The California State Assembly will not renew it’s $25,000 per month contract with former US Attorney General Eric Holder—according to a statement by Assembly Speaker, Anthony Rendon.
According to multiple news reports, Rendon released the following brief statement: “We have received valuable guidance from Covington & Burling over the past four months. We will continue to seek their guidance as the need arises.”
Announced in January jointly by Rendon and DeLeon with much fanfare about developing legal strategies to oppose President Trump’s agenda, the legislature agreed to retain Covington and Burling, the law firm of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The State Senate and State Assembly were splitting the cost of the former AG’s hefty fee, but that arrangement ended Thursday when the Assembly Speaker made his announcement.
$100,000 of taxpayer money has already been spent retaining Holder for the express purpose of fending off the policies of the Trump administration—this at a time when the legislature is raising gasoline taxes just to fix California’s neglected roads to say nothing of the crumbling infrastructure.
State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon—who admitted half his family is illegally present in the country—plans on keeping Holder on retainer. According to a Sacramento Bee report, Dan Reeves, De Leon’s chief of staff responded:
“Covington’s advice and guidance has been very valuable to the Senate in responding to the Trump’s administration’s sustained attack on California’s policies and values,” Reeves said. “We currently have a number of ongoing projects with Covington and plan to continue that valuable relationship.”
Reeves went on to say that the contract is being renegotiated—both the cost and the duration.
Emboldened by recent victories in California—including emergency federal funding to shore up the Oroville Dam and preliminary funding for Silicon Valley’s CalTrain electrification retrofit—perhaps Assembly Democrats are confident they can weather the anti-Trump “summer of resistance” without high-paid legal help.
Only time will tell.
Tim Donnelly is a former California State Assemblyman and author who is doing a book tour for his new book: Patriot Not Politician: Win or Go Homeless. He ran for governor in 2014.
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.donnelly.12/
Twitter: @PatriotNotPol
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