Where Are They Now? Trump Administration Edition - New York Times
By Megan K. Stack
America, you have probably heard, is on the edge of collapse. In the ideological death match described by President Biden as a “battle for the soul of this nation,” the forces of MAGA square off against the self-declared Resistance. One side will conquer; the other will be crushed.
Given these doomsday politics, it may surprise you to learn that some of the most glorified and vilified characters of these tumultuous years have quietly forged a peace — working together to ensure the world’s wealthiest and most powerful players thrive amid the turmoil.
The “government matters” practice at the law firm of King & Spalding is a telling example.
On this team you will find Gina Haspel, whose supervision of torture at a secret C.I.A. detention site proved no obstacle to her becoming the agency’s director under Donald Trump nor to her eventual recruitment by corporate law. (While she is not a lawyer, the firm has hired her as a senior adviser on national security.)
Ms. Haspel has joined forces with Sally Yates, who was enshrined as a paragon of principle when Mr. Trump fired her as acting attorney general for rejecting his notorious “Muslim ban.” The pairing of the spy chief nicknamed “Bloody Gina” by some C.I.A. colleagues with a breakout star of the #Resistance was peculiar enough, but consider that Ms. Yates’s eventual successor as deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, is also on the King & Spalding team.
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Ms. Haspel, Ms. Yates and Mr. Rosenstein (who did not respond to emails or calls requesting comment) are a particularly striking trio of colleagues, all veterans of crises that shocked the public and tested our national character. That they can shrug off their varied baggage and come together in private law suggests an enormous disconnect between how we think and talk about our politics and the way power is gathered and spent in the capital.
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