(Author Photo of the inside book cover)
Jones Day was so famous that a book was written about that huge law firm, SERVANTS OF THE DAMNED, by David Enrich.
One James Uthmeier worked at Jones Day before he took a job advising the Commerce Secretary in the first iteration of the current regime. (The Secretary of Commerce at the time was a client of Jones Day.) He is mentioned briefly on page 241 of the book.
As described in the book, one of the things that made Jones Day famous enough to get their own book was writing threatening letters.
James Uthmeier left the Commerce Department and at some point became the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Florida. When the Florida Attorney General resigned, the governor appointed Mr. Uthmeier to the post.
A relatively recent appointment, Uthmeier has made headlines with at least one letter. For example, he wrote a letter to the Mayor of Orlando threatening to remove the Mayor from office if Orlando did not follow the immigration laws, among other things.
In context, the Florida governor has already removed two elected officials from public office, both Democrats. One, the State Attorney who is headquartered in Orlando, ran and won re-election after she was removed from the office. Mr. Uthmeier has recently made comments about her, but so far apparently only verbal comments and not in writing.
Back to the Mayor of Orlando and the threat to remove him from office if Orlando did not enforce the immigration laws. The Mayor wrote back immediately after receiving the letter from General Uthmeier to inform Uthmeier that, in essence, Orlando is following all the laws including the immigration laws.
Not content with the Mayor having the last word apparently, Mr. Uthmeier gave a TV interview following the Mayor's letter, and he said that his letter worked and then pretty much repeated as the Mayor had said, that Orlando was following the law.
It would have been interesting to see if the Florida Attorney General would have actually sought the removal of the Mayor of Orlando from office. But by what authority, General, by what authority? Perhaps we will never know, but in the meantime, there is the State Attorney who might be removed from office ....
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