Edited on Sun May-24-09 10:22 AM by L. Coyote
Bradford Berenson, associate counsel under Gonzales at White House.
Barack Obama (later a Sidley Austin intern) at Bradford Berenson’s apartment,
where he watched the 1990 election returns.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5259930=================
Ralston's attorney: Bradford Berenson, associate counsel under Gonzales at White House
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3022643#3022954Bradford A. Berenson is one of the original eight associate counsels during Alberto Gonzales's tenure as White House counsel.
Bradford Berenson Returns to Sidley Austin Brown & Wood After Two Years as Associate Counsel to the President
http://www.sidley.com/news/pub.asp?PubID=17153282003Represented Executive on Issues from Homeland Security to the USA Patriot Act
.... associate White House counsel under President George W. Bush, ... appointed by the president in January 2001 ... Berenson’s responsibilities included work on judicial selection, executive privilege, and responses to congressional oversight efforts. .... He worked on the USA Patriot Act, the military order authorizing the use of military commissions, detainee policy and anti-terrorism litigation, presidential action against terrorist financing, and the restructuring of the federal government to create a new Department of Homeland Security.
Mr. Berenson ... previously worked on the defense of complex white collar criminal matters... defended criminal cases at every stage of development, from corporate internal investigations and grand jury proceedings through trials, sentencings, and appeals, in areas as diverse as government contracts, environmental crime, health care, and public corruption ...
Berenson ... clerked for... Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court.
====================
Peter Keisler, Rove, Abramoff, DoJ, the USAs, Bradford Berenson, and Sidley & Austin
I'm no longer surprised when I encounter new Culture of Corruption links. It is one big Family, or perhaps "the Enterprise" is a better term.
Peter Keisler, who recently resigned along with Gonzales, represented ATT in a case while a partner in Sidley & Austin, before being hired by DoJ.
I recognize the law firm name because Bradford Berenson, another Sidley & Austin partner, represents other resignees in the Bush administration, Kyle Sampson and Susan B. Ralston, aide Rove and Abramoff and former White House political director..
Berenson, like Keisler, is also a former SCOTUS clerk, was a Bush WH deputy counsel, was involved in the Florida recount, and defends NSA spying and presidential power.
========================
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1839232#1842290Administration officials refused Friday to discuss the National Security Agency spying program or even to confirm its existence.
Some former officials say it is important to put the program into the context of the time. "I wasn't aware of this when I was at the White House, but there was a tremendous sense of urgency to take whatever steps were necessary to detect and disrupt any cells that were out there," said Bradford A. Berenson
... Berenson, the former White House associate counsel, said that in rare cases, the presidents' advisers may decide that an existing law violates the Constitution "by invading the president's executive powers as commander in chief." ........
===============================
WilliamPitt = Who should be going to jail for torture?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5525548#5525748Supersedeas .... you might want to consider William Haynes, Eliana Davidson, Daniel Dell'Orto and Bradford Berenson
Key to the development of the Torture Program was the bootstrap initiated by the WH Counsel's office of AVOIDING Geneva. See p. 2 FN 10 of the Senate Report. So much of what followed was development out of developing a legal work-around to avoid Geneva (now we know with CERTAINTY the workaround was UNCONSTITUTIONAL - see Hamdan v. Rumsfield).
Bradford Berenson was also party of that the UNCONSTITUTIONAL effort. Consider this:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/interviews/berenson.html