Justice announces Brian Abraham will move from general counsel to chief of staff By
Brian Abraham, general counsel for the Governor s Office, fields a question while Gov. Jim Justice listens.
Gov. Jim Justice announced today that attorney Brian Abraham, who has served as the administration’s general counsel will become his new chief of staff.
Abraham succeeds former Republican Senator Mike Hall, whose retirement was
announced last week. Justice’s first chief of staff was Nick Casey, a former Democratic Party chairman.
Abraham’s switch is effective this coming Jan. 1, which is a Friday.
“Brian is a true leader and the perfect fit for this job as we move into my second term,” Justice said. “He’s a veteran and experienced attorney who loves our state as much as I do, and I know his skills and experience will be extremely beneficial as we continue to move West Virginia forward.”
Justice announces retirement of Chief of Staff Mike Hall By
Justice administration Chief of Staff Mike Hall talks with Senate President Mitch Carmichael at the podium.
Mike Hall, who was named chief of staff shortly after Gov. Jim Justice switched parties from Democrat to Republican, has announced his retirement.
Justice said he will name his next chief of staff at a later date. In the meantime, Hall may continue to work on a contract basis, the governor said.
Hall is retiring Dec. 31, shortly before Justice’s second term begins.
Hall was appointed to the position in August 2017 by Justice. He succeeded Nick Casey, a former Democratic Party chairman who Justice fired after the party switch.
launches any rockets because this is where the journalists are and they don t want the israelis attacking back with the rockets going the wrong way, and i have seen a couple of people ask me i ve seen some people out on the beach and some kids play on the beach, you know, during these days even though most people are staying indoors. there s not really that much to do in gaza right now. it s ramadan. there s also a war on and most people are unemployed, so a lot of people are sort of milling about if they venture out at all. have you seen these kids before? nick, have you seen hello? nick, have you seen these kids before? no. i hadn t seen any of them before. they weren t people that were known to me, but i have seen other cases where it s very difficult to say why israel attacked where it did. i was looking a couple of days ago into the case of a pharmacist whose apartment was
because we re right on the sea takes a while and they ll do several. so we finally went ahead and saw them pulling out the bodies of several people, one of them was a boy who was probably 9 or 10. there was a 9 wroe-year-old and 10-year-old there and he looked like he was dead. his body was fairly mutilated and he was burned, his leg was twisted and the building that they pulled him out of was a small building, a small hut that was near the harbor that was also in flames and sort of in tatters and beside the hut was a larger building that was also looking like it got hit by the strike as well. nick, is there any legitimate target on that beach where these kids were killed? i don t know. i haven t seen anything there. i ve been at this hotel for a while. there certainly haven t been any rockets that i ve seen come out of here and in fact, people have said during the last wars that hamas has made sure that no one
is there room in your heart for all seven of these boys? jewish and palestinian? right now we re not talking about the history of the occupation or the history of terrorism. we re not discussing who is to blame for these conditions, we re not making moral equivalencies. we re just talking about seven dead kids and whether any of them, any of these deaths serve anyone s interest? joining me right now on the phone is nick casey, foreign correspondent for the wall street journal and witnessed what happened to the four little boys in gaza. nick, you were in your hotel and you were just feet from the beach when this happened. what did you hear? what did you see? reporter: yeah. i was on the phone with my translator when i heard a really big explosion that was bigger than anything i d heard since i got here so i knew it was really close. i went downstairs to see some smoke rising up in the area and for a while i had to stay away from it because sometimes the israeli air strikes or artill