Photo of Nicholas Xenakis

Nicholas Xenakis

Nick Xenakis draws on his Capitol Hill and legal experience to provide public policy and crisis management counsel to clients in a range of industries.

Nick assists clients in developing and implementing policy solutions to litigation and regulatory matters, including on issues involving antitrust, artificial intelligence, bankruptcy, criminal justice, financial services, immigration, intellectual property, life sciences, national security, and technology. He also represents companies and individuals in investigations before U.S. Senate and House Committees.

Nick previously served as General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he managed committee staff and directed legislative efforts. He also participated in key judicial and Cabinet confirmations, including of Attorneys General and Supreme Court Justices. Before his time on Capitol Hill, Nick served as an attorney with the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Contact:Read more about Nicholas XenakisEmail

On September 24, 2025, Covington’s tech industry experts explored what legal teams, government affairs professionals, and business leaders at tech companies need to know during this pivotal period and offered insights into anticipated challenges and emerging opportunities in the year ahead. Eight Covington attorneys shared their insights during a 60-minute session moderated by Covington partner…

Continue Reading Covington Tech Briefing Spotlight: Impact of Latest Policy Developments on the Tech Industry

This update highlights key mid-year legislative and regulatory developments and builds on our first quarter update related to artificial intelligence (“AI”), connected and automated vehicles (“CAVs”), Internet of Things (“IoT”), and cryptocurrencies and blockchain developments.

I. Federal AI Legislative Developments

    In the first session of the 119th Congress, lawmakers rejected a proposed moratorium on state and local enforcement of AI laws and advanced several AI legislative proposals focused on deepfake-related harms.  Specifically, on July 1, after weeks of negotiations, the Senate voted 99-1 to strike a proposed 10-year moratorium on state and local enforcement of AI laws from the budget reconciliation package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), which President Trump signed into law.  The vote to strike the moratorium follows the collapse of an agreement on revised language that would have shortened the moratorium to 5 years and allowed states to enforce “generally applicable laws,” including child online safety, digital replica, and CSAM laws, that do not have an “undue or disproportionate effect” on AI.  Congress could technically still consider the moratorium during this session, but the chances of that happening are low based on both the political atmosphere and the lack of a must-pass legislative vehicle in which it could be included.  See our blog post on this topic for more information.

    Additionally, lawmakers continue to focus legislation on deepfakes and intimate imagery.  For example, on May 19, President Trump signed the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (“TAKE IT DOWN”) Act (H.R. 633 / S. 146) into law, which requires online platforms to establish a notice and takedown process for nonconsensual intimate visual depictions, including certain depictions created using AI.  See our blog post on this topic for more information.  Meanwhile, members of Congress continued to pursue additional legislation to address deepfake-related harms, such as the STOP CSAM Act of 2025 (S. 1829 / H.R. 3921) and the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images And Non-Consensual Edits (“DEFIANCE”) Act (H.R. 3562 / S. 1837).Continue Reading U.S. Tech Legislative & Regulatory Update – 2025 Mid-Year Update

    On April 28, the House of Representatives voted 409-2 to pass the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act (“TAKE IT DOWN Act”), which criminalizes the publication of nonconsensual intimate visual depictions (“NCII”), and requires online platforms to establish a notice and takedown process for NCII.  The Act…

    Continue Reading U.S. Congress Passes Bill Establishing Notice and Takedown Regime for Publication of Nonconsensual Intimate Visual Depictions

    This quarterly update highlights key legislative, regulatory, and litigation developments in the first quarter of 2025 related to artificial intelligence (“AI”), connected and automated vehicles (“CAVs”), and cryptocurrencies and blockchain. 

    I. Artificial Intelligence

    A. Federal Legislative Developments

    In the first quarter, members of Congress introduced several AI bills addressing national security, including bills that would encourage the use of AI for border security and drug enforcement purposes.  Other AI legislative proposes focused on workforce skills, international investment in critical industries, U.S. AI supply chain resilience, and AI-enabled fraud.  Notably, members of Congress from both parties advanced legislation to regulate AI deepfakes and codify the National AI Research Resource, as discussed below.

    • CREATE AI Act:  In March, Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Don Beyer (D-VA) re-introduced the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence (“CREATE AI”) Act (H.R. 2385), following its introduction and near passage in the Senate last year.  The CREATE AI Act would codify the National AI Research Resource (“NAIRR”), with the goal of advancing AI development and innovation by offering AI computational resources, common datasets and repositories, educational tools and services, and AI testbeds to individuals, private entities, and federal agencies.  The CREATE AI Act builds on the work of the NAIRR Task Force, established by the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, which issued a final report in January 2023 recommending the establishment of NAIRR.

