Another possible political indictment: one of Gore's Lawyers from 2000

[seasat]

From a Robin Blumner column in the St Pete Times:

And now comes a disturbing prosecution in Miami of an attorney who helped to represent Al Gore during the 2000 election recount fight.

Ben Kuehne, one of South Florida's pre-eminent lawyers, has been charged with conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice and is looking at a potential 20-year sentence. The charges stem from a series of opinion letters he wrote in the federal prosecution of Colombian drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa Vasquez.
...
But even if Kuehne's political bent didn't have anything to do with the decision to prosecute, one can't help but wonder if this isn't an attempt by the Justice Department to make top-notch attorneys think twice about criminal defense work.

Milton Hirsch, one of those top Miami criminal defense attorneys, says that this prosecution changes the landscape for his profession, making the prospect of accepting even reasonably vetted money from a client a terrifying gamble. You would think, Hirsch says, that "good-faith brownie points" would be earned by an attorney who at least tries to assess the origin of fee money. But instead the attorney faces a career- and possibly liberty-ending indictment.

This column was the first time I heard about this case. Blumner makes the point that it could be either political or a heavy handed way of chilling lawyers from representing high profile clients. It sounds to me like Shrub Inc is getting a two for one in this case.

[Cassandra]

1. Bushco dosesn't want to be able to hire lawyers...

in the future? They should be careful what they wish for.

[lonestarnot]

2. Damn!

[L. Coyote]

3. Competing cartels?

[seasat]

4. Possibly doesn't want the competition when he retires to Paraguay.

He's already got the property there.

[hootinholler]

5. I can't believe this got 2 recommends in 24 hours.

Thanks for posting this, bookmarked.

-Hoot

[seasat]

6. It's because I'm a scientist. I have trouble writing non-descriptive titles.

I would have had more views if I had titled it:

O'MY GAWD!!! ROVE F'ING OVER GORE'S LAWYER!!!!

[hootinholler]

7. Sounds like a good experiment to me

In the interests of science and all.

:evilgrin:

-Hoot