Robert Bauer - Discover the Networks

Robert Bauer - Discover the Networks

While Obama campaigned against Democrat rival Hillary Clinton, and then against Republican opponent John McCain, Bauer quietly wrote letters to television-station managers and to Assistant Attorney General John Keeney, contending that Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules forbade the airing of any anti-Obama television ads that made any mention of the Senator's well-documented association with former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. Bauer filed FEC complaints against groups that were seeking to run such ads, and he intervened on Obama's behalf to prevent the American Leadership Project -- a pro-Hillary Clinton organization -- from running TV spots exposing the strong support Obama had received from the notoriously corrupt Service Employees International Union.

In early 2009 President Obama hired Bauer as legal counsel to represent him in a criminal probe investigating allegations that former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich may have sought -- with Obama's (or Rahm Emanuel's) knowledge -- to sell to the highest bidder the U.S. Senate seat Obama had vacated when he assumed the presidency.

Bauer also has worked on issues related to Obama's ties to Tony Rezko, a corrupt, Chicago-based real-estate developer who was one of the first major financial contributors to Obama's political campaigns in the 1990s. By 2005, Rezko was facing at least 12 lawsuits and was under federal investigation on charges that he had solicited kickbacks from companies seeking state pension business under his friend, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

In November 2009 President Obama named Bauer to be his White House Counsel, replacing Gregory Craig, who resigned abruptly on November 13 (after having repeatedly denied, for weeks, that he had any plans of stepping down).

In addition to his work with Perkins Coie, Bauer is also general counsel to the Democratic National Committee.

Bauer contributes regularly to the Huffington Post and is the author of MoreSoftMoneyHardLaw.com, a blog site where he writes about campaign finance and other political issues. He also serves on the Journal of Law and Politics' National Advisory Board; the Election Law Journal's Editorial Board; and the American Bar Association's Advisory Commission on Election Law.