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Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, seen in 2014, has been hired by the California Legislature o advise members regarding potential conflicts with the incoming Trump administration.

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, seen in 2014, has been hired by the California Legislature o advise members regarding potential conflicts with the incoming Trump administration.

California Legislature hires Eric Holder to fend off Trump

SACRAMENTO California legislative leaders upped the ante on their vows to fight attempts by the incoming Trump administration to weaken the states climate change, immigration or other policies, announcing Wednesday that their houses hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help.

State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Len, D-Los Angeles, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County), said Holder and his team from the firm Covington & Burling will serve as outside legal counsel for the Legislature under a three-month, $75,000 contract.

Its very important to prepare California in the event there needs to be a legal fight to protect the policies that have made California the fifth-largest economy in the world, de Len said in an interview Wednesday.

The move comes after Gov. Jerry Brown nominated Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra to fill the attorney general seat vacated by Kamala Harris, who was sworn into the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. The Legislature is holding nomination hearings next week for Becerras appointment, which lawmakers are expected to approve.

Californias attorney general typically serves as the states top attorney, but Rendon and de Len said they began talking in November about bringing on additional legal help after Donald Trump was elected president. They said Holder and his firm ensure they have the best and brightest defense in order to resist any attempts to roll back the progress California has made.

The renowned firm has represented states and corporations in fights against the federal government.

The Assembly and state Senate will split the firms $25,000 monthly fee, which covers 40 attorney hours, to retain Holder and his team.

The three-month contract is scheduled to begin Feb. 1. Rendon said Holder and the firm will work directly with him and de Len.

The contract calls for Holder, former Los Angeles Rep. Howard Berman, former federal prosecutor Daniel Shallman and others at the firm to advise the Legislature on a wide range of topics where the state could clash with the Trump administration, including immigration, health care, civil rights and climate change policies.

The Legislature made the announcement on the first day of the new legislative session. Democrats have a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, meaning they have a two-thirds voting bloc that could be used to pass taxes or put initiatives on the ballot without a single Republican vote.

The move to hire Holder comes after de Len and Rendon used their swearing-in ceremonies last month to say they will fight Trump and his Cabinet picks on any effort to increase deportations of immigrants in the country without documentation.

I am honored that the legislature chose Covington to serve as its legal advisor as it considers how to respond to potential changes in federal law that could impact Californias residents and policy priorities, Holder said in a statement. I am confident that our expertise across a wide array of federal legal and regulatory issues will be a great resource to the legislature.

A spokesman at the firm declined to comment further.

Holder was a partner at Covington from 2001 to 2009 before becoming attorney general in the Obama administration. He resigned as attorney general in 2015 and returned to the firms Washington office.

State Republicans called the move a political stunt and questioned why outside counsel is needed given the attorney generals office serves as the states legal team and the Legislature has an office of its own legislative lawyers.

Democrats should focus on solving these real-world problems instead of wasting tax-payer money to score political points before the president-elect even takes office, said Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes, R-Yucca Valley (San Bernardino County), in a statement. The states incoming attorney general has spent decades in Washington working on federal policies. Its not clear why legislative Democrats needed to hire a D.C. insider to litigate the exact same issues.

What a waste, added state Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel (Orange County).

Rendon said the attorney general is tasked with providing legal advice to the state, not lawmakers, and that legislative counsel is a nonpartisan office that cant advise Democrats on strategy.

The rhetoric coming out of the future administration, the rhetoric throughout the campaign we dont think this is overreaction at all, Rendon told reporters Wednesday.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez

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Michelle Obama greets Gwen Ifill's family members at the journalist's funeral in Washington D.C. (Published Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016)

Thousands of mourners including first lady Michelle Obama remembered and celebrated veteran Washington journalist Gwen Ifill on Saturday, recalling her as a standard bearer, cherished friend, devoted mentor and woman of abiding faith.

Ifill died Monday at 61 after a yearlong battle with cancer. Mrs. Obama did not speak at the service, but several journalists and political figures offered reflections.

