Halle Burtoni

Halle Burtoni was born on the aquatic planet Kamino, the homeworld of the Kaminoan species located in the Abrion sector of the Outer Rim Territories. By the onset of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, she had lived a long life as a career diplomat and politician and served her planetary government's cloning facilities, working alongside Prime Minister Lama Su. That year, the Clone Wars erupted between the Galactic Republic, a democratic union that governed much of the galaxy from its capital planet of Coruscant, and its splinter state, the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Having already cloned much of the Grand Army of the Republic's clone troopers, the war presented a lucrative business operation for the Kaminoans and the opportunity to earn representation on the galactic stage. Leveraging the planet's production of the Republic's armed forces, Kamino earned a seat in the Galactic Senate, the Republic's legislative body, in part due to Burtoni's own bartering.

Backed by powerful contacts and armed with her considerable diplomatic experience, Burtoni accepted Kamino's new representative position in the Senate. Living on Coruscant, Burtoni represented her planet's financial interests in the Senate. Because Kamino's economic prosperity relied on the continued or increased production of clone soldiers, Burtoni became a leading proponent of escalating military action against the Separatist's droid army. In addition to allying herself with other senators with corporate interests, such as Gume Saam of the Techno Union, Nix Card of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and Lott Dod of the Trade Federation, Burtoni found allies in senators with militaristic ideals, in particular, Mee Deechi of Umbara. As an outspoken and belligerent advocate for war escalation, Burtoni made herself an enemy of a faction of pro-democracy, anti-war senators consisting of Bail Organa of Alderaan, Padmé Amidala of the Chommell sector, Onaconda Farr of the Savareen sector, and Mon Mothma of Chandrila.

Burtoni had notably rough working relationships with Amidala and Farr. Burtoni longed for nothing more than to see Padmé's peace-promoting efforts fail and publicly asserted that she had Separatist ties. Burtoni and Deechi saw the personally-troubled Farr as an easy mark to use in propaganda and fundraising, purposely misrepresenting his words in efforts to discredit him. Though well-known for her aggressive behavior, Burtoni was well-respected among many in the Senate for her age and experience, though some privately suspected that she had participated in illegal or unethical activities to further her career. Despite those rumors persisting throughout her tenure, they were largely baseless, as Burtoni was often just determined to fight for the interests of her homeworld and people, among whom she carried a great deal of support. At some point during the war, Burtoni presented a holographic display of Phase II clone trooper armor, an upgrade over the standard clone armor, to a group of politicians that included Deechi, Senate Vice Chair Mas Amedda, and Tarnab Senator Mot-Not Rab.

In 21 BBY, Burtoni was present in the Senate to witness Duchess Satine Kryze of Kalevala, the ruler of Mandalore, present her case for continuing neutrality in the Clone Wars in the face of a planned Republic occupation, which she won after providing evidence that the testimony used to justify the occupation had been falsified. Burtoni was later present to see the struggle between Senator Riyo Chuchi of Pantora and Senator Dod of the Trade Federation, in which Chuchi accused the trade conglomerate of purposely blockading Pantora for underhanded reasons and called on Dod to have the Federation remove their ships from the moon's orbit. After an investigation led by Chuchi herself demonstrated that the Federation was acting in the interest of the Separatists, Dod had their ships removed and reopened trade with Pantora.

That same year, the Senate entered debates over the financial stress the war was placing the Republic under, especially as military efforts appeared to have reached an impasse. Senator Saam introduced an emergency bill that would allow the Republic to deregulate the InterGalactic Banking Clan, giving the government access to new lines of credit to use for military spending, but his motion was opposed by Bail Organa's faction, who argued that deregulation would push the Republic into bankruptcy. Alongside Senator Dod, Burtoni spoke in favor of Saam's bill and claimed that deregulation was a small price to pay to gain the necessary funds to finance the war effort. Her comment sparked a brief uproar, with many in the Senate supporting her position, but Amidala entered the fray and asked the Senate to reconsider devoting more resources to the military and open the Republic to negotiations with the Separatists. Amidala's idealistic plea fell on deaf ears, and many in the chamber swiftly shouted her down.

