Norm Eisen CREW
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see crew doge coup courts
see democ defenders fund
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TARGET?
Laura Ingraham claims there is a leftist “plan” to “overthrow” the government. What in the world is she talking about?
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 10/22/26
Republicans are panicking and right-wing media are desperately churning out “fear porn” as polls continue to point to a devastating midterm environment for their party with less than two weeks remaining before election day. From presidential rallies to Fox News primetime, MAGA stalwarts are trying to bolster their party’s turnout by warning Republican voters that if they do not go to the polls, their freedom and very lives may be at stake.
That increasingly deranged environment is generating a level of demagoguery that at times becomes simply absurd.
Fox host Laura Ingraham, for example, announced on her show Wednesday that if Democrats win control of the U.S. House and Senate, a leftist cabal of activists, journalists, “top former staffers” in the Obama and Biden administrations, and even Democratic governors will carry out a plot to force President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act as a mechanism to “dissolve” the U.S. Constitution and “crush their enemies.”
The argument that the left is planning to destroy the federal government if and only if Democrats triumph in the midterms makes a lot of sense as an attempt to scare Republicans to the polls but none at all as a plot in its own right.
Questions abound: Why in the world is this plan only enacted after Democrats achieve actual congressional power for the first time in Trump's second term? If there is clear evidence of a sweeping plot including “top” Obama and Biden officials, why is the best example Ingraham can point to former Obama White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen talking about protecting the Constitution with legal action? Why does the plan revolve around getting Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act — an outcome MAGA pundits like Ingraham herself have been lobbying for and Democrats have publicly opposed?
Lastly, why does Ingraham think this grand conspiracy is underway? We don’t really know — she cited no direct evidence for what on-screen Fox graphics described as “The Left’s Plan To Overthrow The U.S. Gov’t.”
But Ingraham’s claims align with a conspiracy theory that Jennica Pounds, a right-wing influencer who goes by the pseudonym DataRepublican and briefly worked for the Defense Department this year, floated over the weekend based on videos of activist meetings she obtained. Pounds’ claim of a leftist “operational plan” seems to be much less than advertised — but has nonetheless been trumpeted this week by prominent MAGA figures like Glenn Beck, Vince Coglianese, Jesse Kelly, and podcaster-turned-deputy-FBI-director-turned-podcaster Dan Bongino.
...
Ingraham went on to claim that “this scenario is being openly discussed among top former staffers of Obama and Biden, former government employees of agencies like USAID, and of course community organizers” — but provided no examples of anyone actually discussing such a scheme.
Instead, Ingraham claimed that the plot’s adherents say they’re “reforming the government” rather than “overthrowing it,” adding, “former USAID staffer Danielle Reiff makes it sound like utopia.” Ingraham then played a brief clip of Reiff appearing on a December edition of Dr. Paul Zeitz’s Revolutionary Optimism Podcast and saying: “You have to reform your institutions so that it, you know, that becomes the foundational framework for society. And so, we're going to have to, if we want to live in peace and deeper democracy, reform our legal frameworks to foster collaboration across divides and unity and diversity.”
The Fox host later described Eisen as “one of the godfathers of this effort” because he “advances the fraudulent claims that democracy is in crisis.” But she provided no evidence actually linking him to the supposed “plan,” instead airing a clip in which Eisen is asked if he thinks of his work as part of a “war” and replies, “Yes — peaceful, lawful, vigorous battle, you do have to think of it in those terms to stop what Donald Trump began after the 2020 election and has continued a coup against the Constitution.”
Ingraham concluded her monologue by suggesting that “the real tyrant” is not Trump but “Democrats like Slotkin, who want to remake the government to crush their enemies.”
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AN 7 26
Olympian David Hearn will appear in court on Thursday morning alongside one of President Donald Trump's biggest legal foes: Norm Eisen.
