by Glynn Wilson

President Barack Obama’s attorney, White House Counsel Greg Craig, may be asked to recuse himself from deciding the new administration’s policy on “executive privilege” as it relates to the Congressional investigation of Karl Rove, the former Bush political adviser who was involved in advising the Justice Department on political firings and prosecutions.

Rove is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Monday under a congressional subpoena to testify about his knowledge of political manipulation of the justice system, in the firings of U.S. attorneys who would not do the bidding of the Bush White House and in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

But it is not clear as of midnight Saturday night whether an agreement has been reached in ongoing negotiations between the committee, the courts, the White House or the Justice Department under new Attorney General Eric Holder.

Legal documents show that Craig could have a conflict of interest since he has represented Rove in the past, and informed sources say he is a close friend of Rove who has been seen drinking with him in Washington bars on occasion. Craig is also an old acquaintance of Don Siegelman. They met in 1968, Siegelman confirmed in an e-mail message, although he has so far not agreed to reveal more about their relationship over the years.

“Greg Craig is a very good person and very good lawyer,” Siegelman said.

Also of interest, Craig’s law partner at Williams and Connolly, Emmet Flood, is representing George W. Bush in the negotiations. Bush has pushed for an all-inclusive definition of executive privilege and demanded that Rove and other former White House staffers, including Bush’s chief of staff Josh Bolton and one-time White House Counsel Harriet Miers, refuse to cooperate with Congress or the courts.

Under an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Craig has until February 25 to arrive at an agreement with Rove’s attorney and the Justice Department on whether the Obama administration will uphold Bush’s claim of executive privilege in Rove’s case. U.S. District Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee, ruled that Rove does not enjoy executive privilege and denied Craig’s request to put off the decision until March 4.

Flood was also the special counsel to President Bush who ordered the Republican National Committee to withhold e-mails from the House Judiciary Committee on the U.S. Attorneys firings investigation, according to investigative reporter Wayne Madsen.

And the conflicts on Crag’s part do not end there…

According to North Alabama attorney Jill Simpson, former President Bill Clinton arranged for Craig to give legal advice to her and Siegelman. Craig also represented Clinton in his impeachment fight after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Before declining to represent Ms. Simpson in her appearance before the House Judiciary Committee staff, Craig listened to a good part of her story while under the protection of attorney-client privilege. Other attorneys in Montgomery, who approached Ms. Simpson claiming they wanted to help her, then put her in touch with David Laufman, a Texas native who has acted as a “cleaner” for the Bush family in past scandals.

Craig also represented Alabama’s senior Republican Senator Richard Shelby when he came under suspicion for leaking classified information to Fox News in 2004 when he was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The information consisted of two messages intercepted by the National Security Agency on September 10, 2001, but translated only after the attacks the next day: “the match is about to begin” and “tomorrow is zero hour.” The messages were used later to show how the Bush administration knew about threats on 9/11 but did not act on them.

Both the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI investigated Shelby’s case, and a grand jury was empaneled to hear evidence. In July 2004, the largely Republican Department of Justice declined to file criminal charges against Shelby and transferred the case to the Senate Ethics Committee. In November 2005, the committee dismissed its probe into the alleged leak of classified information regarding NSA intercepts the day before the attacks, so Shelby was never prosecuted or censured.

According to Ms. Simpson, Craig also broke Shelby’s attorney-client privilege by telling her that he was one of the owners in a major military-government contractor, Doss Aviation, a company now linked to the Siegelman case because of an alleged conflict of interest on the part of Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller, who was a majority shareholder when he sat in judgment in the Siegelman-Scrushy case.

Flood also represented Vice President Dick Cheney in the criminal probe of the leak of the identity of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame-Wilson, a probe that also involved Rove, although he narrowly escaped prosecution in that case when I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, took the fall for that breach of national security. When Libby’s appeal failed, Bush commuted his sentence of 30 months in federal prison, but allowed the $250,000 fine and 400 hours of community service to stand. He was automatically disbarred from practicing law upon his conviction.

Rove has said he enjoys no personal privilege in the case and would agree to provide the committee with answers, but he has so far defied every attempt to force him to testify under oath and on the record. We will see if he shows up Monday.

Siegelman said he didn’t think the issue of a conflict of interest is of much “consequence,” although Ms. Simpson’s attorney, Priscilla Duncan, said Friday she was drafting a letter to Craig asking that he recuse himself. She declined to release the letter until Craig has a chance to respond.

Siegelman indicated Craig will do a good job representing the president, even if that “may not always serve the best interests of full disclosure.”

“We will see what happens on Monday,” Siegelman said. We will see, “if Rove shows up, if he is put under oath, and what questions are asked.”

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Tags: Greg Craig, Karl Rove

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 am and is filed under Don Siegelman on Trial, Political Justice in America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.