Think Tankers "Hope They'll be Rescued" From Their Jobs

This is from the opening of a new piece on Brookings Institution scholar and former Trump Administration official Fiona Hill that was penned by New Yorker writer Adam Entous:

The Brookings Institution is one of many think tanks in Washington, D.C., where scholars and bureaucrats sit in quiet offices and wait by the phone. They write op-eds and books, give talks and convene seminars, hoping that, when reputations falter or Administrations shift, they will be rescued from the life of opining and contemplation and return to the adrenaline rush and consequence of government. Nearly always, the yearning is to be inside. Strobe Talbott, who became the president of Brookings in 2002, served in Bill Clinton’s Administration as his leading Russia expert, and he was rumored to be on the shortlist for Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State. Others, too, may have expected a call. But, after Donald Trump was elected, only one prominent Brookings stalwart was summoned, and her story became emblematic of all those in Washington who entered the Administration full of trepidation but hoping to be a “normalizing” influence on a distinctly abnormal President.

Former managing director at Brookings, William Antholis, said he was "deeply offended" by the line about being "rescued" from life at a think tank.

Think Tank Watch's favorite line from the New Yorker piece:  "After Trump’s victory, the mood at Brookings was funereal."

After her stint within the Trump Administration, Hill returned to Brookings where she is currently a Senior Fellow in the Center for on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy Program.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about Hill.

Brookings: Trump Likely Obstructed Justice by Firing FBI Director

Several powerful think tanks continue to work at a furious pace to end the presidency of Donald Trump.  Here is more from The Hill:

President Trump "likely obstructed justice" and could possibly face impeachment for firing FBI Director James Comey if special counsel Robert Mueller reaches the same conclusion, a new analysis from The Brookings Institution found.

In a report released Tuesday, the left-leaning think tank said that Trump had authority to fire the FBI chief, but not if his motives for doing so centered around hindering the ongoing Russia probe.

The 108-page Brookings report, entitled "Presidential Obstruction of Justice: The Case of Donald J. Trump," was written by Barry Berke, Noah Bookbinder, and Norman Eisen.

Berke is co-chair of the litigation department at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Bookbinder is Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and formerly worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee and US Department of Justice.

Eisen is a Senior Fellow at Brookings and was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the Obama Administration.  He is also chair and co-founder of CREW.

The report concludes that if special counsel Robert Mueller comes to the same conclusion as Brookings, Trump could be impeached.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post says that the Brookings report "amounts to an amicus brief" for use by special counsel Mueller and his team., and "should scare the daylights" out of Trump supporters.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post which notes that James Comey is a longtime friend of Brookings scholar Benjamin Wittes.

During the summer, the Center for American Progress (CAP) released its own lengthy report making the case for collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Brave Brookings Scholar to Join Trump Administration

The Trump Administration has selected dozens of people from conservative think tanks for various White House and Cabinet positions.  In fact, there is not a single person on the Trump team that has been tapped directly from a liberal-leaning think tank - until now.

Fiona Hill, a Senior Fellow at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, has been offered a job at the National Security Council (NSC).  Here is more from Foreign Policy:

The Trump administration has offered a well-respected scholar and sober critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin the position of White House senior director for Europe and Russia, a White House official told Foreign Policy.

Hill, a dual U.S.-UK citizen and former U.S. intelligence officer from 2006 to 2009, has written critically of Putin’s autocratic tendencies and desire of a “weakened U.S. presidency.”  In her 2013 biography of Putin, she warned policymakers not to underestimate the Russian strongman given his strategic cunning and ability to find weaknesses in opponents derived from his experience in the KGB.

Hill was offered the position by National Security Council chief of staff Keith Kellogg prior to the ouster of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. She hasn’t yet filled the position and is still going through procedural steps such as background and security checks, according to the White House official. Hill is “in the process to take over the Europe and Russia position,” said the official.

Here is Hill's official biography from Brookings, along with her past writings.  Besides being a Senior Fellow at Brookings, she also serves as Director of the think tank's Center on the United States and Europe.  Hill is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Here is a recent Think Tank Watch piece on the White House-think tank revolving door in the Trump Administration.

Brookings Scholar Suing Trump

Brookings Institution scholar Norman Eisen is among a group of people suing President Donald Trump over foreign payments to Mr. Trump's firms.  Here is more from the New York Times:

A team of prominent constitutional scholars, Supreme Court litigators and former White House ethics lawyers intends to file a lawsuit Monday morning alleging that President Trump is violating the Constitution by allowing his hotels and other business operations to accept payments from foreign governments.

The lawsuit is among a barrage of legal actions against the Trump administration that have been initiated or are being planned by major liberal advocacy organizations. Such suits are among the few outlets they have to challenge the administration now that Republicans are in control of the government.

The legal team filing the lawsuit includes Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard constitutional scholar; Norman L. Eisen, an Obama administration ethics lawyer; and Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine. Among the others are Richard W. Painter, an ethics counsel in the administration of George W. Bush; Mr. Gupta, a Supreme Court litigator who has three cases pending before the court; and Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor and former congressional candidate who has been studying and writing about the Emoluments Clause for nearly a decade.

Forbes notes that Eisen attempted to justify the suit in a December white paper for the Brookings Institution, where is is a Fellow in Governance Studies.

He previously served as US Ambassador to the Czech Republic in the Obama Administration, and before that was Special Counsel to the President and Special Assistant to the President.

In 2001 Eisen co-founded Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), a government watchdog group.

Brookings is expected to be one of the biggest attack dogs when it comes to fighting Mr. Trump, and has recently been touted as a sanctuary think tank for liberals.