Posted on 08/05/2003 11:33:33 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
8/5/2003 CLINTON LEGAL FEES’ DECISION JUST MEDICINE
by
Prof. L. Lynn Hogue
Chairman, Legal Advisory Board, Southeastern Legal Foundation
Hogue, an Arkansas-licensed attorney, filed the successful Bar complaint against former President Clinton resulting in the first-ever surrender of a law license by a sitting President.
As appeared in Knight-Ridder newspapers across the nation, July 2003
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that it is time for the Clintons to pay the piper, in large measure because, as attorneys, they should have known better.
The Clintons’ sleazy shenanigans in Arkansas land dealings, Rose law firm misconduct and playing fast and loose with Jim and Susan McDougal (Whitewater, Madison Guaranty), not to mention the still-mysterious death of Clinton confidant Vince Foster, Travelgate and related matters prompted an extensive, time-consuming investigation.
The appellate court concluded that it was no "witch hunt," but rather a proper inquiry into alleged criminal conduct that resulted in convictions of Clinton cronies, an impeachment and Senate trial, and a shameful end to President Clinton's legal career -- suspension from the practice of law in Arkansas for five years and consequent disbarment in the United States Supreme Court.
The Clintons sought a little over $3.5 million in legal fees of which they will receive back only a pittance (2% or around $85,000) for the time spent reading the independent prosecutor's chronicle of their misdeeds.
The real story is what the Clintons' duplicity cost the American taxpayer: more than $70 million for an investigation that lasted for more than seven years. Now-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton should consider how much medical care or child care that would have bought if only she and her dissembling husband had taken the "come clean road" taken by former President Richard Nixon (who, in contrast to Clinton, was not impeached).
The Southeastern Legal Foundation played an instrumental role in exacting accountability from President Clinton for lying to a federal court about his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. It was the writ of mandamus awarded by the Arkansas Supreme Court in Hogue v. Neal that forced the Arkansas Bar to move forward with Clinton's censure. It was the resulting penalty (suspension from the practice of law in Arkansas for five years and consequent tdisbarment in the United States Supreme Court) that Clinton accepted in the waning hours of his misspent Presidency.
The costs for defending that aspect of his misdeed are not part of his claim for reimbursement. He agreed in his settlement with the independent counsel not to seek attorneys' fees "for legal representation related to the Lewinsky matter." Guilty as charged!
Both Clintons are attorneys and, as such, they continue to fall under a special and strict set of rules designed to protect the integrity of the legal system that do not apply to non-lawyers. This sad episode serves to remind members of the legal profession that they are duty-bound to protect the integrity of the judicial system, no matter what elevated position they might hold.
Unlike the Iran-Contra investigations, which yielded little in terms of criminal activity, and none in terms of then-President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush, the expanded Whitewater investigation is the most fruitful investigation against a sitting President since Watergate. Consider the civil contempt holding against President Clinton by a federal judge criminal convictions of several government officials, including a sitting Governor impeachment proceedings by the U.S. House an Agreed Order of Discipline with the Independent Counsel in which Clinton surrendered his law license for an unprecedented 5 years and, disbarment by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Clintons also maintain a multi-million dollar legal defense fund, which would have been a foreign concept for Reagan and Bush.
The point here, as underscored by the federal appeals court decision to limit the scope of recoupment for the Clintons to $85,000, is that elected officials are not immune from criminal and civil investigations while in office. Public confidence in the legal system and the lawyers who operate in that system as officers of the court is paramount, and the court has reaffirmed that principle.
It is my opinion that we must remain always vigilant against the continuous, ongoing efforts of the scumbag liberal newsrooms in this country to spin the history of Whitewater into a dead-end investigation which showed that the Clintons did nothing wrong.
I would love to see those two scumbags sued for the money.
Regards,
This was soooo obvious to most Americans who were not brainwashed, liberal, or satanic. Imagine if GW Bush was to get a parking ticket today, the media would go ballistic. To the press then, it was just:
"Poor Bill and Hillary---they need millions and millions of dollars donated to them because they are such victims."
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