One of the co-founders of CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), Trump has raged about Eisen for years as he loses case after case against the former ethics czar. Trump once referred to Eisen as a “major sleazebag” and “the Lawfare King and Color Revolution Expert” in Truth Social posts. At one point, Trump even blasted CREW, complaining, “Everything I read is Norm Eisen.” According to Trump, “You don’t get much lower than him.”
Eisen responded by saying that it's clear Trump is obsessed with him.
Eisen has taken up a high-profile case in which the administration is accused of trying to make Hearn the "scapegoat" for their own failures around the Reflecting Pool.
This is the "latest scandal of scapegoating and blame shifting and the administration's own failures on the Reflecting Pool," Eisen said in a video chat with former prosecutor Joyce Vance. "They've charged, with a felony, our client with The Washington Litigation Group, my wonderful co-counsel Mary Dorman, Davy Hearn, the Olympic canoeist."
He asked Vance how, as a former prosecutor and former U.S. attorney, she would have handled something like this. She explained that in cases like this, she looks through the lens of someone who not only ran a U.S. attorney's office but also spent a decade prosecuting criminal cases.
In "a properly functioning DOJ," she said, something like this would have been investigated by the National Parks Service before being handed to the Justice Department. In her experience, the NPS typically handles things like smoking cannabis on federal lands, a relatively low-level felony. NPS doesn't "do big criminal cases," she said.
"Your job as a prosecutor is to consider whether that case is significant enough to merit becoming a federal felony," Vance continued. "This case doesn't pass the smell test on that ground, but it also has another major flaw, which is evidence."
Secretary of the Interior
where he was asked directly about the Reflecting Pool and asserted, "It didn't peel off. It was — it was — there was vandalism. There was box cutters. There have been seven arrests." At no point did police find a box cutter on Hearn, who was cycling down to the mall in his bicycle shorts and jersey.
A video from Emily Miller of the arrest shows Hearn talking about the pool scandal being "funny," and later he relayed that he accidently hit the hose from the giant cleaner.
Hearn has said publicly, “I did not remove, I did not damage, I did not rip, tear, break, destroy or harm any part of the Reflecting Pool."
According to him, he dipped his hand into the pool to feel the coating on the bottom, which was supposed to be "American Flag blue."
Vance explained that, unlike in many other cases, there was no grand jury that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro went to for an indictment. They merely filed the case in superior court, which has "less rigorous standards." Pirro has failed to indict several people by going to grand juries in D.C.
In her press conference, Pirro alleged an NPS employee witnessed Hearn willfully and "violently" ripping up about two square feet of the pool's newly installed liner using his bare hands. She asserted to reporters questioning her about evidence, “He damaged the pool! He damaged this pool!”
Pirro's charging document also doesn't say anything about "violently" doing anything. It claims Hearn “ripped a piece of the recently installed blue pool sealant” or “pulled up and removed the bottom liner with both hands."
Miller's video shows Hearn took off one of his padded cycling gloves to put his hand in. He pulled his hand out of the pool and put the glove back on in the video.
"The U.S attorney should have stepped in and said, folks we have a lot bigger fish to fry," Vance said. "But even if this case was an important one, it doesn't have the evidence. I mean, Norm, that's my issue with this case. I just don't see how the government proves its case. I suspect that they'll do everything that they can to keep it from going to trial they've made their splash indicting the case now they're going to try to stay as far away from a courtroom as they can."
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AN 2 26
Former ethics czar and Democracy Defenders Fund founder Norm Eisen is after President Donald Trump in court with a new lawsuit to block a pay-to-play scheme.
On Bluesky, Eisen wrote that his group is suing Trump over the so-called "gold card" visa that allows anyone to fast-track citizenship for $1 million.
"This is about the rule of law — the president can't auction U.S. visas to the highest bidder," Eisen complained on the social media site.
The longtime Trump foe spoke to *The New York Times*_{ }_about the program's illegality: it bypasses key congressional requirements and prioritizes the wealthy over those with high abilities or intellect.
