Company News
CNN Adds Raben’s Elliot C. Williams as Legal Analyst
“A nationally recognized authority on the law, Elliot is a trusted commentator on federal policy — from immigration to the justice system. CNN has gained a valuable voice that is representative of America today,” said Robert Raben, founder and president of The Raben Group.
CNN ADDS RABEN’S ELLIOT WILLIAMS AS LEGAL ANALYST
Former DOJ, Capitol Hill, and Obama appointee adds 15 years of federal experience to CNN’s slate of policy experts
WASHINGTON, DC — The Raben Group, the nation’s leading majority-minority public affairs and communications firm, announced that Elliot C. Williams, a principal in the firm’s government affairs practice, has been added to CNN’s slate of legal experts and commentators. With fifteen years of experience across all three branches of government, Williams has worked with elected and appointed officials at the highest levels, and possesses a deep understanding of how Washington works.
“A nationally recognized authority on the law, Elliot is a trusted commentator on federal policy — from immigration to the justice system. CNN has gained a valuable voice that is representative of America today,” said Robert Raben, founder and president of The Raben Group. “The media continues to call on Raben’s policy experts to comment on issues from Congress’s diversity to immigration, from corporate social responsibility to Puerto Rico. I am proud that our staff continues to be part of the public discourse.”
Williams spent nearly eight years as a senior political appointee in the Obama administration. He served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs at the Department of Justice, where he played significant roles in helping secure Senate confirmation for both Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Prior to Justice, he spent several years as Assistant Director for Legislative Affairs at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As the head of the agency’s legislative affairs efforts, he developed significant substantive expertise in immigration policy. Williams previously worked as Judiciary Counsel to now-Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and started his career as a practicing attorney — first clerking for two federal judges, and then being accepted into to the Attorney General’s Honors Program, where he served as a Trial Attorney in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“There is almost too much to talk about these days on three areas that are near and dear to my heart — the Justice Department, our immigration system, and Congress. I’m thrilled to join the team at CNN in helping to make some sense of it all for the public,” Williams said.
Williams’s efforts earned him recognition in 2015 as one of “D.C.’s Rising Stars” by the National Law Journal. He sits on the board of the Constitutional Accountability Center and has been a frequent commentator in the media, with appearances across MSNBC, CNN, SiriusXM, and WNYC Radio, and in HuffPost, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Hill, NBC News THINK, and CNN.com, among others. Williams earned a law degree and master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree cum laude in art history from the University of Pennsylvania.
