Lawyer Jamie Gorelick has dedicated her life to women's rights activism. She represents the nonprofit Tahirih Justice Center, which serves immigrant women fleeing violence, for free. She helped vet Hillary Clinton's potential Cabinet members during the campaign. And now? Gorelick represents Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, helping guide the couple through the ethical minefield that comes in serving in the Trump administration, The Washington Post reports.
"Representing Jared and Ivanka is a case of pushing the ethical envelope, helping a wealthy family on the brink of using the presidency to further enrich themselves," criticized David Halperin, a speechwriter in the Clinton White House. "Gorelick is a Clinton supporter embracing the family that wanted to put Hillary Clinton in jail. People in Washington are all too willing to forgive that."
In lawyer circles, Gorelick's decision does not raise too many eyebrows, though: "It wouldn't occur to anyone to criticize someone who goes to work on behalf of indigent clients," explained Gorelick's friend, Judith Lichtman, the former president of the National Partnership for Women and Families. "Jamie is holding her principles near and dear, because she is always honest and ethical and she devotes herself not only to her paying clients, but to people who are unserved by the legal profession."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Gorelick has even worked simultaneously to legally challenge Trump's efforts to erase "sanctuary cities," keeping her work transparent to Ivanka and Jared. But not everyone is understanding: "In a quintessentially D.C. move, some longtime friends of Gorelick contacted for this article offered complimentary comments about her on the record, and then, after asking if they could make other remarks without attribution, bashed their colleague to smithereens," the Post writes.
Gorelick says her friends' criticism "has been hurtful."
"I'm not an advocate for the Trump administration," she said. "I take hard cases." Read more about Gorelick at The Washington Post.
-
Leonard and Hungry Paul: ‘beautiful, heartfelt’ televisionThe Week Recommends Julia Roberts narrates this ‘charming’ and ‘unexpectedly profound’ adaptation of Rónán Hession’s novel
-
Inside The Peninsula, London’s first billion-pound hotelThe Week Recommends As the capital’s super-luxury hotel scene continues to expand, the respected brand is still setting the standard
-
AI is making houses more expensiveUnder the radar Homebuying is also made trickier by AI-generated internet listings
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