Though support for Saam's bill was steady, Organa asked Vice Chair Amedda to table the vote until the Senate could determine if deregulation was the right course of action. In an upset to Burtoni and her allies, Amedda agreed to Organa's request, and the legislation was taken off the floor. Unlike Burtoni, however, Saam, Dod, and Senator Card were not loyal to the Republic and used their Separatist ties to organize a bombing on Coruscant that would convince the Senate to pass Saam's bill out of desperation. Still interested in fighting for negotiations with the Confederacy, Amidala reached out to an old friend in the Separatist Parliament, Mina Bonteri, and together they conceived a peace initiative. The proposal was passed enthusiastically in the Separatist congress, and Amidala returned to Coruscant to introduce the motion to deter the Republic Senate from voting for Saam's bill.

During the scheduled second debate on deregulation, Amidala, Organa, and Senator Farr argued that Saam's emergency bill was unnecessary due to the Confederate push for peaceful negotiations. As the Senate opened voting on Saam's motion, however, the attack Burtoni's allies had arranged came. Coruscant's central power distribution grid was bombed, leading to mass blackouts and forcing the Senate to enter an emergency shutdown. When Republic Intelligence learned that the attack had come from the Separatists, Saam called for the Senate to make the Confederacy pay for what they had done, an emotional plea that turned a majority of the Senate against Amidala's peace initiative. Burtoni moved that the Senate immediately vote to deregulate the Banking Clan, and Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, the head of the Republic, agreed and announced his support for Saam's bill, which passed soon afterward.

With the deregulation of the banks a reality, Burtoni contacted her people on Kamino and drafted an emergency appropriations bill that would use the Banking Clan to fund a purchase of five million more clone troopers. As the Senate entered discord over the attack on Coruscant, Burtoni introduced her bill, which earned immediate support despite attempts by Organa, Amidala, and Farr to salvage their plan to open negotiations with the Confederacy. Their efforts only exacerbated the chaos, but the Senate quelled when Chancellor Palpatine announced that his office had received a message from Confederate Head of State Dooku. In his message, Dooku officially pulled his government from the peace process, citing an attack by the Republic that left Mina Bonteri dead. The peace initiative dead, it seemed as though Burtoni's bill had cleared a path towards passage in the Senate, but her opponents would be unrelenting.

Hoping to defeat Burtoni's appropriations bill, Organa, Amidala, and Farr mounted an opposition effort. They began by highlighting the Banking Clan's interest rate hike due to deregulation, which swayed many to their side, and started personally appealing to undecided senators. As the vote on Burtoni's bill neared, Organa decided to speak before the full Senate, but an assault by mercenaries hired to threaten opposition left him hospitalized. Amidala spoke in his place, delivering a passionate speech in support of basic social amenities that would face severe budget restrictions and cuts if the Republic moved forward with an increase in military spending. Although the senator had a reputation as a partisan, Amidala's speech earned enthusiastic applause from the Senate, with Burtoni and her allies, such as Deechi, reluctantly joining the praise for her address. Despite the warm reception, the speech was not enough to stop the Senate from passing Burtoni's bill.

Hoping to keep Burtoni's spending bill from ever coming into effect, Amidala and Farr drafted and introduced counter-legislation that aimed to cap the amount of funding the Republic could put into the military. As with their attempt to rally opposition to Burtoni's bill, the pair and their faction worked hard to gather support. To Burtoni's detriment, their efforts appeared to be paying off, though they still required a handful of senators to join their side. Following another speech given to the Senate by Amidala, Burtoni went to confront the senator and her allies in the former's office, where they were having a small celebration over what seemed to be a coming victory against the Kaminoan. As she entered, Burtoni overheard Amidala comment that it was too early for her faction to celebrate when the vote had not yet commenced, and the Kaminoan interrupted and sarcastically stated that she and Amidala could finally agree on something. Amidala told Burtoni that she had barged in on a private conversation, but Burtoni suggested that her opponents were engaging in a Separatist conspiracy instead.

