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The fact that there are state election boards currently contemplating invalidating tens of thousands of votes is the only thing that keeps this off the top of every news outlet right now but the Attorney General potentially using his office to help his private book of business is not great.

Last night, Reuters broke the story that Attorney General Bill Barr, while working at Kirkland & Ellis, represented Caterpillar in a billion-dollar tax case that miraculously was dropped by the DOJ one week after Barr took over the Justice Department:

A week after Barr was nominated for the job of attorney general, Justice officials in Washington told the investigative team in the active criminal probe of Caterpillar to take no further action in the case, according to an email written by one of the agents and reviewed by Reuters.

The decision, the email said, came from the Justice Departments Tax Division and the office of the deputy attorney general, who was then Rod Rosenstein.

Ah, well, if Rod Rosenstein blessed it while fresh off telling his department to kidnap children then it must be legit! This is a quick reminder that no one should ever do business with these dirtbags forever looking your way, King & Spalding clients. The Justice Department makes mistakes but when the allegation is you stole 2.3 billion from the government the question is whether it should really be $1.8 billion, not maybe its zero.

Potential conflicts of interest, whether real or apparent, often arise when high-powered lawyers switch between private practice and government service. Bruce A. Green, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Fordham Law School, said it is not unheard of for attorney generals to have clients who had business before the DOJ. He noted that in 2009, President Barack Obamas attorney general, Eric Holder, recused himself from a case involving Swiss Bank UBS, a prior client.

But Green said he could not recall a case where agents were told to take no further action on a matter involving an incoming attorney generals former client without some kind of explanation. Why would you just stop? he asked.

Why the f**k indeed!

Caterpillar was routing profits through Switzerland where they had negotiated a massive tax break for themselves. Those facts dont seem to be in dispute. They just said their massive dodge scheme was legal. A grand jury had already heard these allegations and said, Yup, those guys look dirty. The DOJ sent agents to raid Caterpillars corporate offices, which and I cannot stress this enough as a former white-collar defense attorney myself is NOT NORMAL. Usually in cases against a blue chip company the government will just politely ask you to turn over documents. They raid your offices when they think youre laundering El Chapos money, not when they think youve under withheld.

Say what you will about the United States Department of Justice under the Trump administration but it does not pursue criminal matters against corporations lightly. This was a case that they clearly saw as a slam dunk and one that every level of the Justice Department was cool with pursuing from 2017, when the grand jury rendered its thoughts, until the week after Barr got the job.

And then it all stopped. When Caterpillars defense attorney became the Attorney General.

If the country ever gets a chance to come up from a rampaging pandemic, economic meltdown, and bungling coup attempts, hopefully this can get more attention.

Exclusive: U.S. investigators were told to take no further action on Caterpillar, ex-client of Barr [Reuters]

Joe Patriceis a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free toemail any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him onTwitterif youre interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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Bill Barr Did WHAT? How Is This Not The Biggest Story In The Country Right Now? - Above the Law

Former Attorney General Eric Holder cast doubt on President Trump's chances at victory on Election Day, saying the only way Trump could win reelection is if his party doesn't play fair.

"[Trump] is trying to come up with a way in which he's going to be able to say that the election was stolen from him, that there was cheating or something like that," Holder told SiriusXM radio host Joe Madison on Tuesday. "The reality is, if you look at all the empirical evidence, if you look at the polls, the only way that I think that Trump is going to win is if the Republicans are successful in cheating."

Holder, a vocal Trump critic, served as the nation's first black attorney general under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015 and coined himself the former president's "wingman."

Holder endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in March when Biden was competing against other Democratic contenders for the nomination.

In an interview with the Washington Post this spring, Holder said he believed Biden would continue the work the two embarked on during the Obama years, especially when it came to criminal justice reform.

Holder contemplated his own White House run in 2020 early last year.

In his Tuesday interview, the former top law enforcement officer criticized GOP-led efforts to request a federal court in Texas to discard almost 127,000 ballots that were cast by curbside voting.

On Monday, a federal judge rejected the last-minute bid by four Texas Republicans to throw out the ballots, which came from a Democratic-leaning country.

"They're prepared to do a whole bunch of things on a whole bunch of fronts," Holder said. "[Republicans] don't want to have an election that's truly fair. And that truly represents the desires of the people for change. That is what I hear as I have been all around the country."

National and state polls have largely shown Biden leading Trump through Tuesday. As polls opened on Election Day, over 100 million people had already cast an early ballot.

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Former Biden colleague Eric Holder claims 'only way' Trump can win is 'if the Republicans are successful in cheating' - Washington Examiner

By Jenna Greene

When it comes to celebrity supporters, Joe Biden dominates the A List. Think Taylor Swift.

