(Sandy) Berger Is Disbarred After Archives Case [View All]

Source: WP

Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, was voluntarily disbarred from the practice of law yesterday by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Berger agreed last month to relinquish his law license to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, a part of the D.C. Bar, rather than submit to an investigation by the bar's counsel of his removal of classified documents from the National Archives. A three-member panel of the D.C. appellate court accepted his offer.

Berger pleaded guilty in April 2005 to taking classified material without authorization, a misdemeanor. As part of the plea agreement, Berger admitted he lied to Archives staff about taking copies of national security documents out of the building. He was fined $50,000 and barred from access to classified material for three years.

The Board on Professional Responsibility oversees ethical and professional standards for District lawyers, and the Office of Bar Counsel investigates allegations of unethical or unprofessional conduct. Bar counsel investigations are typically secret but are frequently triggered by media accounts of wrongdoing or, as in Berger's case, by criminal convictions.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060702278.html