Richard Painter

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Richard William Painter (born October 3, 1961) is an American lawyer, professor, and political candidate. Often seen as a commentator on MSNBC and CNN, Painter has been an outspoken critic of unethical behavior in Washington, DC. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota, and since 2016 has served as vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a bipartisan government ethics watchdog group.

Painter is an expert in the areas of business, corporate, and government ethics. From 2005 to 2007 he was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. He is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. Throughout 2017, he was involved in the CREW lawsuit against Trump, CREW v. Trump.

A longtime Republican, in 2018 Painter launched a campaign as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, challenging recently appointed Senator Tina Smith in the DFL primary.

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Early life and education

Painter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1961. He was raised outside Philadelphia, in Kansas City, Kansas, and in Champaign, Illinois. He graduated from St. George's School, Newport, Rhode Island.

Painter received his B.A. in history summa cum laude from Harvard University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation. While at Harvard, Painter became politically active, speaking out against President Reagan's decision to send aid to the right-wing government in El Salvador and founding the Harvard Radcliffe Democratic Club newspaper Perspective. In 1982, he made his first appearance on national television during an episode of "Firing Line" with Reagan in which he called out Reagan's "reckless deficit spending and cuts to social programs". During the 1984 presidential election, Painter was chairperson of Harvard Students for Walter Mondale.

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Career

Painter served as law clerk to Judge John T. Noonan Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then worked at the law firms of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Finn Dixon & Herling in Stamford, Connecticut.

Painter was the Guy Raymond and Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law from 2002 to 2005 and the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration from 2005 to 2007. Upon leaving the White House, he returned to teaching, at the University of Minnesota Law School.

In December 2016, Painter replaced David Brock as vice-chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). He has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2014. As of May 2017, he is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

In March 2016, Painter wrote in The New York Times that if President George W. Bush had had the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice during his last two years in office, with a Democratic-majority Senate, Bush would have chosen Judge Merrick Garland (who was ultimately nominated by President Obama on March 16, 2016) as a consensus nominee. William K. Kelley, who was deputy counsel to President Bush from 2005 to 2007, disagreed that Bush might have nominated Garland under such circumstances.

Emolument Clause lawsuit against Donald Trump

In January 2017, CREW filed suit against President Donald Trump for failing to sell off certain assets and place others in a blind trust, as all presidents have done for over 40 years. Painter, vice-chairman of CREW, stated, "If Obama had tried that, we would have impeached him in two weeks." CREW alleges that certain foreign payments that Trump receives are in violation of the U.S. Constitution's emoluments clause. The case was dismissed by the district court, which found that the plaintiffs lacked standing; CREW's appeal is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

2018 Senate campaign

Painter was a longtime Republican, saying in 2017: "I've been a Republican for 30 years. There's no way that I would want to see the Republican Party stand up for covering up for Russian espionage and whoever in the United States has been helping the Russians. It's going to be a disaster for the Republicans. It's going to be a disaster for our country." In criticizing Trump and his administration, Painter said "We are well past the point where we were in 1973 (Watergate) with respect to clear evidence of abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and other illegal activities."

In March 2018, he announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to run for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, saying he was unsure whether he would seek office as a Republican, Democrat, or independent. In April 2018, Painter announced that he would run as a Democratic (Minnesota DFL) candidate for the U.S. Senate in the primary against Tina Smith.

Painter describes himself as a centrist, and has criticized the Republican Party's move to the right since 1980. He has said he will not accept the support of political action committees, super PACs, or "dark money" organizations. Painter favors single-payer health care, specifically Medicare for All. He supports major investments in transportation and other infrastructure projects, and is critical of stadium subsidies. On social issues, Painter's position is that "Government needs to completely stay out of abortion and the end-of life-decisions, and obviously the question of who you marry." Painter favors allowing states to decide issues related to marijuana, and ending the federal ban on marijuana. On gun politics, Painter is critical of the NRA, calling it a "protection racket" and favoring "a license-and-registration system similar to what we have for cars."

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Personal life

Painter's wife Karen is a professor of music history at the University of Minnesota. They have three children, and have lived in Minnesota since 2007.

In July 2015, Painter was diagnosed with shingles and Ramsay Hunt syndrome.

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Selected publications

• Getting the Government America Deserves: How Ethics Reform Can Make a Difference (Oxford University Press 2009)
• Professional and Personal Responsibilities of the Lawyer (with Judge John T. Noonan Jr.; Foundation 1997; Second Edition, 2001; Third Edition 2011)
• Securities Litigation and Enforcement (with Margaret Sachs and Donna Nagy; West 2003; Second Edition, 2007; Third Edition 2011).

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See also

• United States Office of Government Ethics

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References

Source of article : Wikipedia