Should Lawyers Let Their Clients Cooperate With Political Investigations?

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Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)

While Alberto Gonzales is breathing a sigh of relief after discovering that he will not be referred to a grand jury for his alleged role in the 2006 firings of nine U.S. attorneys, Kyle Sampson has quite a bit less to be happy about. The report focused a lot of its attention Sampson, who, as Gonzales’s chief of staff, carried out the firings of eight prosecutors.

Today, Sampson’s attorney, Sidley Austin’s Bradford Berenson, seems to be ruing the decision to let Sampson cooperate with and be interviewed for the IG’s investigation. In a statement, Berenson wrote:

It is mystifying and disappointing that the Inspector General chose to impugn Mr. Sampson’s candor and integrity when, virtually alone among significant participants in this matter, Mr. Sampson at all times cooperated fully and voluntarily with any and all investigators, without preconditions, and provided his best, most honest and complete recollection of these events. He has behaved with honor and dignity throughout this difficult episode and has never attempted to shirk his responsibility for problems in the U.S. Attorney firings.

For instance, Footnote 17 (on page 34), which follows the list of people Sampson recommended removing, reads:

As noted below, Sampson said he came up with these 14 names based on his own “quick and dirty” review of U.S. Attorneys and said he intended that the names would be subjected to further vetting “down the road.” We did not investigate the circumstances of each U.S. Attorney who appeared on Sampson’s initial list, and we believe no conclusions can or should be reached about the performance of these U.S. Attorneys based on Sampson’s inclusion of their names on his list.

Mike Elston, who served as chief of staff to former Deputy AG Paul McNulty until his resignation in June 2007, also cooperated with the investigation. Meanwhile, Akin Gump’s John Dowd declined to let his client, Monica Goodling, cooperate. And even though the last IG’s report singled her out for blame, this report has relatively little information about Goodling’s role in the firings compared to the mass of information about the roles of Elston and and Sampson.

Neither Sidley Austin’s Berenson nor Akin Gump’s Dowd returned calls. Though Akin Gump released this statement today. A call to Mike Elston, who’s now a partner at McGuire Woods, was not immediately returned.