Among lawyer nerds, the same thing could be said about Biden's stand-out legal team, with former White House counsel Bob Bauer, former deputy White House counsel Dana Remus and election law giant Marc Elias at the helm.

Also on board are former solicitors general Walter Dellinger III and Donald Verrilli Jr., plus former Attorney General Eric Holder.

The Trump campaign, by contrast, has tapped less prominent lawyers in filing election-related challenges, although we can't overlook William Consovoy and Jay Sekulow, who've risen to prominence during his presidency. Also on board is Mark Thor Hearne II, former President George WBushs national legal election counsel.

Also read:Could US election be decided in the courts?

But overall, the bigger legal names are in the Biden camp.

To be clear, Im not suggesting that any attorneys arent up to the task at hand or for that matter, that having lawyers who are household names is any guarantee of success.

David Boies, arguably the most famous lawyer in America, couldnt save presidential candidate Al Gore in the court battle with George W. Bush in the 2000 election. And Elias was general counsel to Hillary Clinton, for all the good it did her when she lost the presidential election to Trump in 2016.

Filing frenzy

For Trumps team, while its lawyers might not be famous, they are certainly busy.

In Georgia, for example, the Trump campaign and the Georgia Republican Party on November 4 sued to stop the counting of absentee ballots in Chatham County.

The suit was filed by lawyers from Robbins Ross Alloy Belinfante Littlefield as well as Taylor English Duma in Georgia. Neither is among the largest or best-known firms nationally.

However, former deputy White House counsel Stefan Passantino, now a partner at 242-lawyer Michael Best & Friedrich, adds additional muscle to the complaint.

On Thursday, Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass Jr. threw out the lawsuit, finding no evidence that local election officials failed to comply with the law.

Passantino and Vincent Russo of Robbins Ross did not respond to requests for comment.

Michigan litigation

In Michigan, Hearne, of four-lawyer True North Law, sued in Michigan to stop vote counting and demand greater access to the tabulation process.

Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens tossed the suit on Thursday.

Hearne in an interview said the campaign would make a decision whether to appeal once they see the judges written decision.

Also read:Trump faces tough road in getting Supreme Court to intervene

In the event of a recount, he said, the key issue to ensure transparency and oversight and observation for the various stakeholders will be crucial.

I couldn't agree more.

In Nevada, the campaign on Thursday said it planned to file a federal suit to stop vote counting, citing what it called voting irregularities. An earlier suit was filed in state court by lawyers from the small firms of Marquis Aurbach Coffing, the OMara Law Firm and Harvey & Binnall, seeking greater access for election observers.

Keeping track of the Trump campaign litigation is general counsel Matt Morgan, a former deputy assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to the vice president.

Included in that litigation are multiple lawsuits pending in Pennsylvania, led by perhaps the Trump campaign's biggest guns, Consovoy, of Consovoy McCarthy, and Sekulow. They've asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in a fight over counting absentee ballots that they say are "untimely and unlawful."

Biden response

Biden lawyers are pushing back. Bauer told reporters on Thursday that the legal challenges were a meritless distraction and part of a broader misinformation campaign that involves some political theater.

As for Elias, who did not respond to a request for comment, post-election litigation is familiar ground.

The Perkins Coie partner previously served as lead counsel for former Democratic Senator Al Franken in the 2008 US Senate election recount in Minnesota; for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring in a 2013 recount fight and for former Senator Harry Reid in connection with his 1998 recount.

Elias came under fire in 2016 for hiring Fusion GPS on behalf of the Clinton campaign to conduct research on Trumps ties to Russia. Fusion then hired former British spy Christopher Steele to dig up dirt.

As the Biden campaigns litigation point person, Elias has kept up a steady stream of Tweets sharing case updates in real time. Trump is losing in court, because his claims have no merit, Elias tweeted on Thursday.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, is fundraising on its website for its legal election defense fund. We need your help to ensure we have the resources to protect the results and keep fighting even after Election Day.

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Who are the Biden and Trump lawyers slugging it out? - Deccan Herald

POST ELECTION 2020-It aint over til its over, saidYogi Berra, but the widening lead for Joe Biden in recent polls suggests it might not be too early to start thinking about what to expect in the 78 days from November 3 to January 3.

It will not be pretty, but it will be better than the alternative if the polls are right.

Uncertainty

It is now a near certainty that Republicans will challenge election results even if the Democratic ticket wins in a landslide. Trump and Biden are both hiring lawyers and preparing for a lengthy legal battle, one that could put the 2000 election to shame. Expect challenges to millions of votes cast by mail. Also expect allegations of ballot-box stuffing, stolen ballots, and more. All this is likely to last at least a month and perhaps longer if Trump declines to concede defeat.

