- Giuliani files to appear for Trump campaign in suit
President-elect Joe Biden has announced a raft of top White House staff positions, drawing from the senior ranks of his campaign and some of his closest confidants to fill out an increasingly diverse White House leadership team.
Biden confirmed that former campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon will serve as a deputy chief of staff, while campaign co-chair Louisiana Representative Cedric Richmond and campaign adviser Steve Ricchetti will play senior roles in the new administration. Richmond will leave his Louisiana congressional seat to fill the White House job.
The President-elect also announced that Mike Donilon, a long-time confidant, will serve as a senior adviser; Dana Remus, the campaign’s current general counsel, will be counsellor to the president; Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who was one of Biden’s deputy campaign managers, will serve as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; and Annie Tomasini, who is currently Biden’s travelling chief of staff, will serve as the director of Oval Office operations.
Anthony Bernal will serve as a senior adviser to Jill Biden, after he was her chief of staff on the campaign, and Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, a former Obama Ambassador to Uruguay, as her chief of staff.
The new hires represent an initial wave of what will ultimately be hundreds of new White House aides hired in the coming weeks as Biden builds out an administration to execute his governing vision. The Democrat will be inaugurated January 20.
Late last week, Biden tapped former senior campaign adviser Ron Klain to serve as his chief of staff.
The latest round reflects Biden’s stated commitment to diversity in his staff – the team includes four people of colour and five women.
“America faces great challenges, and they bring diverse perspectives and a shared commitment to tackling these challenges and emerging on the other side a stronger, more united nation,” Biden said in a statement.
Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer picked by President Donald Trump to lead his post-election legal battles, sought court permission to appear for the Trump campaign in its lawsuit to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania.
Giuliani filed an application to join the case hours before a hearing is set to start before U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The request comes a day after campaign lawyer Linda Kerns withdrew from the litigation, and days after the law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP walked away from the case.
Brann, an appointee of President Barack Obama, will hear arguments on Pennsylvania’s motion to dismiss the suit, which seeks to block the state from certifying the election result unless thousands of mail-in ballots from Democratic-leaning counties are tossed out. The campaign claims the counties improperly allowed voters to fix errors on the ballots before Nov. 3.
