Former federal prosecutor Michael Bromwich says he quit his job at a prestigious Washington D. C. law firm to join the legal team of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
A professor at Palo Alto University and Stanford University researcher, Blasey Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of trying to rape her while the two were high school students in the early 1980s.
Blasey Ford has agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. On Sunday night another woman came forward to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Deborah Ramirez, who attended Yale University with Kavanaugh, told The New Yorker he exposed himself to her. Late Sunday night, Sen. Dianne Feinstein was calling for the Thursday hearing to be canceled in light of the latest allegation against the Trump nominee for the high court.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
Litigator Bromwich, 64, announced Saturday that he was joining Blasey Ford lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks.
Here’s what you need to know about Bromwich.
1. Bromwich Claimed Law Firm Partners Were Opposed to Him Working For Kavanaugh’s Accuser. Bromwich Resigned
According to the National Law Review, Bromwich quit his post as D.C., firm Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber’s senior counsel, the National Law Review reported, because he’d likely “appear publicly on Dr. Ford’s behalf” and since “objections have been raised within the partnership to my doing so while employed by the firm,” he gave his notice “effective immediately.”
It was reported the firm issued a statement saying Bromwich resigned as part of a “mutual agreement ‘to ensure that his efforts would not be colored by or in conflict with’ the firm’s work before the high court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.”
Bromwich has his own firm, The Bromwich Group, which offers independent monitoring, crisis management, strategic advisory, public affairs, and law enforcement consulting services.
Bromwich has been the compliance monitor of major public companies and public agencies. His skill is diagnosing internal issues, be it inside a police department or a major corporation, and coming up with fixes.
2. As Inspector General in the ‘90s, Bromwich Was Responsible For Uncovering Corruption & Misconduct at DOJ. He Represents Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
While he was DOJ Inspector General from 1994 to 1999 under Pres. Bill Clinton, Bromwich’s job was to oversee and conduct criminal and administrative investigations of alleged DOJ and FBI misconduct . He’s known for digging up the dirt on FBI lab misconduct, defective procedures and incompetence and. Among other investigations, the examination of the DOJ role in the CIA crack cocaine controversy.
Bromwich is the lawyer for former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, fired in March by Attorney General Jeff Sessions who alleged McCabe violated DOJ policy by talking to the media.
Bromwich noted that the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General’s report that served as the basis for McCabe’s firing came “26 hours before he was scheduled to retire with a full law enforcement officer pension and health insurance. The rush to judgment – and the rush to terminate Mr. McCabe – were unprecedented, unseemly, and cruel. His treatment was far more harsh and far less fair than he deserved, and his reward for the loyalty he showed to his country over the course of his career was a truncated form of administrative due process, including the lack of any right to appeal …”
McCabe, who was with the FBI for 21 years, was named acting director after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017.
“Instead of conveying the thanks of a grateful nation, the President and the White House chose to subject Mr. McCabe to repeated ad hominem attacks, before and after his termination,” Bromwich wrote in a statement. “In the full context of this case, the termination of Mr. McCabe was completely unjustified. And the rush to fire him, at the goading of the President, was unworthy of the great traditions of the Department of Justice.”
3. Bromwich Was Part of Independent Counsel Investigation of Iran-Contra & Prosecuted Oliver North
Lt. Col. Oliver North, former aide to former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, is sworn in 07 July 1987 before the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on arms sales to Iran and diversion of profits to Nicaraguan Contra rebels. North testified under limited immunity. The “Irangate” saga erupted 30 November 1986 into a new crisis for the Reagan administration with the resignation of Poindexter and the dismissal of North, a member of the National Security Council Staff. “Ollie” North, a much-decorated Marine officer, known to White House cynics as the President’s “Swashbuckler in Chief”, was linked to the transfer of some $ 30 million profit from the Iran weapons sales to Contra rebels fighting the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
As federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and as Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel for Iran-Contra, he was one of three government lawyers, special prosecutors, in U.S. v. Oliver L. North. He also supervised the team of prosecutors and agents that “investigated allegations of criminal misconduct against government officials and private citizens in connection with provision of aid to the Contras in Nicaragua and serving as overall coordinator of the Iran-Contra grand jury.”
Recently, when remarking that the Paul Manafort jury was not sequestered, Bromwich mentioned North on Twitter.
“During the much longer 1989 Oliver North trial (2+ months), the jury was sequestered throughout…” he recalled.
4. Bromwich Frequently Calls Out Trump’s ‘Assault’ on the First Amendment & Describes Some Administration Policy & Actions as ‘Shameful’ & ‘Disgraceful’ & ‘Unpatriotic’
Even as the 1st Amendment is under relentless assault, truth survives. This is actual patriotism, not fake patriotism.
“Even as the 1st Amendment is under relentless assault, truth survives. This is actual patriotism, not fake patriotism,” Bromwich tweeted.
Bromwich is a frequent critic of Trump’s charge that the press is the “enemy of the people.”
Responding to a tweet from Washington Post White House Bureau Chief Philip Rucker who said, “As Trump retaliates against political critics by revoking or reviewing their security clearances, it is worth remembering that the president himself revealed highly classified information to Russians in an Oval Office meeting,” Bromwich replied:
“This has zero to do with national security. This is an Official Enemies List. The offense: exercising 1st Amendment rights.”
This would have been the teachable moment for AG Sessions to tell his high school student audience that its “lock her up” chant was inappropriate. Instead, he repeated “lock her up” and giggled. The nation’s chief law enforcement officer. Shameful.
Bromwich also suggested AG Sessions had missed a “teachable moment” recently when he echoed the “lock her up” chant often hard at Trump rallies, referring to Hillary Clinton.
Bromwich said Sessions could have told “his high school student audience that its “lock her up” chant was inappropriate. Instead, he repeated ‘lock her up’ and giggled. The nation’s chief law enforcement officer. Shameful.”
Bromwich has a time or two referred to administration action or policy as “disgraceful.”
5. Justice Was Not His Only Government Gig. In 2010, Pres. Obama Tapped Bromwich to Oversee Federal Oversight on Offshore Oil Drilling
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (R) testifies as Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement listens during an Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on Minerals Management Service reorganization June 23, 2010 in Washington, DC. The hearing was in regards to reforms to the oversight of offshore oil and gas drilling.
Bromwich was named the first director of the then-newly created Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which replaced the Minerals Management Service.
His job was to lead “efforts to accelerate reforms in the regulation and oversight” to restore “integrity and rigor to the relationship between federal regulatory officials and oil companies.” His mandate was to “implement far-reaching change and will have the resources to accomplish that change.”
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 23: US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (R) and Michael R. Bromwich( C), Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, speak with Sen Diane Feinstein, D-CA (L), before testifying before the Senate Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee on June 23, 2010 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee is holding a hearing on Minerals Management Service reorganization. (Photo by Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)
By 2011, Dr. Walter D. Cruickshank was at the helm of the agency. It’s not clear what led to leadership changes. Cruickshank remains acting director of BOEM.