Anthony Coley to lead Justice Department public affairs
26 January 2021
Judge Merrick Garland, President Biden’s nominee for attorney general, has tapped Anthony Coley, an Obama-era Treasury Department official, to serve as a senior adviser and lead public affairs at the Department of Justice, according to people familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: As the public face of the DOJ, Coley will help explain — and defend — the department's actions, from sensitive cases to prosecutorial decisions, including the investigation into Hunter Biden.
- He’ll join chief of staff Matt Klapper, who held the same role for Sen. Cory Booker, and Dena Iverson, a DOJ veteran, who will serve as principal deputy director of public affairs.
- Coley also worked for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and served in President Obama’s Treasury Department under secretaries Tim Geithner and Jack Lew. He will start Monday.
The big picture: Garland is still waiting for his Senate confirmation hearing, during which Republicans plan to press the circuit judge on how he will handle the tax investigation into the president’s son, Hunter.
- But some Republicans, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, have indicated they will support Garland’s nomination and the White House expects him to be confirmed.
- Garland’s challenge will be to restore public trust in the department while also boosting morale among career officials.
Be smart: While Biden has filled out his Cabinet, hundreds of Democratic aides and operatives are still jostling for plum positions inside the administration.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.