evidence that “nobody really knows how many Palestinians live there.”   read more

Among Collyer's controversial decisions was her 2011 ruling that limited the release of details of the George W. Bush administration’s memos regarding torture. She also supported the CIA's contention that for it to acknowledge interest in using drones for targeted killing would cause damage to U.S. national security. Her decision was unanimously reversed on appeal. In 2016, she rejected the Libertarian and Green parties' claim of legal right to participate in the U.S. presidential debates.   read more

As a Washington law firm partner in 1985, Lighthizer focused on trade litigation and policy advice, in particular promoting the interests of U.S. Steel and the steel industry in general. In 1985, he lobbied on behalf of Brazil’s Sugar and Alcohol Institute. A longtime protectionist, he criticized presidential candidate Sen. John McCain for what Lighthizer believed were trade-friendly policies. And, like Trump, Lighthizer has focused on China as a trade bogeyman.   read more

In 1996, Desai was recruited as a legal assistant to the U.S. arbitrators at the Iran-U.S. States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, a job that continued through 1998. Later that year he went on to practice law with the Seattle firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, focusing on litigation pertaining to copyright, trademark, newsgathering and the First Amendment. Then in 2001, he joined the University of Wisconsin Law School faculty as a professor of law. He has continued in that job to the present.   read more

“President Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional, unlawful, and fundamentally un-American...[and] undermines our states’ families, economies, and institutions," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. High-ranking U.S. security officials, including Madeleine Albright, Leon Panetta and John Kerry signed a declaration arguing the ban endangers U.S. citizens. “We view the order as one that ultimately undermines the national security of the United States...” the officials said.   read more

Born in Mexico, Velasquez served as director of the D.C. Office of Latino Affairs between 2003 and 2006. He then joined the Office of Human Rights, where he worked for nearly seven years, focusing on enforcing civil rights, including non-discrimination practices through the D.C. Human Rights Act. In 2013, Velasquez took over as executive director of the Latino Economic Development Center, a non-profit that helps Latinos find affordable housing and develop business skills.   read more