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Calls for Kamala Harris’s brother-in-law to become Joe Biden’s Attorney General

Tony West is married to the vice president-elect’s sister and is currently Uber’s chief legal officer

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Wednesday 02 December 2020 14:41 GMT
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Calls for Kamala Harris’s brother-in-law to be made Attorney General
Calls for Kamala Harris’s brother-in-law to be made Attorney General (Getty Images)

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Calls have been made for Kamala Harris’s brother-in-law to become Joe Biden’s Attorney General.

Ben Crump, the lawyer for the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, says that Tony West would be the perfect choice to lead the Justice Department.

Mr West is currently the chief legal officer for Uber, but served in the Clinton and Obama administrations and is married to the vice president-elect’s sister, Maya Harris.

“President-elect Joe Biden and his still-unnamed attorney general will be our partner in the hard work of repairing our criminal justice system,” wrote Mr Crump in a USA Today editorial.

Mr Crump praised Mr Biden for his “ambitious criminal justice reform platform” that had landed him the support of the Black community.

“Moved by Biden's promises, Black voters carried him to victory in the presidential election,” added Mr Crump as he called for an attorney general "committed to delivering the Constitution's promises of justice and equality.”

Mr Crump said that Mr West was the leading candidate, having run the Justice Department’s civil division under former attorney general Eric Holder.

While in that job he wrote that Mr West “led various efforts to reduce racial bias, improve procedural fairness, strengthen the relationship between communities of colour and law enforcement, and hold police departments accountable.”

Mr West passed through the Senate 98-1 for his role as associate attorney general.

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