Commentary: How Los Angeles’ first female public defender pioneered the rule that led to Trump’s indictment
Warren G. Harding was a terrible president, but he did get two things right. He freed an ailing Eugene Debs from federal prison, where Debs had been locked up for criticizing World War I, and he appointed Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Los Angeles’ first female public defender, as assistant attorney general of the United States. Harding gave Willebrandt the thankless task of enforcing Prohibition.
She served for eight energetic
