Gorelick to Head BP Legal Team

Main Justice ^ | June 2, 2010 | Ryan J. Reilly

[jazusamo]

Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick will head the legal team for British Petroleum as it prepares to respond to legal challenges related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Greenwire reported Wednesday.

Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

“We have been retained to help the company respond to the numerous congressional inquiries that are underway,” Gorelick, now of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, said in an e-mail to Greenwire. “We have not been retained to advocate for any position.”

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday that the Justice Department had opened a criminal probe into who was responsible for the oil spill, but declined to name the target. Investigators are considering both civil actions and criminal charges, Holder said.

Gorelick served as Deputy Attorney General under then-Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton administration. Gorelick also sat on the bipartisan Sept. 11 Commission.

BP has worked with Gorelick before; she was a lobbyist in 2007 when she helped BP respond to an inquiry from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to Greenwire.

Kenneth Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told Greenwire that Gorelick’s knowledge of the Justice Department will help BP steer “the ins and outs of the process. You want an inside player for that.”

The company that owned and leased the Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, Transocean Ltd., has recruited Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, while Halliburton Co. — which worked on the rig — has hired Patton Boggs LLP, Greenwire reported.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Wow, you really couldn’t ask for a better choice there, Hussein. You’re a genius.

[Califelephant]

From Maureen Dowd’s NYT column yesterday:

...Dick Cheney’s dark influence is still belching like the well. BP just brought on a new public relations executive: Anne Womack-Kolton, who served as Cheney’s campaign press secretary in 2004 and worked in W.’s White House and at the Energy Department...

So, in order to be fair and balanced, Maureen will slip a snarky reference into her next column about Gorelick, right? /s

[Pearls Before Swine]

BP is doomed.

My reaction as well. Gorelick is exceptionally well connected, but possessed of colossally poor judgment and a closed liberal mindset. Remember the Gorelick wall that made 9/11 possible?

The latter characteristic makes me a bit surprised to hear BP hired her. But then, they're not from around here, are they?

[jazusamo]

Wouldn’t be surprising if she was picked to negotiate something along those lines, stranger things have happened. Also I’ve read that BP was a large donor of Obama.

[C19fan]

Gorelick is teflon in DC. She made a ton on money from Fannie Mae. Despite being directly associated the “wall” she was a member of the 9-11 commission. Outside the Beltway we are scratching our heads but she does have a direct line to her buddy Holder.

[Doogle]

the mistress of disaster.

[cripplecreek]

Gorelick has quite a pedigree for someone so clearly inept.

OKC investigative board member

Chairman of Fannie Mae

9/11 commission

lawyer for Duke university defense team

Gorelick is currently a lobbyist for the lending industry fighting student loan reform

[rockvillem]

You have GOT to be #%!king kidding me!

This times a million. Created the "wall" that helped facilitate 9/11 and then went on to be Vice Chairman of Fannie Freaking Mae. She's a natural disaster in her own right.

[Rational Thought]

Gorelick heading the BP legal team and the Carville attack on Obama could make one wonder who's side the Clinton's will be taking?

[Doogle]

....need any more proof BP and Spock are in bed together?

[SteelTrap]

Easy one - they are all on the same side. Against America.

[onyx]

Almost speechless.

[Pearls Before Swine]

...she does have a direct line to her buddy Holder.

Good poing That's probably the deciding factor.

[bicyclerepair]

If only I was a cartoonist.....

Imagine the convicted, working, toiling, to fix his accident, while the hangman awaits at the gallows off in the distance.

[hope]

Priceless, huh? She is the smoke and mirros expert.

[Matchett-PI]

“We have not been retained to advocate for any position.”

All positions are the same - CYAs for all - since they're all involved in the same scam:

Here and Here

[cripplecreek]

Hard to say, she appears to be an equal opportunity marxist scumbag. Even Wiki beats up on her.

“Even though she had no previous training nor experience in finance, Gorelick was appointed Vice Chairman of Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) from 1997 to 2003. She served alongside former Clinton Administration official Franklin Raines.[3] During that period, Fannie Mae developed a $10 billion accounting scandal.[4]

On March 25, 2002, Business Week interviewed Gorelick about the health of Fannie Mae. Gorelick is quoted as saying, “We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody’s gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength — without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions.”[5] One year later, Government Regulators “accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses”.[6]

In an additional scandal concerning falsified financial transactions that helped the company meet earnings targets for 1998, a “manipulation” that triggered multimillion-dollar bonuses for top executives,[7] Gorelick received $779,625.

Investigation by the OFHEO detailed in their official report on the accounting scandal in 2006 on page 66 that from 1998 to 2002 Gorelick received a total of $26,466,834.00 in income.”

[bwc2221]

My guess is that BP figures she has the right connections in a Democratic administration.

[DainBramage]

Gorelick works for Clinton...not Obama or BP. She will work to make Hillary look good and nothing more.

[small voice in the wilderness]

Explain this to me. Gorelick=Clinton administration=Rahm Emanuel and Eric Holer=Obama=Gorelick=BP??