Lolo Purs, Farr's aide and Rodia's Junior Representative, and Amidala retorted Burtoni's allegation, with Padmé reiterating her faction's belief that increased military size would not allow diplomacy to resume. However, Burtoni asserted that diplomacy had long ago failed the Republic. Senator Mothma urged the trio to end their argument, but Farr spoke up and addressed Burtoni, commenting that just because her planet provided the Republic with the clone armies, she did not have free rein to do whatever she pleased. Backing her towards the door, Farr sarcastically thanked Burtoni for visiting and sent her away so he and his allies could continue their meeting. Burtoni ominously warned him and his allies to enjoy their spotlight for now, as the war was far from over, then joined Senator Deechi outside Amidala's office as the latter spoke with Senator Orn Free Taa of Ryloth. Shortly after Burtoni left, however, Farr collapsed and died from what appeared to be heart failure. An autopsy revealed that Farr had not died of heart failure but instead had been poisoned, which prompted the Coruscant Security Force to open an official investigation into his murder under Lieutenant Detective Tan Divo. Having little faith in Divo, Amidala and her allies decided to conduct their own investigation, with the former especially distraught by the death of a man she considered family.

Suspecting that Farr could have been targeted by political enemies, Amidala and Organa confronted Burtoni and Deechi in the latter's office. The two initially laughed at Amidala's insinuation that they murdered Farr, but when Amidala and Organa made it clear their intentions were serious, Burtoni reminded them that she had used Farr's quotes extensively in her fundraising and jokingly asked why she would kill her best source of income. Padmé insinuated that Burtoni and Deechi would have wanted to silence him. Deechi told their interrogators that he had greatly respected Farr, though Burtoni chimed in and stated that she had no respect for the Rodian. Deechi revealed that he had been secretly having Farr followed despite their respectful working relationship. He gave the two senators information on a secret meeting Farr had at the docks under the derrick major the night before he died. Amidala and Organa turned to leave, but not before warning Burtoni and Deechi that they would have more questions upon their return.

At the dockyard Deechi spoke of, Amidala and Organa were attacked by a mysterious cloaked figure, leading them to suspect Deechi had set them up. When they returned to the Senate building to confront him again, however, they found the Umbaran dead in his office with a knife in his chest. Due to the run-in at the docks and a second murder, Lieutenant Divo had the Senate building placed under lockdown. After Padmé revealed that the only other person who knew about their trip to the docks was Burtoni, Divo went to the Kaminoan's office, only to find it empty. Suspicions of Burtoni compounded when Lolo Purs accused Burtoni of attacking her, warranting her detainment. Burtoni was arrested by Divo's police droids while walking to her office late at night in the east wing corridor, but she had no memory of the events that took place until she woke up in the Chancellor's office the following morning. There, she was met by Divo and his squad for another interrogation, witnessed by the Chancellor, Vice Chair, and the late Farr's allies.

Lieutenant Divo began questioning Burtoni, informally charged with the assassinations of both Farr and Deechi, in addition to attacking Purs. Burtoni plainly told Divo that she would not attack someone as unimportant as Purs and, likewise, only saw Farr as a "harmless bug" and considered Deechi an ally. Divo pointed out how Burtoni had coincidentally been in Amidala's office right before Farr died and had been in Deechi's office to hear about Farr's meeting at the dockyards. Finalizing Divo's evidence was the poison used to kill Farr, designed by Kaminoan scientists to harm only Rodians. Divo theorized that Burtoni had slipped the poison into Farr's drink in Amidala's office, then killed Deechi when she found out he knew about a meeting she had with Farr under the derrick major. Despite Burtoni's protests, Divo ordered her arrest.