“Rather than reserving those visas for the world’s best and brightest, the Gold Card program converts those visas into revenue-generating commodities sold to the highest bidder,” the lawsuit claims.
One of those who has taken advantage of the program is Nicki Minaj, a native of the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, who wants U.S. citizenship. While she's a permanent resident, she came to the U.S. illegally as a child, she said on Instagram in 2018.
“If you look at the statute, you can tell Congress made some pretty deliberate decisions about how they wanted to structure the availability of these visas,” Sarah Wilson, one of the lawyers who brought the lawsuit with Eisen.
The statute puts merit-based visas into either the EB-1 or EB-2 categories.
“None of those categories include ‘give us a million dollars,’” Wilson added.
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maddow? 1 13 26 just lost 4 ct cases? norm eisen says 2/3rd
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AN 9 25
Disney's abrupt announcement that it was reversing its suspension of late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel's show came in response to Americans doing just a handful of specific things, according to attorney Norm Eisen.
In a Monday appearance on former CNN host Jim Acosta's Substack show, Eisen celebrated Disney's statement that Kimmel would be returning to his show Tuesday night. He chalked the decision up to Americans using what he called the "five P's" in an immediate and effective manner to force Disney's hand.
According to Eisen, Americans that were upset about the sudden preempting of Kimmel's show (which was attributed to comments Kimmel made about the Republican response to MAGA activist Charlie Kirk's death) made it impossible for Disney to stand by the Trump administration in five particular ways: Legal proceedings, popular protests, polls, the press and political leadership.
Eisen's first point about legal proceedings never got a chance to play out, though a Newsweek analysis found that Kimmel may have had grounds to sue on the basis that FCC chair Brendan Carr made a coercive threat against broadcasters who continued to air his show. However, his argument that popular protests drove action may have merit, given that Kimmel's suspension brought out Americans into the streets on both coasts over the weekend.
The attorney further pointed out that the Trump administration has been taking a beating in recent special elections, noting that Democrats have either won or overperformed polling expectations in 42 of 43 special elections just this year, according to the Democratic National Committee. Eisen also pointed out that both traditional and independent media had been doggedly reporting on the Kimmel's suspension and the FCC's actions leading up to it, helping to spread awareness among the American public. And he concluded by saying there was enough political leadership on the part of Democrats to result in Disney switching gears and bringing Kimmel back less than a week after suspending him.
"A lot of people got really down in the dumps and thought, OK, this is it. We're backsliding, the First Amendment is getting torched," Eisen said. "But you cannot count out the American people and you cannot count out the idea of collective action. I mean, that to me is the big takeaway from this."
"It's a small world after all, you might say Norm," Acosta said. "And to me, that is the perfect lesson to be taken away from all of this. This really was like a shot heard around the world."
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an 8 25
Democratic election lawyer, voting rights expert and Democracy Docket publisher Mark Elias is warning that President Donald Trump is determined to "steal the 2026 elections" — and his game plan, according to an, includes a combination of voter suppression, election denial and a mid-decade U.S. Census (which is violating the rules because the next Census isn't due until 2030).
According to The New Republic's Greg Sargent (formerly of the Washington Post), Trump made his intentions for the 2026 midterms clear in a Monday morning, August 18 post on his Truth Social platform.
"President Donald Trump raged at Democrats Monday for supposedly cheating in elections in a long and unhinged Truth Social rant — and buried in his tirade is a clear indication of how he hopes to corrupt the 2026 midterm elections at a time when his agenda is nosediving in polls," Sargent explains. "In his screed, Trump rehashed his familiar lies about how mail balloting is riddled with fraud, and promised to lead a new 'movement' to abolish it."
READ MORE: 'Unacceptable': Arkansas gov whines about cost increases fueled by GOP policies
Sargent warned that the executive order Trump is threatening for the 2026 elections is especially troubling.
Trump posted, "WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections. Remember, the States are merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes."
