Former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a national Democratic figure, has waded into a contentious political battle by joining the legal defense team of San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus as she faces a possible removal by the Board of Supervisors.

Perez, who served under President Barack Obama and chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2021, said he was motivated by what he believes is a “grave injustice.”

The high-profile attorney’s entry into the case could bring national attention to what has been a heated local controversy in San Mateo County. Perez previously led the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and sued former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling, among other civil rights cases.

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“I’ve done a lot of work throughout the country, throughout my career. One particular person called me up and said, ‘this case has your name on it,’” Perez told this news organization Thursday. “My friend said she’s been doing a great job reducing crime and has been defamed.”

The case against Corpus began almost a year ago, when two sheriff’s unions raised allegations of corruption, workplace misconduct, bullying and an alleged inappropriate relationship between the county’s first Latina sheriff and her former chief of staff. Corpus and her legal team have denied those allegations.

A 400-page investigative report by retired Judge LaDoris Cordell concluded that “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest and abuses of authority are the hallmarks of the Corpus administration” and recommended she step down.

A removal hearing scheduled for Monday through Aug. 29 follows the Board of Supervisors’ decision in June to remove Corpus from office under the voter-approved Measure A, which granted the board authority last March to remove an elected sheriff by a four-fifths vote until 2028, the end of Corpus’ term.

Measure A made San Mateo the first Bay Area county to give its board that authority. Corpus also faces a separate removal process through a civil grand jury accusation that was filed in June.

Perez said he hasn’t seen the attempted removal of a sheriff through multiple processes simultaneously during his decades-long legal career. The timing of his involvement is notable, as Perez, who last served as a senior adviser in the Biden White House until January 2025, returned to private legal practice and joined a Chicago-based national law firm in May.

“When I see injustice like this, it really irks me,” he said.

Perez’s approach to the case reflects his background in civil rights law and Democratic politics. He argued that the removal process is procedurally flawed and politically motivated, saying the county should have pursued a recall election or focus on the civil grand jury process instead.

“They had two options. They could have done a recall. … They didn’t trust the voters. And so they came up with this initiative process,” Perez said.

But Perez’s team faces procedural challenges that highlight the unusual nature of the case. Perez said they received more than 2,000 pages of discovery materials less than a week ago and requested a four-week delay to prepare, but the request was denied. Last week, they failed to get a federal injunction blocking the county-initiated removal process.

“There’s a rush to judgment here,” Perez argued.

The county denied this. County spokesperson Effie Milionis Verducci said Corpus’ counsel “is fully aware that the documents in question pertain to a separate grand jury proceeding in which the County is not involved. Her attorneys have known for weeks that these documents were forthcoming and have had ample time to prepare.”

She added that “three judges — including a federal court judge — have denied Sheriff Corpus’ attempts to delay the Removal Hearing” and that “the County has followed all procedures leading to the Removal Hearing.”

Fellow counsel Wilson Leung said Perez “brings his skills as a trial lawyer and his deep experience driving reform of law enforcement agencies from leading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.”

Drawing on his civil rights background, Perez defended his client by describing what he called a hostile workplace culture that Corpus encountered upon taking office. “If I were heading the Civil Rights Division in 2017 and 2019, I would have initiated an investigation into deep-seated and deep-rooted problems” in the culture she inherited, he said.

For Perez, the case represents more than a legal challenge for one sheriff.

“I hope the public rises up because this isn’t just an affront to the sheriff, it is an affront to the democratic process,” he said.