Unrest

Members of Proud Boys and Boogaloo may not vote themselves but will be out in force if Trump suffers a colossal loss. Riots and looting could be widespread, especially if Trump expresses support or encouragement for it. Protests against election results could get violent if they conflict with anticipated celebrations of Bidens win.

Celebration

Expect dancing in front of the White House unless Trump sends in federal troops to stop it. Similar celebrations, some spontaneous and others organized by progressive groups, are likely across the country. Among those celebrating will be Black Lives Matter supporters, womens rights, climate change supporters, and people just happy that the Trump era is over.

As noted above, a clash between celebrants and protestors could make the night of November 3 and the morning of November 4 a particularly troubling period.

Cabinet Appointees

Those looking for a clear indication of how far left the Biden administration might go will be watching cabinet nominations closely. Expect prominent announcements that will please Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for Secretaries for Interior, Treasury, Homeland Security, Attorney General, and the EPA.

Also, expect an exceptionally diverse cabinet. Women could be the majority. People of color will also be well-represented.

Open questions include whether Elizabeth Warren would like to serve as Treasury Secretary. Could Eric Holder return as AG? What job will Susan Rice get?Also, President Biden will choose a teacher to head the Department of Education.

A Quick Start

Rumors suggest the Biden transition team is already at work reviewing resumes for the thousands of Presidential appointees. Between now and election day, he will quietly step up the pace. Biden will send hundreds of nominees to the Senate days after Inauguration Day.

A Democratic Senate

The anticipated scope of Trumps defeat will give Democrats a majority in the Senate. Charles Schumer (D-NY) will become Majority Leader. Expect the Senate to hit the ground running. Major legislation, including another stimulus bill, some initial Green Deal bills, and similar legislation could be law by the end of February.

Disappearing Trump Voters

While Trumpism will, unfortunately, not be dead, it will be difficult in some circles to find anyone who will admit they voted for Trump. Small business owners who liked the Trump tax and deregulation initiatives will continue to approve his tax legislation and judge appointments but disavow other aspects of Trumps behavior.

The Republican party is already starting to realize the 2020 Trump campaigns damage to their party. A new generation of Republicans will step up to steer the party away from the worst, most controversial Trump policies. It is far from clear that they will be successful. Will those disgusted with Trumpism but not ready to move left establish a new centrist party?

The Risk of Predictions

Predictions have a way of haunting those who make them. Donald Trump surprised pollsters and pundits in 2016. While unlikely, it could happen again, the inherent evil of polls suggesting a Biden landslide is that they could encourage some of us, even in battleground states, to stay home. If that happens, it is time to weep for America.

(John Dean is a Washington policy wonk, writer, blogger, and lover of nature, music, and Goldendoodles. This piece appeared on Medium.com. Photo: joebiden.com.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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Sixty Days of Chaos Will Follow Election Day - City Watch

Virginia's state lawmakers won't be able to draw their own districts without some input from the public anymore.

Nearly two-thirds of Virginian voters approved Question 1, which establishes a bipartisan redistricting commission to redraw state and federal legislative districts after this year's census. Previously, the governor and the Virginia General Assembly handled the once-per-decade redistricting.

The new commission will include eight legislators and eight citizens, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Each new mapone for the state's congressional districts, one for the state Senate, and one for the state House of Delegatesrequires the approval of at least 12 commissioners, including six of the legislators and six of the citizens. The latter two types of districts also require a majority of the senators or delegates, respectively, to approve the proposed districts.

The change comes after a legal battle over the maps drawn in 2011, which federal courts ruled unconstitutional for packing black voters into specific congressional districts. The districts were redrawn by a special representative appointed by the courts.

Republicans proposed the redistricting commission after Democrats took control of the state government in 2018, but support for the initiative cuts across party lines. The Virginia Democratic Party and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus were opposed to the amendment, but some prominent Democrats, such as former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, endorsed the proposal. So did Sen. Tim Kaine (DVa.) and several voting rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters.

This is part of a broader trend toward redistricting reform across the country. The Cook Political Report reports that there are already 125 congressional districts whose borders are drawn in either a nonpartisan or a bipartisan fashion, through similar commissions.

Those commissions have a mixed record when it comes to solving the self-interested problems of gerrymandering. Still, including the public in the process makes it less likely that lawmakers are picking their voters instead of the other way around.

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Virginia Voters Approve Redistricting Reforms Reason.com - Reason