As the CSF droids took Burtoni into custody, Amidala realized that Purs would have been killed had she drunk the poisoned wine as Farr had. With suspicion turned on her, Purs blew her cover and pointed her blaster at Amidala, inadvertently admitting to everything Divo had accused Burtoni of committing. She revealed that she had killed Farr because of his previous, but later disavowed, support for the Confederacy during a planetary crisis earlier in the war, believing that he was too weak to represent the Rodian people. Before Purs could leave the room, however, Divo used his wrist comm to order his police droids outside the office to enter, surrounding her, and Amidala swatted the blaster out of her hands and knocked her out with a hard punch. Divo subsequently had Purs arrested and Burtoni freed. The murder cases settled and solved, the Senate reconvened to vote on the late Farr's legislation, but the situation after his death deflated the support he had gathered. His bill was rejected, and the Republic was set to increase clone trooper production as outlined in Burtoni's appropriations act. Having won a great victory for Kamino's economic interests, Burtoni celebrated her triumph as her opponents accepted their defeat.

In 19 BBY, the Clone Wars came to a quick and tumultuous end when the remaining Confederate leaders were assassinated and the Republic was reorganized into the first Galactic Empire by Chancellor Palpatine, who granted himself the title of Galactic Emperor. Amidst the chaos, Burtoni's chief enemy, Padmé Amidala, was among those who died. As the new Empire organized itself and began efforts to cut loose ends from the war, the business relationship established between the former Republic and the Kaminoan government was called into question. With both the need for continued production of clone troopers and other economic considerations up for debate, the future of Kamino's prosperity seemed bleak. While Burtoni remained in her position as the planet's representative in the now-Imperial Senate, even serving on the Defense Finance Committee, she disagreed with early attempts by Prime Minister Lama Su to prove Kamino's necessity to the Empire and believed that he was fighting a losing battle.

Shortly after the Empire's formation, the high-ranking Imperial officer Wilhuff Tarkin appointed Vice Admiral Edmon Rampart as the overseer of Kamino, where he was to continue the Empire's evaluation of the clone trooper program. In this role, Rampart was placed in charge of financial appropriations regarding Kamino's cloning facilities, earmarks that were filed with the Defense Finance Committee. Still aggressive and intrusive in her older age, Burtoni learned that Rampart had begun siphoning Senate-approved funds meant for Kamino to outside projects. After this discovery, she proved to be a threat to top government officials, who covertly planned to shut down Kamino's cloning facilities despite Prime Minister Su's efforts. With both Burtoni's knowledge of the missing funds and plans for the Empire to sever ties with the Kaminoan government in place, her downfall was inevitable.

Burtoni was removed from office and publicly disgraced by the Empire, and she retired to live privately on Coruscant while the situation on Kamino deteriorated. After Su was arrested for treason several months later, Rampart carried out an atmospheric bombardment of Kamino's cities and other facilities, something which Burtoni had privately feared he would since witnessing him divert the earmarked funding. The attack destroyed the long-standing infrastructure of Kamino and wiped out a majority of Burtoni's people, and the remaining Kaminoans were scattered among the stars. Alone without a planet or a people, Burtoni chose not to concern herself with other Kaminoan diaspora, instead keeping to herself and maintaining her privacy, knowing that she had no more influence. Like what few others who knew of what the Empire had done to Kamino, Burtoni remained silent, and official reports blamed a cataclysmic storm for the carnage.

Months after the destruction of Kamino's facilities, the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill, legislation advocated by Admiral Rampart that would officially phase out the clone armies and replace them with a new military of conscripted soldiers, was introduced to the Senate. As with military expansion projects from the Clone Wars, the motion was supported by former allies of Burtoni, such as the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and opposed by her former enemies, the remaining members of Bail Organa's faction. Secretly believing that the Empire's report that a storm destroyed the cloning laboratories on Kamino was false, Riyo Chuchi, a fierce defender of clone rights, made contact with a clone, Slip, who claimed that Rampart had ordered the attack, but Rampart had the whistleblower assassinated. Hoping to help Chuchi find further evidence, Organa urged her to reach out to Burtoni, believing that the Kaminoan would know who had siphoned Kamino's funding since she once sat on the Defense Finance Committee, though he warned Chuchi that her cooperation might not be forthcoming.