"We didn't look like other anchor pairs and we loved that," said Judy Woodruff, half of the history-making team that became the first female co-anchors of a major news broadcast in 2013. The two co-hosted PBS' "NewsHour." Woodruff added that Ifill is needed "more than ever."

"Never have we faced tougher challenges, and no one would've risen to them better," she said. Ifill, she added, will "be our compass."

Bloomberg via Getty Images

Former Attorney General Eric Holder read a letter from President Barack Obama, who was in Peru. Holder likened Ifill to "a comet" and challenged the colleagues she leaves behind to honor her legacy with their work by holding those in power accountable.

"Will you cower? Will you normalize that which is anything but?" Holder asked in a veiled reference to the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

The service, held at the historic Metropolitan A.M.E. Church where Ifill was a longtime member was also a grand display of her faith and roots as the daughter of Caribbean immigrants whose father was a leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her pastor of many years, Bishop James L. Davis, recalled Ifill as "brilliance cloaked in humility."

A former reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post, Ifill transitioned to television in the 1990s, covering politics and Congress for NBC News. She moved to PBS in 1999 as host of "Washington Week" and also worked for "NewsHour." She moderated vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008.

John Dickerson, host of CBS' "Face the Nation" who joined Ifill as a regular panelist on "Washington Week," said Ifill "wore her grace like a garment," but added her infectious laugh came with a withering scowl.

"I'm not going to say it in church, but there's a very specific word for what Gwen could detect," Dickerson said.

The pews were filled with journalists, politicians, her mentees, family and friends, including civil rights attorney Vernon Jordan, interim Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, veteran journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, New York Times columnist David Brooks, former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, Donald Trump surrogate Omarosa Manigault, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Sherrilynn Ifill, the journalist's younger cousin.

"She was the shining star in our family," Sherrilynn Ifill said of Gwen. "She was the most American of success stories. Her life and her work made this country better. She did the hard work for us for so long ... It's time to take her example and do what she did."

Ifill took a leave from "NewsHour" last spring for health reasons, but kept the details of her illness private.

Published at 10:25 AM PST on Nov 19, 2016 | Updated at 2:40 PM PST on Nov 19, 2016

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Former Attorney General Eric Holder is blasting his former colleague FBI Director James Comey for violating long-standing Justice Department policies by writing a letter to Congress last week about finding potentially new emails related to the Hillary Clinton email server investigation.

In an editorial published late Sunday in The Washington Post, Holder said he is deeply concerned with Comeys decision.

That decision was incorrect. It violated long-standing Justice Department policies and tradition. And it ran counter to guidance that I put in place four years ago laying out the proper way to conduct investigations during an election season, Holder wrote.

Holder, who served as President Obamas attorney general from 2009 until April 2015, explained that the policy has remained in effect and applies to the entire Justice Department including the FBI. The department also has a practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, he wrote, as well as not taking unnecessary action close in time to Election Day that might influence an elections outcome.

Director Comey broke with these fundamental principles. I fear he has unintentionally and negatively affected public trust in both the Justice Department and the FBI, Holder wrote, adding that it has allowed for misinformation to be spread by partisans.

Holder also criticized Comey for publicly announcing in July his recommendation to the Justice Department that it not bring charges against Clinton for her use of email servers as secretary of state. Comey has led the FBI since 2013.

That was a stunning breach of protocol. It may set a dangerous precedent for future investigations. It was wrong, Holder wrote.

Holder was among dozens of former federal prosecutors who signed a letter over the weekend critical of Comeys decision, according to the Associated Press.

No one knows yet, including Comey, what the emails contain, if they were directly related to Clinton or if there was any wrongdoing involved. Investigators obtained a search warrant Sunday to look through thousands of emails on a laptop used by Anthony Weiner, which also contained emails from his estranged wife Huma Abedin, a top aide to Clinton.

