A prominent MAGA-world figure attempting to leverage a public-facing role into something that looks suspiciously like a personal perk? Though it’s an increasingly familiar tale in the Trump 2.0 admin, this time we’re talking about attorney Elliot Berke.
According to reporting from POLITICO, the general counsel for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ahem, tried to book his own cover band, the DePlorables, to play at the Center’s rooftop “Speakeasy,” a venue described as an “afterhours jazz club hidden in the sky.” Because when you think refined late-night jazz vibes, you obviously think… an amateur rock cover band with a cringe-worthy (and dated) political name that happens to be the GC’s side hustle.
The Speakeasy is supposed to evoke exclusivity, ambiance, maybe a little velvet-rope mystique. Berke’s pitch was essentially, “What if instead we did ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ but make it ethically questionable?”
Thankfully, someone at the Kennedy Center rejected the request, and reportedly the concern that booking the general counsel’s own band might be, you know, a conflict of interest played a role. A quaint notion, but nice to see it hasn’t gone entirely extinct.
Of course, the official spin is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. A Kennedy Center statement insists that “programmers asked Berke about performing, but he did not think the band was the right genre and did not want the Speakeasy to be viewed as a vanity project for center employees.” Which is a bold defense, but POLITICO reports they’ve seen the receipts that Berke did, in fact, push to get the DePlorables on that stage.
Berke also reportedly advocated for booking the British prog-rock band Yes, a group he reportedly represents. Now, to his credit, sources say he avoided directly engaging with the band during negotiations to sidestep the appearance of impropriety. In the end, Yes didn’t take the gig anyway. A spokesperson for the band said they declined because they got a better offer elsewhere in D.C., which… even prog-rock legends know when a situation feels a little too messy.
All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of the Kennedy Center’s ongoing identity crisis. Once a broadly respected cultural institution, it became an oddly specific fixation for the second Donald Trump administration, as loyalists were installed on the board and they slapped Trump’s name onto the building. Nothing says timeless artistic legacy like a rebrand no one asked for and Congress hasn’t approved.
So, yes, in that context, Berke trying to turn the Speakeasy into Battle of the Bands: In-House Counsel Edition almost feels inevitable. When leadership treats a national cultural institution like a personal branding exercise, why wouldn’t the general counsel assume the rooftop bar is his shot at a residency?
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
The post Nothing Says Kennedy Center Class Like The General Counsel’s Cover Band appeared first on Above the Law.