Sargent explains, "Trump already unveiled a similar executive order in March designed to change election rules. It would have barred states from accepting ballots mailed on time but that arrive after Election Day and forced state officials to require documented proof of citizenship for everyone who registers to vote in federal elections…. Trump appears prepared to have a second run at such an executive order. But what's critical about Monday's post is he connected this scheme directly to the midterms, inadvertently revealing the real aim behind it."
The New Republic journalist continues, "Trump's new rant says he’s going to 'lead a movement to get rid of' mail balloting, then later says this 'movement' will begin with his new executive order — a strong indication he will try to ban vote-by-mail by executive order. Voting rights advocates have long expected him to attempt something like this, perhaps by arguing that vote-by-mail is a threat to national security."
READ MORE: 'Past time anyone can consider Trump mentally sound': President's new claim ripped by critics
Attorney Pooja Chaudhuri of the Democracy Defenders Fund warned that Trump could commit an "enormous abuse of power" with the 2026 midterms.
Chaudhuri told The New Republic, "It sounds like he will try to ban all mail-in balloting through executive order, and he's going to have to find some other rationale for such a sweeping presidential action."
Greta Bedekovics, associate director of democracy at the Center for American Progress, told The New Republic, "If they are going to try to stand for election integrity, it hurts them to point out that this is directly related to the 2026 elections. It exposes that this is not about election integrity and national security, it's about election rigging."
READ MORE: 'Outrage is sincere': Trump’s 'nonsensical' paid protesters claim demolished in new analysis
*Greg Sargent's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.
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an 8 25
Former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is trying to shut down government-funded media outlets she was tapped to lead, but NPR reports challengers want her to define her job title before she does it.
"The government does not operate on the whims of a ‘Kari Lake’ or even of a ‘Donald Trump’," said Democracy Defenders Fund attorney Norman Eisen, who is representing press advocacy groups in lawsuits against Lake over her effort to shutter Voice of America. "If you have a role in government, it has to be defined and documented," Eisen told NPR. "Who knows if that's a self-anointed title? One way or the other, this raises the most profound legal questions."
NPR reports the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has recently called Lake its acting CEO, but Lake may not be legally eligible for the job. That question could hold weight considering a federal judge voided directives affecting asylum rules in 2020 after finding Trump's appointment of the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was unlawful.
READ MORE: Trump's catastrophic collapse is real — and he may take us all down with him
NPR said it has “repeatedly asked the White House press office, Lake and another senior agency official” for documentation of Lake’s current role in the Trump administration, but has received no replies.
"It's important to find out — is she really the CEO? How did she arrive there?" asked Grant Turner, who served as chief executive of USAGM during Trump's first term. "If she doesn't have that authority — and she's claiming to have the authority — then it's really just invalid. There's so many things that may come back to haunt Kari Lake and USAGM."
"Maybe she just wants to have a cool title to wave around," Turner says, "but if she really doesn't have true legal authority to have that title, then they're really just begging for problems."
Lake was a two-time unsuccessful MAGA candidate for senator and governor in Arizona before Trump announced his plan to appoint her director of Voice of America. The problem with that, said NPR, is federal law does not allow a president to unilaterally appoint a director over the agency. So Trump essentially dissolved the government advisory board set up by Congress to oversee Voice of America’s international networks and named Lake a “senior adviser” to run it.
READ MORE: Fox News abruptly ends interview with Texas Democrat after he turns question on host
The Atlantic reports Lake is now working to deport non-citizen Voice of America employees who hold J-1 visas.
Read the full NPR report at this link.
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an 6 25
Over 70 legal experts and a trio of organizations have sent the Florida Bar an ethics complaint calling for an investigation and "appropriate sanctions" against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of engaging in "serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice."
The 23-page complaint, filed Thursday, is signed by Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Lawyers for the Rule of Law, and individual attorneys, law professors, and former judges. It was first reported by the Miami Herald.
