A Blast from the Past: The President's Lawyer

From CBS NEWS -June 24, 2004:


Federal investigators questioned President Bush for more than an hour Thursday as the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name reached into the Oval Office.

The president was interviewed for 70 minutes by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the head of the Justice Department investigation, and by members of his team. The only other person in the room was Jim Sharp, a private trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor hired by Mr. Bush, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

From Raw Story:

Bush's new lawyer harbors secretive, criminal past

The cult of secrecy surrounding President Bush’s newly retained lawyer in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case is so strong that the White House refuses even to confirm who the president’s lawyer is...

...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...

...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...

From FindLaw -Jun. 04, 2004/Author John Dean:

The Serious Implications Of President Bush's Hiring A Personal Outside Counsel For The Valerie Plame Investigation

Recently, the White House acknowledged that President Bush is talking with, and considering hiring, a non-government attorney, James E. Sharp. Sharp is being consulted, and may be retained, regarding the current grand jury investigation of the leak revealing the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA covert operative.

(Plame is the wife of Bush critic and former ambassador Joe Wilson; I discussed the leak itself in a prior column, and then discussed further developments in the investigation in a follow-up column.)

This action by Bush is a rather stunning and extraordinary development. The President of the United States is potentially hiring a private criminal defense lawyer. Unsurprisingly, the White House is doing all it can to bury the story, providing precious little detail or context for the President's action...

If only my biggest dream would come true so we can wake up from this nightmare.

His own, private lawyer? That's odd.

Oh, apparently, Sharp represented Ken Lay too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Sharp

I read just yesterday that Roberts (Bush's Chief Justice pick) wrote a legal opinion for Poppy Bush when he pardoned a number of Iran Contra conspirators. Now Bush is trying to get Miers (utterly loyal to Bush) appointed to the Court. He's trying to save himself.

I infer from Bush's SC appointments that things are really bad for these guys, and they know it (of course); they know more than any of the rest of us do. This could end up making Iran Contra look like a joke.

I wonder if Bush's Iran Contra lawyer has been giving him advice on SC picks? Maybe Daddy is devising a strategery to keep his ill-formed progeny's neck out of the noose. You can count on Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and (if appointed) Miers for certain. Furthermore, Roberts is Chief Justice.

They're setting the table for a major battle. The problem for the real Neocons is that they aren't really part of the Bush inner circle; Poppy doesn't like them. They're gonna get hung out to dry in order to save the family.

i wonder if the dragon-lady itself is getting nervous. LOOOOOOL