Reply #33: Here's the reason he had outside counsel [View All]

[Rob H.]

Bush looked into hiring a non-government attorney because--and the irony is just deilcious, imo--hiring an outside attorney is required for Bush to maintain lawyer-client privilege. Bush wouldn't have enjoyed the same level of privilege had he chosen a White House lawyer. The person who "decimated the attorney-client privilege for government lawyers and their clients"? Kenneth Starr.

John Dean wrote an article in June 2004 about this very subject for Findlaw.com. Enjoy. :)


Edited to add the last three paragraphs from the article linked above. Some pretty interesting stuff.

I raised the issue of whether the President might be able to invoke executive privilege as to this information. But the attorney I consulted - who is well versed in this area of law -- opined that "Neither 'outing' Plame, nor covering for the perpetrators would seem to fall within the scope of any executive privilege that I am aware of."

That may not stop Bush from trying to invoke executive privilege, however - or at least from talking to his attorney about the option. As I have discussed in one of my prior columns, Vice President Dick Cheney has tried to avoid invoking it in implausible circumstances - in the case that is now before the U.S .Supreme Court. Rather he claims he is beyond the need for the privilege, and simply cannot be sued.

Suffice it to say that whatever the meaning of Bush's decision to talk with private counsel about the Valerie Plame leak, the matter has taken a more ominous turn with Bush's action. It has only become more portentous because now Dick Cheney has also hired a lawyer for himself, suggesting both men may have known more than they let on. Clearly, the investigation is heading toward a culmination of some sort. And it should be interesting.

Also edited to add these paragraphs from this story at Rawstory.com. The lawyer Bush hired, James Sharp, was involved as a lawyer in Iran-Contra and possibly Watergate. He sounds like a real piece of work, which is probably why Bush chose him.

Sharp long has cloaked himself in secrecy, even taking the unusual move of paying to have his address and telephone number removed from the major Martindale legal directory. He was an assistant district attorney before he came to Washington and has a history of taking on cases with political implications.

Sharp’s highest profile client was Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, a major figure in the Iran-Contra scandal who helped Lt. Col. Oliver North accumulate untaxed wealth in overseas accounts.

--snippage--

And, as the White House refuses to confirm Sharp’s identity, some speculate that he might also have been the Jim Sharp who served as an attorney to Jeb Magruder, a player in the Watergate scandal. It’s possible, one blogger notes, since James E. Sharp, born in 1940, would have been 33 at the time.

If it is the same case, Sharp was accused of sneaky dealing there, too: A recent book by Tony Lukas — “Nightmare” — has Sharp telling a Watergate defendant that he’ll let him confess all first to get a plea deal, then subsequently scheduling an appointment for his client, Jeb Magruder, to get his deal first.