"We file this complaint recognizing that Ms. Bondi currently serves as the attorney general of the United States, the highest-ranking lawyer in the United States government," the coalition wrote. "Indeed, we bring Ms. Bondi's misconduct to your attention precisely because Ms. Bondi holds this exalted position, with the attendant responsibilities for subordinate lawyers under her authority who carry out her directives, and because the complaint highlights for the entire legal profession the importance of ethical rules to our independent, self-regulating profession."
"Ms. Bondi, personally and through her senior management, has sought to compel Department of Justice lawyers to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of 'zealous advocacy.'"
After former Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration to lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) last November, then-President-elect Donald Trump swiftly announced Bondi as his new pick. Senate Republicans and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) confirmed her in February, despite various concerns, including her lobbyist work for corporate giants.
On Bondi's first day, she moved to dissolve teams that probed foreign lobbying and threats posed by corporate misconduct, revive enforcement of the federal death penalty, investigate DOJ officials who prosecuted Trump, defund sanctuary cities, and end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs. She also issued a memorandum highlighted in the new complaint.
"The gravamen of this complaint is that Ms. Bondi, personally and through her senior management, has sought to compel Department of Justice lawyers to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of 'zealous advocacy' as announced in her memorandum to all Department employees, issued on her first day in office, threatening employees with discipline and possible termination for falling short," the filing states.
The complaint details "three glaring examples of department lawyers being terminated or forced to resign as a result of demands that they act unethically issued by Ms. Bondi or a member of her senior management, including Emil Bove, initially the acting deputy attorney general (the No. 2 position in the department) and now the principal associate deputy attorney general (the No. 3 position); Todd Blanche, the current deputy attorney general; and Edward Martin, then interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and now chief of the Justice Department's 'Weaponization Working Group' and the department's pardon attorney."
"Through her 'zealous advocacy' memorandum and its application in these three cases, Ms. Bondi has sent a message to all Justice Department lawyers that they must disregard the applicable rules of professional conduct, fundamental ethical principles, and long-standing norms of the Department in order to zealously pursue the president's political objectives—and, if they fail to do so, they will be disciplined or fired," the filing adds. "However, as Ms. Bondi and her senior staff are fond of saying, no one is above the law, and this includes Ms. Bondi."
The Florida Bar confirmed receipt of the complaint to the Miami Herald but did not comment further. The coalition noted that "we file this complaint notwithstanding the Florida Bar's recent reply to two previous ethics complaints filed against Ms. Bondi that it 'does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.'"
"The purported rationale for declining to investigate or prosecute is that such action 'could encroach on the authority of the federal government concerning these officials and the exercise of their duties,'" the coalition continued. "The Florida Bar's dismissal is unsupported by history or precedent."
Chad Mizelle, DOJ chief of staff, suggested in a statement to the Miami Herald that the new call for a probe of Bondi will be unsuccessful, like the previous submissions.
"The Florida Bar has twice rejected performative attempts by these out-of-state lawyers to weaponize the bar complaint process against AG Bondi," said Mizelle. "This third vexatious attempt will fail to do anything other than prove that the signatories have less intelligence—and independent thoughts—than sheep."
Meanwhile, Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, said in a statement that "since her first day on the job, Pam Bondi has made clear that she plans to use the Department of Justice for political pursuits, and she has done just that."
"Especially as the nation’s highest ranking legal officer," Eisen added, "she must be held to account for her actions that threaten the rule of law and the administration of justice."
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MSN
FBI Agents Who Worked Jan. 6 And Trump Cases Sue Justice Department - MSN
A separate lawsuit was also filed by another group of FBI agents represented by private attorneys Mark Zaid and Bradley Moss, as well as lawyer Norm Eisen for the State Democracy Defenders Fund ...
464933-the-hill-interview-case-involving-trump-is-an-everyday-adventure-for
UKRAINE WHISTLEBLOWER CASE
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November 13, 2024 edition of *War Room: Battleground
STEVE BANNON (HOST): Weissmann, you were on TV with MSNBC and all the producers at MSNBC, preserve your documents. Ari Melber and all you hosts, preserve your documents. All of it. You better be worried and you better lawyer up. Some of you young producers, better call mom and dad tonight — hey mom and dad, you know a good lawyer? Lawyer up. Lawyer up.
