Harriett Miers, the "Achilles Heel"?

[SHRED]

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Will she go to jail to protect Bush?
Not likely and Bush cannot exercise "executive privilege" over her considering she is a former White House Council.

In other words...she is an "Achilles Heel".

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"...Bush's greatest problem here, however, is Harriett Miers. It is dubious he can exert any privilege over a former White House Counsel; I doubt she is ready to go to prison for him; and all who know her say if she is under oath, she will not lie. That could be a problem."

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070323.html


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[Igel]

1. Try this parallel:

You have an attorney and divulge things to him that could get you in hot water: "Yes, Mike, I did embezzle that $20 million." As part of the defense, you show him the accounting records and try to provide an explanation.

But you don't like the pre-trial motions he's filing. You don't like his defense strategy, and you don't think he's doing a good job. You fire him.

He's no longer your attorney. Does he take the records where you pointed out how you embezzled the money and turn them over to the court? Or does attorney-client privilege still hold, so if he took the info you gave him, he'd be disbarred?

The latter. Now, this is a parallel, not a restatement of the Miers business (I assume that Miers isn't *'s attorney, so attorney-client privilege isn't an issue).

In both cases it's not the current status of the person that's involved, it's the status of the advising or discussion at the time it occurred. I'm not saying that Miers is covered by executive privilege; that I don't know, and presumably SCOTUS will decide (or maybe not, they don't like interfering in this mess until both sides have tried to work out a compromise).