Elliot Williams
Principal
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Elliot Williams is a principal in The Raben Group’s Government Affairs Practice Group. With fifteen years of experience across all three branches of government, Elliot has worked with elected and appointed officials at the highest levels, and possesses a deep understanding of and contacts across the legislative and executive branches of government.
Elliot joined Raben after nearly eight years as a senior political appointee in the Obama administration. There he honed his skills in management, coalition building, implementing policy, advocating agency positions, and counseling senior leadership. 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.
Elliot previously worked as judiciary counsel to Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and started his career as a practicing attorney — first clerking for two federal judges, and then being accepted into the Attorney General’s Honors Program, where he served as a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Elliot is a CNN Legal Analyst and a regular SiriusXM guest host. He is a frequent media commentator, having appeared on NPR nationally and regionally, and written for the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN.com, HuffPost, The Hill, and NBC News THINK. Elliot was recognized in 2015 as one of “D.C.’s Rising Stars” by the National Law Journal and sits on the board of the Constitutional Accountability Center. He 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.
Career Highlights
- CNN Legal Analyst
- Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice
- Assistant Director for Legislative Affairs, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Judiciary Counsel, Senator Charles E. Schumer