You tried to destroy Trump, you tried to imprison Trump, you tried to break Trump. He’s not breakable. You couldn’t destroy him and now he is turned on you and he’s put a firebrand in charge of main justice, Department of Justice. And you’re going to have to live it with — Andrew Weissmann and all your kind — McCabe and Comey. Oh my lord.
…
The hunted now become the hunters, yep. With the full apparatus — but here’s the difference, here’s the difference, here’s the difference.
It’s going to be totally transparent. It’s going to start with the mass declassification of all this information we've been keeping back from the American people, shouldn’t keep it back.
American people should understand that, should see it, and see what you’ve done. It’s going to be fully transparent, all of it, and all of the interconnections. Norm Eisen and all these NGOs, and you know, and Reid Hoffman is all worried. You better be worried. You big billionaire donors, you better be worried. You better lawyer up. You should be worried.
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wiki 11 24
:{:{Norman L. Eisen (born November 11, 1960)[1] is an American attorney, author, and former diplomat. He is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a CNN legal analyst, and the co-founder of the States United Democracy Center.[2][3]}:
:{:{He was co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump in 2020. He served as White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform, United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic, and board chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).[4]}:
He is the author of four books, including The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House (2018).[5] In 2022, he co-authored Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy.[6][7]}:}:
Early life and education
Eisen's parents were immigrants to the United States of Jewish ancestry,[8] and he was educated at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles,[9] growing up working in his family's hamburger stand in the city. He received his B.A. degree from Brown University in 1985 and his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1991, both with honors. While at Harvard, he met future president Barack Obama, then also a first-year law student,[10][11] and Neil Gorsuch.
Professional career
Early career
From 1985 to 1988, between college and law school, Eisen worked as the assistant director of the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League. He investigated antisemitism and other civil rights violations, promoted Holocaust education and advanced U.S.–Israel relations.
After graduation from Harvard in 1991, Eisen practiced law in Washington, D.C. for more than 18 years with the Zuckerman Spaeder law firm. He was named as one of Washington's top lawyers by *Washingtonian* magazine.[12] He specialized in investigations of complex financial fraud, including Enron, Refco, the ADM antitrust case, and the subprime financial collapse.[13]
In 2003, Eisen co-founded Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog organization.[14]
Obama administration
From 2007 to 2009, Eisen was active in the presidential campaign of his law school classmate Barack Obama before joining the transition team of then-President-elect Obama as deputy counsel. On January 20, 2009, Obama named him special counsel for ethics and government reform in the White House.[15]
He earned the nickname "Dr. No" for his stringent ethics and anti-corruption efforts and became known for limiting registered lobbyists from taking positions in the administration. In Obama's autobiography, A Promised Land, he recalls an instance in which Eisen was asked which out-of-town conferences administration officials would be admitted to attend; Eisen replied, "If it sounds fun, you can't go."[16] He is credited for helping compile President Obama's ethics-related campaign promises into an Executive Order the president signed on his first day in office.[10]
During 2009 and 2010, Eisen also contributed to the administration's open government effort, including putting the White House visitor logs on the internet; its response to the campaign finance decision in Citizens United v. FEC; and its financial regulatory plan, which is the basis for Dodd–Frank. His other activities included reviewing the background of potential administration officials, and expanding the application of the Freedom of Information Act.[13][15][17]
Eisen became the first Ambassador to the Czech Republic nominated by President Obama.[18] As ambassador, he developed a "three pillars" approach to the U.S.–Czech relationship, emphasizing (1) strategic and defense cooperation; (2) commercial and economic ties; and (3) shared values. During his time as ambassador, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars per year out of his own pocket to maintain the ambassador's residence and entertain dignitaries.[19][20]
Eisen visited Czech and U.S. troops serving side by side in Afghanistan. He advocated for U.S. business, and saw bilateral trade increases with the Czech Republic during his tenure of 50 percent (more than three times the average for U.S. embassies in Europe at the time).[original ^research?] He also spoke out against corruption and in defense of civil rights.[21] Eisen has been credited with helping to deepen U.S.-Czech relations.[22] He also supported the Middle East peace process, including posting the first investment conference on the "Kerry Plan" in Prague together with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright."[23]