    Continue Reading U.S. Tech Legislative & Regulatory Update – First Quarter 2025

    On March 24, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” where senators and witnesses expressed divergent views on risks to First Amendment rights.  Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO), the Subcommittee Chair, began the hearing by warning that the “vast censorship enterprise that the Biden Administration built” has expanded into an “alliance of activists, academics, journalists, big tech companies, and federal bureaucrats” that uses “novel tools and technologies of the 21st century” to silence critics.  Senator Peter Welch (D-VT), the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, expressed skepticism about alleged censorship by the Biden Administration and social media companies, citing the Supreme Court’s 2024 opinion in Murthy v. Missouri, and accused the Trump Administration of causing “real suppression of free speech.”

    The witnesses at the hearing, including law professors, journalists, and an attorney from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, expressed contrasting views on the state of free expression and risks of censorship.  Mollie Hemingway, the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist, argued that federal and state governments “fund and promote censorship and blacklisting technology” to undermine free speech in coordination with universities, non-profit entities, and technology companies.  Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, and Benjamin Weingarten, an investigative journalist, raised similar censorship concerns, with Turley arguing that a “cottage industry of disinformation experts” had “monetized censorship” and adding that the EU’s Digital Services Act presents a “new, emerging threat” to First Amendment rights.Continue Reading Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Holds Hearing on the “Censorship Industrial Complex”

    On March 12, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced two nominations key to the Trump Administration’s technology policy: Mark Meador as a Commissioner for the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), and Michael Kratsios as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (“OSTP”).  Both nominees previously had their nomination hearings in front of the Committee on February 25, described below.

    Mark Meador

    Meador started his career in the healthcare division of the FTC.  In his opening statement, he discussed the importance of the FTC in protecting consumers and free market competition. He specifically referenced the need to protect children in the digital environment and stated that the FTC should use its consumer protection powers to safeguard families.

    During the nomination hearing, Meador faced questions about consumer protection enforcement mechanisms, “Big Tech” regulation, pharmacracy benefit managers (“PBMs”), antitrust concerns, and the agency’s direction under the new administration.Continue Reading Senate Commerce Committee Questions Trump Tech Nominees

    On Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in the first Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing of the 119th Congress, the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held a hearing entitled “Ending the Scourge: The Need for the STOP CSAM Act.”  Subcommittee Chair Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who convened the hearing, and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced in February that they intended to reintroduce the Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment Act or “STOP CSAM Act”, a comprehensive bill that seeks to combat the online sexual exploitation of children.  First introduced in 2023, the Act did not receive a vote on the Senate floor last Congress, despite being unanimously advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

    The STOP CSAM Act, as written in 2023, contains multiple provisions that would impose new requirements on online platforms.  The Act would:

    • Remove Section 230 immunity for civil claims against online platforms for CSAM-related harms;
    • Create a private right of action for victims to file civil lawsuits against online platforms that fail to timely remove CSAM material;
    • Create a Child Online Protection Board at the Federal Trade Commission that would be responsible for enforcing the removal of CSAM material and related images and authorized to fine platforms that fail to comply;
    • Remove technology companies’ discretion as to whether to report planned or imminent child sexual exploitation offenses of which the provider has actual knowledge;
    • Require that online platforms include certain additional information in NCMEC CyberTipline reports; and
    • Mandate that certain online platforms issue annual transparency reports related to child protection efforts.

    Continue Reading Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Holds Hearing on the STOP CSAM Act

    On January 14, 2025, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order on “Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure” (the “EO”), with the goals of preserving U.S. economic competitiveness and access to powerful AI models, preventing U.S. dependence on foreign infrastructure, and promoting U.S. clean energy production to power the development and operation of AI.  Pursuant to these goals, the EO outlines criteria and timeframes for the construction and operation of “frontier AI infrastructure,” including data centers and clean energy resources, by private-sector entities on federal land.  The EO builds upon a series of actions on AI issued by the Biden Administration, including the October 2023 Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI and an October 2024 AI National Security Memorandum.Continue Reading Biden Administration Releases Executive Order on AI Infrastructure

    This quarterly update highlights key legislative, regulatory, and litigation developments in the third quarter of 2024 related to artificial intelligence (“AI”) and connected and automated vehicles (“CAVs”).  As noted below, some of these developments provide industry with the opportunity for participation and comment.

    I.     Artificial Intelligence

    Federal Legislative Developments

    There continued to be strong bipartisan…

    Continue Reading U.S. Tech Legislative, Regulatory & Litigation Update – Third Quarter 2024

    Updated September 20, 2024.  Originally posted September 11, 2024.

    On September 17, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed two bills into law that limit the creation or use of “digital replicas,” making California the latest state to establish new protections for performers, artists, and other employees in response to the rise of AI-generated content.  These state efforts come as Congress considers the NO FAKES Act (S. 4875), introduced by Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) on July 31, which would establish a federal “digital replication right” over individual’s own digital replicas and impose liability on persons who knowingly create, display, or distribute digital replicas without consent from the right holder.Continue Reading California Enacts Digital Replica Laws as Congress Considers Federal Approach