Jenny Durkan

While in law school, Durkan participated in a pilot criminal defense clinic, working with the public defender's office to represent individuals charged in Seattle municipal court. She continued the work on a pro bono basis, until she moved to Washington, D.C. to practice law with the firm of Williams & Connolly. There she did a range of civil and criminal cases, including representing reporters subpoenaed by the government.

Durkan returned to Seattle in 1991, and established a successful practice focusing on criminal defense and work on behalf of plaintiffs, including the family of Lt. Walter Kilgore, who died in the Pang warehouse fire,[19] the case of Stan Stevenson (a retired firefighter who was stabbed leaving a Mariners game) and the case of Kate Fleming, who died in a flash flood in her Madison Valley basement during the Hanukkah Eve windstorm of 2006.[20][21]

In 1994 Durkan became executive council and political director to Governor Mike Lowry, making her Lowry's chief lawyer. Lowry had been a campaign manager to and protege of her father in 1972, and Durkan worked for then congressman Lowry in the 1980s. After initially recommending that an independent investigator represent Lowry, Durkan resigned in February 1995 after deputy press secretary Susanne Albright accused him of sexual harassment.[7][22][23]

Among Durkan's most prominent cases in private practice was the 2005 recount lawsuit that attempted to undo Governor Chris Gregoire's election in 2004.[24] The Democratic Party turned to Durkan with Gregoire's election "facing an unprecedented trial and Republicans trying to remove her from office."[25] Gregoire's victory was upheld.

Durkan worked with families and other attorneys at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to prevent the return of people who had arrived lawfully at the airport the day President Donald Trump's first Travel Ban executive order went into effect.[26]

After serving as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, Durkan joined Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to head a new Seattle office specializing in internet and online security issues.[27]

Durkan served on the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission from 1993 to 1996. She served as the first Citizen Observer on the Seattle Police Firearms Review Board from 1997 to 2000 and two Seattle mayors asked her to serve on Citizen Review Committees for the Seattle Police Department. She also played an advisory role on the establishment of the King County Drug Court and the Mental Health Court.[28] She later helped create a specialized drug program in the federal courts in Western Washington.[29]

In September 1994, Durkan left the Schroeter law firm to join the staff of then-Washington Governor Mike Lowry as his lawyer and political adviser.[30] In February 1995, she resigned from Lowry's office and returned to Schroeter.[30]

Durkan is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and maintains an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell. She served a three-year term on the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors. She served on the Merit Selection Committee for the United States District Court, helping select the candidates for appointment to seven vacancies in the federal judiciary in the Western District of Washington.

Durkan served on the nonprofit board of the Center for Women and Democracy from 2000 to 2009, as a founding Board Member for the Seattle Police Foundation from 2002 to 2004, and as the Chair of the Washington State Attorney General's Task Force on Consumer Privacy, which resulted in legislation that became a national model for identity theft protections.[28]

Durkan during her tenure as a U.S. Attorney

In May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Durkan to be the U.S Attorney for the Western District of Washington, which covers 19 counties and is home to 4.6 million people (78% of the state's population).[31] She was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on September 29, 2009, and sworn in on October 1 by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik.[32][33]

While U.S. Attorney, Durkan created a Civil Rights Department in the office. It coordinates a variety of civil rights cases and outreach, including a number of cases on behalf of returning veterans.^[18] She also helped push police reform efforts in the Seattle Police Department after a Department of Justice investigation found a pattern and practice of excessive use of force.[34]

Upon taking office, Durkan was appointed to serve on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, which advises the U.S. Attorney General on policy, management, and operational issues at the Department of Justice. She was chair of the Attorney General's Subcommittee on Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Enforcement. Durkan played a leading role in prosecuting cybercrimes, including hacking,[35] skimming[36] and identity theft.[37]

Durkan worked with the public schools to ensure internet safety tips for parents and kids were sent home with kids at the beginning of the school year.[38][39]

Durkan also focused on terrorism and national security issues, including the prosecution of two men who plotted to blow up a military recruitment facility in Seattle.[40][41]

As U.S. Attorney, Durkan used the federal law against felons possessing firearms to crack down on career criminals in Western Washington.[42] Cases referred for felons-with-guns charges increased 45% during her tenure.[43]

Durkan pushed "hot spot" initiatives in high-crime areas to address drug and gun sales. These investigations and law enforcement operations resulted in dozens of arrests and weapons confiscations.[34][44]

