Bush campaign lawyer works with ad group (And DNC lawyer works with ad group)

NJ.com ^ | 8/25/04 | SHARON THEIMER

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Bush's election lawyers also advises a group running ads against Democratic rival John Kerry. A Democratic Party attorney works for the group behind commercials that criticize Bush.

Welcome to politics under a new campaign finance law.

In effect for the first time this election cycle, the law bans national party committees and federal candidates from raising or spending big donations known as soft money, and imposes tougher rules banning coordination between soft-money groups and parties or candidates.

But the law doesn't necessarily make it easier to prove who's involved with what on the campaign trail.

On Tuesday, Benjamin Ginsberg, a lawyer for Bush's re-election campaign, disclosed that he has been providing legal advice for a veterans group challenging Kerry's account of his Vietnam War service.

[snip]

Joe Sandler, a lawyer for the DNC and MoveOn.org, a group running anti-Bush ads, said there is nothing wrong with serving in both roles at once. Attorneys are ethically bound to maintain attorney-client confidentiality, and could lose their law licenses if they violate that, he said.

Larry Noble, head of the Center for Responsive Politics campaign watchdog group and a former FEC general counsel, said serving as a lawyer for both a campaign and a soft-money group isn't considered automatic evidence of coordination under commission rules. But that doesn't mean the FEC won't look at it, he said.

[kattracks]

Odd headline considering that both Dem and Republican lawyers are involved. In fact out of fifteen paragraphs only one mentions the Dem lawyer.

[sonofatpatcher2]

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