Eisen's ambassadorship was also noteworthy because his mother was a Czechoslovak Holocaust survivor who had been deported by the Nazis from that country to Auschwitz.[24] As Senator Joseph Lieberman noted in introducing Eisen at a Senate hearing: "It is indeed a profound historical justice... that the Ambassador's residence in Prague, which was originally built by a Jewish family that was forced to flee Prague by the Nazis, who... took over that house as their headquarters, now 70 years later, is occupied by Norman and his family... The story of Norm Eisen and his family and their path back to Europe is a classic American story, a reflection of what our country is about at its very best. And that is also precisely why the Ambassador has proven such an effective representative of our Nation, our interests, and our values."[22]
President Obama initially gave Eisen a recess appointment. The appointment was good for only one year, until the end of 2011, unless the full U.S. Senate confirmed him. The recess appointment was required because of a hold on Eisen's nomination.[25][26] The leaders of several Washington good-government groups authored a letter in support of Eisen's appointment.[27] Eisen's nomination received bipartisan support, including from Republican senators and conservative foreign policy scholars. The Senate ultimately confirmed Eisen on December 12, 2011.[28][29]
Subsequent work
He joined the Brookings Institution as a visiting fellow in September 2014.[30] He is now a senior fellow in their Governance Studies program and is the project chair of a research initiative on reducing corruption.[2] At Brookings he has contributed to reports on open government,[31][32] the emoluments clause,[33] presidential obstruction of justice,[34] and anti-corruption efforts in the natural resource sector.[35] A prolific writer, he often contributes op-ed pieces to The New York Times,[36][37] The Washington Post,[38] Politico,[39] USA Today,[40] and other national publications.
From 2016 to 2019, Eisen served as CREW's chair of the board and co-counsel on litigation matters, including emoluments cases in New York and Maryland federal courts[4] (CREW v. Trump and D.C. and Maryland v. Trump, respectively).
In September 2018, Crown published Eisen's The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House.[41] It is a sweeping history of 1918 to 2018 as seen through the windows of the Villa Petschek, a Prague palace built by Jewish businessman Otto Petschek after World War I, occupied by the Nazis later, and now the American ambassador's residence in Prague.[42] He has also authored "Democracy's Defenders: U.S. Embassy Prague, the Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, and Its Aftermath" and "A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J. Trump."[2][43]
In February 2019, Eisen was appointed consultant to the United States House Committee on the Judiciary. He assisted the committee on oversight matters related to the Department of Justice, including impeachment, and other oversight and policy issues within the committee's jurisdiction.[44] A columnist at The Washington Post called Eisen a "critical force in building the case for impeachment."[45] Eisen later wrote a book about his time as special counsel.[46]
With Colby Galliher, Eisen co-authored a book entitled, Overcoming Trumpery, which was published by Brookings Institution Press in 2022.[47][7]
Eisen was a co-founder of the States United Democracy Center in 2021.[48] In his States United capacity, he signed a bar complaint against John C. Eastman[49] and an ethics complaint filed against Jenna Ellis[50] for their roles in undermining the 2020 election results. He served as co-counsel on an amicus brief filed in opposition to Lindsey Graham's motion to quash a subpoena in the Fulton County Special Grand Jury investigation of attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.[51] Eisen has co-written reports for States United including a guide to the Electoral College vote count and the January 6, 2021, meeting of Congress.[52] With his States United co-founders, Joanna Lydgate and Christine Todd Whitman, Eisen was a winner of the 2022 Brown Democracy Medal, given by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Pennsylvania State University.[53]
In popular culture
Director Wes Anderson has credited Ambassador Eisen as an inspiration for the character of Deputy Kovacs in his 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anderson told Jeff Goldblum, who played Deputy Kovacs, "that he should go to Prague and see Norm; this is your man… The character of the lawyer Kovacs in the film maintains the awareness of law and justice… the character is actually a kind of ethics czar for the whole film."[54] This is a reference to another one of Eisen's White House nicknames: The Ethics Czar.[55] Anderson again referred to Eisen in the closing scene of Isle of Dogs, captioning a character as ethics czar in the new government of Megasaki.