Chuchi reached out to Burtoni, and accepting her invitation, the Kaminoan traveled to the Pantoran's apartment and was accompanied to a sitting room by the senator's guards, where she met with Chuchi and a young girl, Omega, a member of the rogue clone unit known as "the Bad Batch." Burtoni asked if the guards were necessary, and Chuchi sent them away. After appraising her and Omega, Burtoni sat down to hear what the senator wanted to discuss. Chuchi asked the Kaminoan if she knew about the misappropriated Kaminoan funds, which Burtoni confirmed. Chuchi questioned who had redirected the money, but Burtoni starkly stated that it was foolish to dig around where she should not, at which Chuchi brought up the Kaminoan people. Burtoni interjected and stated that she was unconcerned with the remaining Kaminoans. Disturbed, Omega asked Burtoni why she did not care about what had happened on Kamino, but Burtoni redirected the question back to the child. Omega told Burtoni that she was a clone and had been present to witness the destruction.

Omega angrily told Burtoni that the Empire's actions were not right, and Burtoni responded by opening up. The elder Kaminoan conceded to Chuchi and Omega that she suspected the Empire would attack her planet and believed that the destruction proved that no one was necessary to the Empire. Chuchi again asked Burtoni who had redirected the Empire's funding for Kamino, and Burtoni confirmed that Rampart had been the culprit. The Pantoran told Burtoni that she had to join her in the Senate to testify what she knew, but Burtoni dismissed her idea, stating that Rampart was only a "cog in the machine" and that her testimony would do little good. She suggested that Chuchi find concrete proof instead of relying on a disgraced former senator. Chuchi insisted that she needed both and informed Burtoni that she would have proper evidence by the time of the vote on the Defense Recruitment Bill the following day.

Agreeing to Chuchi's request, Burtoni joined the senator at the Senate building for the scheduled vote. When the session began, Rampart urged the Senate not to postpone the vote on the bill further, but Chuchi, accompanied by Burtoni, floated her pod onto the floor and told Rampart that the Senate could not trust him and announced that Burtoni was willing to testify that he had mishandled Senate-approved funding. Hoping to derail Chuchi's efforts, Rampart dismissed Burtoni as a disgraced senator, but the Pantoran maintained her case and suggested that a formal investigation could verify her claims. As Rampart tried to defend himself, Chuchi publicly asserted that the Empire had intentionally destroyed the cloning facilities. Rampart denied the allegation, and Burtoni leaned closer to Chuchi and asked where the proof she spoke of was. Chuchi admitted that she did not know, and calls rang out for her censure. Before any action could be taken to silence Chuchi, however, Senator Organa received the evidence from Omega and brought it to her pod, and Chuchi declared that she was in possession of the command log from Rampart's Venator-class Star Destroyer.

As Burtoni looked on, holographic footage of Rampart's Venator firing on Tipoca City was displayed before the Senate. When the congress broke into discord over the revelation, an alarm sounded as the Emperor's podium rose from his office below the chamber with Emperor Palpatine and the now-Grand Vizier Mas Amedda on it. Amedda told the Senate that Rampart's attack was "unprovoked" and ordered the Coruscant Guard to arrest the admiral, then gaveled his staff and called for order. Palpatine rose from his seat and announced that Rampart would face full consequences but added that the fact that the clones under his command had followed orders to destroy Tipoca City proved that the standing armies needed replacement. Palpatine officially endorsed the Defense Recruitment Bill, which he said would herald a new era of the Imperial stormtrooper. After her public involvement in the debate over the defense bill, Burtoni vanished from public life, and her ultimate fate was unknown.

Halle Burtoni was a female Kaminoan who stood at a tall 2.13 meters, or 7 feet, tall. Like all Kaminoans, Burtoni had a slender physique and a long neck, but by the time of the Clone Wars, her figure had become stooped with age. In her elder years, Burtoni quivered as she moved, and though she could walk without one, she often required a cane for mobility. She had lavender eyes and nearly luminescent skin, and her features bespoke the evolution of her species from the ancient inhabitants of Kamino's oceans. By the first year of the Imperial Era, Burtoni's skin had slightly darkened and become spotted. Her regalia included a headband with jewelry that draped down both sides of her head.