In September 2014, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, Durkan was widely discussed as a potential candidate to succeed him. The Obama administration nominated Loretta Lynch.[45][46][47][48]

Supporters of mayoral candidate Durkan in the Fiestas Patrias Parade, Seattle, September 16, 2017

Durkan announced her candidacy for Seattle mayor on May 11, 2017, shortly after incumbent Mayor Ed Murray ended his reelection campaign.[17] She was labeled an "establishment" candidate, among a crowded field in the primary race,[49] and picked up endorsements from Murray and members of the Seattle City Council,[50] as well as The Seattle Times and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.[51][52]

In the August primary election, Durkan placed first with 27.9% of votes, advancing to the general election with urban planner Cary Moon, who got 17.6%.[53]

Durkan broke the record for most donors and most money raised in the history of Seattle mayoral campaigns, outraising Moon 5-to-1.[54] She raised over $1 million.[55] Murray's political consultant Sandeep Kaushik joined Durkan's campaign and later became a senior adviser to her. Kaushik is also a lobbyist for Comcast and continues to advise Durkan on policy.[56][57][58] The day after the November 7 general election, in which Durkan received over 60% of the preliminary votes, Moon conceded to Durkan.[3][4]

In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, an event widely considered a watershed moment in the modern LGBTQ rights movement, Queerty named Durkan one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people".[59]

In 2008, Washington Mutual (WaMu) was the biggest bank failure in US history. It was seized by federal regulators and sold to JP Morgan Chase. The U.S. Attorney's office for the Western District of Washington state announced an investigation in 2008, but in 2011 Durkan announced that no charges would be made against the defunct company, stating "Based upon its investigation, the Department of Justice has concluded that the evidence does not meet the exacting standards for criminal charges in connection with the bank’s failure."[63] Durkan received criticism for not prosecuting WaMu and during a Senate panel investigating banks Senator Carl Levin called WaMu "one of the worst" banks issuing subprime mortgages.[64]

In November 2011 (before recreational marijuana was legalized in Washington state) Durkan ordered a raid on 10 dispensaries in the state. The targeted dispensaries were accused of "flagrant violations" of laws because DEA officers believed that "the shops were fronts for illicit drug dealing and revealed that agents were looking for evidence of drug conspiracies, money laundering and guns." Durkan stated her belief that many medical marijuana users were "fakers". Marijuana activists protested the raids.[65] That same year Durkan urged Washington governor Christine Gregoire to veto a bill that would have legalized medical marijuana, writing that the bill would "authorize conduct contrary to federal law, and thus would undermine the federal government's efforts to regulate the possession, manufacturing, and trafficking of controlled substances."[64]

During the 2012 May Day protests in Seattle, masked individuals identified as "black bloc" members vandalized a federal courthouse. In July FBI agents raided the house of several suspects in Portland, Oregon. These suspects were later found not to have been in Seattle during the May Day protest. The suspects were held at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center in solitary confinement. The Seattle Human Rights Commission condemned the solitary confinement: "There is simply no credible reason for their continued detention in solitary confinement...in an environment known to cause serious and lasting psychological harm."[66]

The Department of Justice and Durkan's office brought the suspects before a federal grand jury, but were unable to obtain confessions from them. Durkan then pressured Judge Richard Jones "to imprison the activists, some for up to five months, in an effort to force them to testify against their peers in the Pacific Northwest’s radical left." Emily Langlie, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office in Western Washington, said of the DoJ's actions: "It’s not punitive, it's coercive."[66][67][68]

In 2013 Durkan prosecuted Walli Mujahidh and Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif for conspiring to kill US military personal on July 4, 2011, in a terrorist plot. However the FBI and SPD had utilized a convicted pedophile[69] named Robert Childs as a paid informant to infiltrate both terrorists and other organizations. The use of Childs was criticized as a poor and distasteful use of tax dollars (over $90,000), and Childs and Seattle Police detective Samuel DeJesus deleted over 400 messages from Child's phone before handing the evidence over to Durkan's office, which presiding judge James Robart called "at-best sloppy". Durkan defended the use of Childs as an informant, stating "It's not the saints who can bring us the sinners."[69] Childs later said "After the arrests were made, I was expecting to receive my pardon...Instead, I was told that they couldn't do that for me. What they offered me was money."[70] Childs had also attempted to infiltrate several far-left organizations in Seattle as a paid informant[71] and was arrested again in 2019 for the second degree rape of a child in 2006.[72] Durkan was later criticized for initially supporting former Seattle mayor Ed Murray when he was accused of child molestation.[73]

