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."
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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.
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