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Many who study crime believe that those who become criminals were exposed to violent or lawless behavior in childhood, not to mention thelong-term psychological or physical damage such trauma can cause to all children. In 2015, the Justice Departments Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention published a survey which found that about 58 percent of all children in America had either witnessed or been a victim of crime in the previous year, to include not only violent acts but property crimes, sibling abuse and bullying. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder launched a program in 2010 called Defending Childhood, and last week Holder announced the launch of Changing Minds, to help adults heal children exposed to trauma. The former attorney general explains further in this Guest Post:

By Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Imagine that in a given year, more than half of American adults lets say three in every five experience violence, either as victims or as witnesses. What would be your reaction? My guess is that it would fall somewhere on a scale between skepticism (that violence could be so prevalent) and outrage. It would motivate us to action. We would pass laws. We would commission research to determine causes. We would take steps to make our homes and communities safer. In short, we would I hope do something.

So how would you respond if you learned that it isnt adults who are exposed to violence at these rates, but children? The most recent National Survey of Childrens Exposure to Violence found that, in fact, 58 percent of children in this country have encountered some form of violence, abuse or trauma during the previous year, either directly as victims or indirectly as witnesses. Almost half report suffering more than one type of direct or witnessed victimization. Almost one in six report six or more experiences with violence. And one in 20 have encountered violence 10 or more times. Nearly one in 12 children have seen one family member assault another.

These statistics are deeply troubling and should be unacceptable in a country so rich in opportunity and generous with its blessings as the United States of America. Sadly, exposure to violence is a reality for far too many of our kids, and it affects them physically, emotionally and psychologically. It causes both immediate distress and long-term neurological harm. Exposure to violence reshapes the brain and can cause damage that lasts far into the future.

Thankfully, beyond this dark reality is a brighter prospect. Children are remarkably resilient. The malleability of their brains gives them an advantage in recovery, and they are capable of bouncing back from even the most traumatic experiences as long as they receive proper care and support. And every one of us can play a role in helping them heal. A new national public awareness campaign launched last weekwill show us how.

The campaign is called Changing Minds, and it is designed to raise awareness, teach skills and inspire public action to address childrens exposure to violence and trauma. Changing Minds is part of the Defending Childhood Initiative, an effort I helped establish during my tenure as Attorney General. Its goal is to broaden the base of knowledge around children and violence and invest in community-based strategies aimed at mitigating its impact.

Changing Minds features digital and print content intended to reach adults who interact with children and youth in grades K12. It will engage teachers, coaches, counselors, doctors, nurses, law enforcement officers and other frontline professionals and caregivers, guiding them on steps they can take to help kids recover from trauma and go on to lead happy, healthy lives.

The campaign is a collaboration between the United States Department of Justice, the national health and social justice non-profit Futures Without Violence, the Ad Council and the advertising agency Wunderman. The campaigns website, ChangingMindsNOW.org, includes two original videos that share stories of adults who were exposed to violence as children. It also includes an informational video that illustrates the impact of violence on childrens brain development and a toolkit for schools, communities and other practitioners. Finally, it describes five everyday gestures that adults can use to make a difference.

Violence is far too prominent in our childrens lives, but it does not have to define their futures. We can curb the effects of trauma and restore our young people to wholeness and health, giving them the chance they deserve to pursue their dreams. The responsibility is ours to share.

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Every one of us can play a role. Eric Holder campaigns to ...

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called Donald Trump dangerous and unqualified to be president after the Republican nomineethreatened to use an arm of the federal government to punish his opponents during Sundays presidential debate against Hillary Clinton.

If I win, Im going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because theres never been so many lies, so much deception, Trump said of Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

The threat didnt sit well with Holder, who once held the office Trump seeks to abuse.

Holder pointed out that even the famously vindictive President Richard Nixon was thwarted in his efforts to leverage the federal government to fight personal battles. And even when such strong-arm tactics do prevail, the author and Republican political strategist Stuart Stevens noted on Twitter, things tend to unravel in the long run:

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Eric Holder Slams Donald Trump's Chilling Debate Threat To ...