Attorney General Jeff Sessions has retained a personal lawyer to represent him, just weeks after his deputy appointed a special counsel to oversee the Department of Justice probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The AG tapped Charles Cooper, a veteran of the Justice Department and various conservative causes, as his personal counsel. It is not clear that Cooper was hired in connection to the Russia inquiry, though he was present when Sessions appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June.
“I do represent the Attorney General, but, as with all clients, do not comment on confidential client matters,” Cooper told The Washington Post by email Tuesday.
A Department spokeswomen described Cooper as the AG’s “longtime friend and counsel,” in a statement to TheDCNF. He previously advised Sessions during his confirmation process.
The veteran Republican litigator clerked for Justice William Rehnquist at the Supreme Court, and was assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel at DOJ during the Reagan administration. As an attorney in private practice, he defended California’s Proposition 8, which restricted the definition of marriage to one man and one women, as well as the NRA in a series of lawsuits involving Federal Elections Commission regulations.
Cooper currently practices at his own firm, Cooper & Kirk. He was previously a partner at McGuireWoods and at Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge.
Cooper was seriously considered for solicitor general in the early days of the Trump administration, but withdrew given the intense partisanship of the Senate.
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