During a July 2017 mayoral candidate forum, Durkan tossed miniature tequila bottles into the all-ages crowd and during the "talent competition" imitated Melissa McCarthy’s parody of then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer from Saturday Night Live in costume, at one point using the term "colored person". The forum judge at the event told her that she should have said "person of color", and she apologized as soon as she took the stage again, saying she had tripped over her words. She later apologized for distributing the tequila, saying she had thought the event was for people 21 and over.[74][75][76]

During Durkan's term as mayor, the Seattle Department of Transportation canceled several bicycle lanes and greenway projects that had been planned in previous years under the city's comprehensive bicycle plan and funded in the 2015 Move Seattle levy. In response, several cycling advocacy groups and city councilmembers protested Durkan's decision-making on bicycle issues.[77] She has also been critical of scooter-sharing, with Seattle maintaining its ban on electric scooter-sharing apps, unlike other major U.S. cities.[78]

In March 2018, Durkan halted planning work on the Central City Connector streetcar project, which would link the South Lake Union and First Hill lines of the Seattle Streetcar system, due to cost overruns.[79]

Durkan's selection of a permanent chief of the Seattle Police Department in May 2018 ran into controversy after her list of finalists excluded interim chief Carmen Best, who had also served as deputy chief. After receiving criticism from community activists and the police officers' guild for choosing out-of-state finalists, Durkan defended her decision as the recommendation of a search committee.[80] Durkan nominated Best as a finalist after another finalist withdrew to take a different position within the department,[81] and the city council confirmed Best as police chief in August 2018.[82]

In April 2019, two of Durkan's staffers accused her of mistreatment and called the working environment "toxic". One alleged that Durkan had "grabbed her face and forcibly turned her head" when the employee was making suggestions on how to handle the anniversary of the death of community leader Donnie Chin. The other described a hostile work environment where she was "set up to fail" despite having a good track record at previous jobs, and wanted $1.6 million in lost wages and emotional distress. Both employees were Asian women, a fact the second employee pointed out. Durkan's office denied both employees' allegations.[83]

A homeless camp in Seattle, under the Alaskan Way Viaduct, 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Durkan continued sweeping homeless encampments, forcing homeless people to leave their campsite and find a different place to live. Homeless shelters had gone on lock down in late March and had limited capabilities.[84] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had stated that "Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread."[85] Durkan said that these encampments were cleared for the safety of both the people in the encampment and the community, but that the encampments had "shootings, human trafficking and other violent crimes."[86] Advocates argued that the homeless were more susceptible to COVID-19 and, given that the homeless in Seattle were also experiencing an outbreak of Hepatitis A, the ability of quarantining in a tent was their best option.[87]

On May 15 Seattle City Council members Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant introduced an ordinance to ban sweeps of encampments during the Coronavirus pandemic.[88] Durkan objected to the bill and no agreement was reached by the council.[89] The bill is not expected to receive enough votes to pass, and Deputy Mayor Mike Fong told the Council that the bill would be vetoed by the mayor because "Fundamentally we simply don’t believe that this particular issue with regard to encampment removals is something that should be legislated."[90]

During the George Floyd protests in Seattle, the city banned police from using tear gas to disperse crowds, but police did so anyway. On June 8, three members of the Seattle City Council called on Durkan to resign or be impeached "for gassing her own people".[91] On June 9, hundreds of protesters occupied City Hall to demand Durkan's resignation.[92][93]

President Donald Trump has criticized the response of Durkan and Governor Jay Inslee, claiming that they have not been effective in dealing with protesters, especially regarding the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone and the Seattle police's abandonment of the East Precinct. Trump has threatened to retake the city if local leaders do not reassert their authority.[94] Durkan called the creation of the police-free autonomous zone an attempt to "de-escalate interactions between protesters and law enforcement".[95] She called the protests a "summer of love".[96] On June 12, Durkan visited the police-free zone and told a New York Times reporter that she did not know of any serious crime reported in the area.[97] On June 20, 2020 a shooting in the police-free autonomous zone left one man dead and another in critical condition.[98]