In 2017, Eisen was named number 11 on the Politico 50 list of thinkers shaping American politics.[56] Eisen has also been named to the Forward 50 list of American Jews.[57]
References
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https://www.normaneisen.com › bio
Norm's Bio — Norman Eisen
Norm's Bio — Norman Eisen. Ambassador (ret.) Norman Eisen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings, executive chair of the States United Democracy Center, and a globally-recognized authority on law, ethics, and anti-corruption. He served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for the Trump impeachment from February ...
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Who's Who at CREW - CREW Exposed
Norman Eisen is an attorney and a former partner in the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder. After serving as Deputy General Counsel to Barack Obama's transition team in 2008, he was appointed special advisor to the president for ethics, and then Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Eisen has donated at least $67,500 to Democrat causes since 1999.
- statesunited.org
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https://statesunited.org › about
About - States United Democracy Center
States United was founded by Joanna Lydgate, Ambassador Norman Eisen, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and team of dedicated partners. Today, Joanna serves as the CEO, Norman Eisen as a Senior Advisor to the organization, and Christine Todd Whitman as a member of the Bipartisan Advisory Board.
- statedemocracydefenders.org
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https://statedemocracydefenders.org › board
Board - State Democracy Defenders Action
Ambassador Norm Eisen (ret.) ... Matt Traldi is the founder and CEO of Greenlight America, which accelerates the clean energy transition across the U.S. through grassroots campaigns. In 2022, he led the Democracy Defense Coalition's election crisis boiler room, a movement-wide coalition effort involving hundreds of organizations. ...
- wcdispatch.com
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https://www.wcdispatch.com › p › who-is-norm-eisen
Who is Norm Eisen? - THE W.C. DISPATCH - Walt's Blog
Dec 29, 2023The intricate web of political tactics deployed against former President Donald Trump unveils a key orchestrator: Norm Eisen. As a co-founder of the Voter Protection Program and a significant figure in the Transition Integrity Project (TIP), Eisen's involvement in shaping strategies to impede Trump's political journey is becoming increasingly ...
- statedemocracydefenders.org
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Home - State Democracy Defenders Action
Norm Eisen and LULAC CEO Juan Proaño discuss the newest "Big Lie of 2024" espoused by Donald Trump and his allies about immigrants and voting. ... Norm Eisen and Richard Painter discuss the recent decision by Georgia courts to strike down rules crafted by the MAGA-aligned majority of the Georgia State Election Board — delivering a ...
- cnn.com
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The rule of law is pushing back against Trump's big lie - CNN
Aug 8, 2021Norm Eisen and Joanna Lydgate write that those alarmed by the attacks on democracy in the US can breathe a sigh of relief as the rule of law has begun to push back on those attempts - most ...
- brookings.edu
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Norm Eisen's testimony before the House of ... - Brookings
Feb 6, 2024Norman Eisen February 6, 2024 FILE PHOTO: General view of the U.S. Capitol as the House of Representatives takes up debate of U.S. President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan in ...
- npr.org
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Obama's Former Ethics Czar Discusses Trump, And The ... - NPR
Sep 6, 2018Norm Eisen's new book, The Last Palace, tells the story of the mansion he lived in as America's ambassador to the Czech Republic and of Europe's ongoing struggle between democracy and illiberalism.
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