About: David Halperin
Twitter: @DaHalperin
Bio: David Halperin is the co-founder and editor of Republic Report. Halperin, a self-employed lawyer based in Washington DC, engages in public advocacy, investigative work, and legal representation on a wide range of issues, including higher education, climate change, democracy, corruption, open government, and national security. He also advises organizations and companies on strategy, policy, communications, and legal matters. He is of counsel to Public.Resource.org, a non-profit focused on making legal and government materials available for free to the public.
Halperin’s investigative and advocacy work on predatory for-profit colleges since 2010 has spurred reforms in policy and regulations, triggered law enforcement investigations, and led to the closure of numerous deceptive schools.
Halperin was from 2004 until 2012 the founding director of Campus Progress and senior vice president at the Center for American Progress. Before that, he was: senior policy advisor for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign; founding executive director of the American Constitution Society; White House speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs to President Clinton; co-founder of the Internet company Progressive Networks (now called RealNetworks); counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell (D.D.C.); research assistant to Robert S. McNamara; and research analyst at the Arms Control Association.
Halperin has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state and federal courts. Among many other efforts, Halperin helped represent Greenpeace in an unprecedented 2004 Miami criminal jury trial over protest activity, resulting in a directed verdict of acquittal; aided climate groups facing investigation by the House Science Committee during 2015-16; and represented Public Resource in landmark copyright litigation from 2012 to 2024 over efforts to make federal regulations publicly available online without charge.
Halperin writes at Republic Report, and his articles also have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Politico, Slate, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. In recent years he has testified before the House Oversight Committee and at several federal agencies, and he has spoken at major conferences and events across the country. Halperin has served since 2007 on the board of directors of Public Citizen.
Halperin graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.
Koch Puppet to Trump Henchman: Mike Pompeo’s Never Gonna Be President Now
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is stonewalling, using contrived excuses to delay House investigators from questioning State Department officials who have information relevant to the Trump impeachment inquiry. He’s also been concealing his own involvement: It emerged last night that Pompeo actually listened live to the fated call between Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr
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Our Republican Politicians Have Left America
The President of the United States was caught red-handed engaging in a blatant crime against our country: using hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars, committed by Congress for national security purposes, and the new Ukrainian president’s interest in a White House meeting, as leverage to pressure that foreign leader to announce a corruption investigation of
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CFPB Probes, Rebukes Controversial College Operator CEHE
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is investigating student loan practices at the college chain operator Center for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE), which already has been facing law enforcement actions by the U.S. Justice Department and the Colorado attorney general. Filings posted on the CFPB website show that the controversial college operator this spring
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Let’s March To Demand Impeachment
Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in our history, endlessly seeking to use his presidential powers for political and financial gain. His blatant disregard for the rule of law, and for values including human rights, equality, and a free, independent press, pose an existential threat to America’s 250-year experiment with democratic self-rule. This presidency
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Warren Probes Private Equity Owners of For-Profit Colleges
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), joined by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), has written to six U.S. private equity firms regarding their investments in for-profit colleges. In light of growing evidence that private equity-owned for-profit colleges are some of the worst actors in an industry rife with bad behavior, Warren and Pocan have asked the firms to
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Warren, Colleagues Ask Collapsed For-Profit ECA Not To Sell Student Debt to Collectors
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rep. Bobby Scott (R-VA), and other members of Congress have written to the collapsed for-profit college chain Education Corporation of America (ECA) and its court-appointed receiver asking that ECA not sell its outstanding student loan debt to a financial firm that would seek to collect payments from former students. The letter,
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Falwell, Trump’s Favorite College President, Pioneered the Scam Non-Profit College
When the head of fraudulent Trump University became President of the United States, he quickly anointed Jerry Falwell, Jr., as his favorite college president. The Liberty University head had endorsed Trump for the White House in January 2016. In return, at least according to Falwell, president-elect Trump offered to make Falwell his Secretary of Education.
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Trump-DeVos-Jones Rollbacks Allow Scam Artists to Rip Off Students & Taxpayers
One more thought on this week’s Capitol Forum report on abuses at Career Education Corp. under CEO Todd Nelson, last week’s FTC action against CEC, and treatment of for-profit colleges under Donald Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos. Diane Auer Jones, the former CEC senior executive who is now DeVos’s top higher education aide,
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