Over the course of her long career serving the people of Kamino, Burtoni demonstrated an iron will and determination to achieve her goals. Strong-minded and resolute in her opinions, Burtoni was a savvy politician whose commanding presence earned her respect from both her colleagues in the Galactic Senate and her people on Kamino. Burtoni was well-known and infamous for her belligerent attitude, with an aggressive and intrusive style of politicking. She was willing to flout others' personal spaces and instigate her opponents, and while those on her side were spared from her wrath, those who faced her could only hope that her confrontations would be swift and painless. Because of her aggressive behaviors, however, many suspected Burtoni of underhanded tactics to further her career. Motivated by her desire to further her homeworld's economic prosperity, Burtoni fought to increase the Republic's military output, supporting policies of deregulation, militarization, and increases in war spending.

Burtoni's positions made her an opponent of the small faction of progressive, anti-war senators that included Padmé Amidala and Onaconda Farr. Burtoni and Amidala were almost always at odds, and the Kaminoan developed a personal vendetta against the senator from Naboo. Burtoni longed to see Amidala's idealistic pushes for negotiations with the Confederacy of Independent Systems fail. Despite the spectacle and friction their confrontations involved, Burtoni and Amidala shared a common love for the their government. Though her top political priority was the economic benefit of Kamino, Burtoni possessed a strong loyalty to the Republic. A devoted patriot, she was a steady supporter of Chancellor Palpatine and would question or even threaten those who did not support the war. Unlike Amidala, Burtoni considered all Separatists traitors and considered efforts to push diplomatic resolutions to the war tantamount to treachery.

In her public life, Burtoni professed an apathetic personality, dismissing the widely-beloved Onaconda Farr after his death and being unmoved by Mee Deechi's murder despite being a close ally. After her homeworld was destroyed by the Galactic Empire, Burtoni likewise kept her opinions and hurt buried behind her caustic and unforthcoming persona. Her intrusive behaviors led to her downfall when they threatened the Empire, and she realized that she had little worth to the Empire and warned others not to intrude in the Empire's affairs as she had. Left without a planet or a people to represent, Burtoni did not care for the few remaining Kaminoans left in the galaxy but, when faced by the young clone Omega, who had witnessed Tipoca City's destruction, Burtoni openly expressed her emotions regarding the fate of her people and agreed to help Senator Riyo Chuchi fight for the rights of the clones she had worked with the Republic to purchase.

A career diplomat and politician, Halle Burtoni was highly skilled in her trade. Burtoni was an expert at political strategy and deal-making and used her curated skillset to her advantage while in the Senates of the Galactic Republic and the Galactic Empire. Armed with an innate talent to serve in leadership positions and wielding vast legislative knowledge, Burtoni relied on her political savvy to achieve her goals. While physically frail in her old age, Burtoni could still command those around her with her presence and was known for her powerful and passionate speeches.

Halle Burtoni was created for the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Concept art of the character, dated to April 2008, was drawn by artist David Le Merrer. Burtoni first appeared on February 12, 2010, in the season two episode "Duchess of Mandalore," where she is seen walking through the halls of the Galactic Senate. She was first identified in the following episode, "Senate Murders," which was released on March 19. In "Senate Murders," Burtoni was voiced by Jameelah McMillan. Later that same year, Burtoni was featured in two episodes of The Clone Wars season three, "Heroes on Both Sides" and "Pursuit of Peace," which chronologically take place just before the events of "Senate Murders."

Nearly thirteen years after her first appearance, Burtoni was featured in the animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch in the season two episode "Truth and Consequences," which aired on Disney+ on February 8, 2023. McMillan reprised her role as Burtoni for the episode. The Trivia Gallery for "Truth and Consequences" on StarWars.com incorrectly states that Burtoni lost her position in the Senate during the events of "Senate Murders." "Truth and Consequences" itself establishes that her position in the Senate outlived the Republic, making her part of the Imperial Senate before her eventual fall from power.

Reviewers have noted that Burtoni's name resembles that of Halliburton, an American oil company that has been criticized for its connections to the Iraq War and US Vice President Dick Cheney, subjects that have previously been lambasted by Clone Wars creator George Lucas.