Harris campaign accepts money from partners of law firm she criticized over Epstein case

[Indygram]

Yikes...she should return those donations.

Partners from the law firm that represented financier Jeffrey Epstein a decade ago hosted a fundraiser for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) the same day that the 2020 presidential candidate criticized the firm over its role in negotiating Epstein’s 2008 plea deal.

The Chicago fundraiser was headlined by Harris’s husband, lawyer Douglas Emhoff, last week, according to The Associated Press, which obtained an invitation to the event. Six partners from the law firm Kirkland & Ellis hosted that event, the AP reported.

Kirkland & Ellis represented Epstein more than a decade ago when the financier faced charges in Florida. Lawyers with the firm helped negotiate a plea deal for Epstein in which he pleaded guilty to a single count of soliciting prostitution from girls as young as 14.

Epstein’s arrest and indictment last week on charges of sex trafficking has brought renewed attention to his 2008 plea deal.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/453156-harris-campaign-accepts-contributions-from-law-firm-she-criticized-over

[pnwmom]

1. She should return money from Democrats because they have business partners who are Republicans?

Beto O'Rourke has taken money from people who also supported Republicans in Texas. What's the difference?

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/15/beto-orourke-drew-donations-pro-gop-political-establishment/

“We shared a common goal,” said Ted Houghton, a local financial adviser and longtime O’Rourke donor who raised money for former Texas governor Rick Perry, a Republican, and helped steer millions in state transportation funding to the city. “The common goal was we needed to move El Paso in a different direction.”

O’Rourke, who emerged in 2018 as a national Democratic sensation in his narrow loss to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, launched his campaign for president Thursday promising a new era of unity as he campaigned through small towns in eastern Iowa. The Iowa caucuses in early February will kick off the 2020 primary season.

In contrast to the aspirational image he has fostered in recent years, however, O’Rourke’s political career traced a more traditional path for a Texas politician — winning support from a typically pro-GOP business establishment interested in swaying public policy. Born into one politically potent family and married into another, he benefited repeatedly from his relationships with El Paso’s most powerful residents, including several nationally known Republican moneymen.

[Celerity]

3. in 2018 Beto got over 40,000 USD from..... drum roll...Kirkland & Ellis

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287202842#post2

[Celerity]

2. are you going to go after Beto too?

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/recips.php?id=D000000811&chamber=H&party=D&cycle=2018&state=&sort=A

[Jane Austin]

5. Did Beto blast them like Kamala did?

Kamala Harris said the work of the law firm that represented Jeffrey Epstein “calls into question the integrity of our legal system.”

- WaPo

I think that's why people are questioning Sen. Harris about this.

It seems a bit hypocritical.

[Celerity]

6. Kirkland Ellis is a HUGE firm, those people are just 6 of over 2500 attorneys there, and are acting

as private individuals, and they had nothing to do with Epstein's case.

My list is of direct money the firm itself gave.

If I were a Democratic candidate for anything, I would not touch that firm with a ten foot pole. Individuals yes, the firm itself nope.

Look at the scum who has worked there:

Brett Kavanaugh - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Robert Bork - former Judge of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and former Solicitor General under President Richard Nixon

Ken Starr - Whitewater special prosecutor and former Solicitor General under President George H. W. Bush

William Barr - 85th United States Attorney General under President Donald Trump and former 77th United States Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush.

Pat Cipollone - incoming White House Counsel under President Donald Trump

Alex Azar - Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump

Alexander Acosta - Secretary of Labor under President Donald Trump

John R. Bolton - National Security Advisor under President Donald Trump

Jeffrey A. Rosen - Deputy Secretary of Transportation and nominee to be Deputy Attorney General under President Donald Trump

Nathan Sales - Coordinator for Counterterrorism under President Donald Trump

Viet D. Dinh - Chief Legal Officer at 21st Century Fox,[33] former Assistant Attorney General under President George W. Bush and chief architect of the USA PATRIOT Act

[pnwmom]

7. She didn't blast all 1,000 partners -- only the ones who are working in the DT administration.

From the article in the OP:

In the wake of those new charges, Harris called on senior Justice Department officials who previously worked for Kirkland & Ellis to recuse themselves from any matter related to Epstein’s case, saying that the law firm’s work representing the financier “calls into question the integrity of our legal system.”

Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen are alumni of Kirkland & Ellis.

But according to the AP, six partners from the Chicago-based firm held a fundraiser benefiting Harris the same day she made those remarks. Ian Sams, a spokesman for Harris’s campaign, dismissed concerns about the fundraiser on Monday, noting in a tweet that Kirkland & Ellis employs more than 2,500 attorneys and has more than 1,000 partners.

In a statement to the AP, Sams also noted that those involved in Epstein’s case in Florida years ago had not supported Harris’s presidential bid.

“The people involved in that case have not supported her campaign, and she wouldn’t want that support anyway,” he said.

[SidDithers]

11. No, she didn't...

You should get the quote, and the subject of the quote correct if you’re going to post it.

Cherry picking and posting misleading snippets is not appreciated at DU.

Sid

[demmiblue]

15. .

[StarfishSaver]

4. Do you have any idea how large Kirkland & Ellis is?

And you think that because the firm represented Epstein 10 years ago, not one of the hundreds of partners now with the firm should be able to donate to a presidential candidate?

[jberryhill]

8. What an amazingly stupid post for stupid people

This piece is obviously intended for people who are way too dumb to realize that K&E is a huge multi-state form with hundreds of lawyers who have nothing to do with one another.

So fucking what?

[bigtree]

9. took the bait, didn't cha?

...the law firm employs about 2500 with over 1000 partners.

This is the weak sauce that makes up the rabid opposition to Kamala. Sad to see Democrats adopting this dirt-dumb narrative.

[EffieBlack]

10. This reminds me of the attacks on Hillary for taking "Wall Street money"

which included donations from people who happened to work for businesses on Wall Street whether they were traders, secretaries, janitors, or the IT people - most of whom were also her constituents.

[mcar]

14. Lots of that going on when it comes to Harris

[SidDithers]

12. Keep trying...

Sid

[DesertRat]

17. Looks like it was a hit and run post

[Andy823]

18. Yep

Seems to be a lot of the going on these days!

[SouthernProgressive]

13. I hope she spends it well. NT

[Kaleva]

16. More detail of what Harris said

"“In light of your professional ties to the firm that previously represented Jeffrey Epstein . . . , I respectfully request that you recuse yourselves from any and all matters related to his case in order to ensure and maintain the integrity of the criminal proceedings,” wrote Harris.

Harris continued, “In our democracy, no one—no matter how powerful or well-connected—is above the law. Yet Epstein’s [2008] deal, secured by his lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis, calls into question the integrity of our legal system and undermines the public’s confidence that justice will be served. Now that Epstein faces new charges, the Department must do everything in its power to ensure that his prosecution is fair, just, and insulated from external pressures.”

In her letter, Senator Harris underscored that “both Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rosen practiced at Kirkland & Ellis, the firm responsible for negotiating Epstein’s 2007 plea deal. At the time he was nominated to lead the Justice Department, Attorney General Barr was Of Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis; a role he also held in 2009. Deputy Attorney General Rosen has a long history at the firm: he worked as a partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office from 1988 to 2003, and again from 2009 to 2017; earlier in his career, he worked as an associate from 1982 to 1988.”"

https://www.harris.senate.gov/news/press-releases/harris-demands-barr-rosen-recuse-from-epstein-case

The full letter is at the bottom of the link.