From NEWSWEEK, Jan. 31 issue
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857224/site/newsweek/
Gonzales: Did He Help Bush Keep His DUI Quiet?
Did Gonzales get Bush off a DWI jury duty?
By Michael Isikoff
NewsweekJan. 31 issue -
Senate Democrats put off a vote on White House counsel Alberto
Gonzales's nomination to be attorney general, complaining he had
provided evasive answers to questions about torture and the
mistreatment of prisoners.
But Gonzales's most surprising answer may have come on a different
subject: his role in helping President Bush escape jury duty in a
drunken-driving case involving a dancer at an Austin strip club in
1996.
The judge and other lawyers in the case last week disputed a written
account of the matter provided by Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
"It's a complete misrepresentation," said David Wahlberg, lawyer for
the dancer, about Gonzales's account.
Bush's summons to serve as a juror in the drunken-driving case was, in
retrospect, a fateful moment in his political career: by getting
excused from jury duty he was able to avoid questions that would have
required him to disclose his own 1976 arrest and conviction for
driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) in Kennebunkport,
Maine--an incident that didn't become public until the closing days of
the 2000 campaign.
(Bush, who had publicly declared his willingness to serve, had left
blank on his jury questionnaire whether he had ever been "accused" in
a criminal case.)
Asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy to describe "in detail" the only court
appearance he ever made on behalf of Bush, Gonzales--who was then
chief counsel to the Texas governor--wrote that he had accompanied
Bush the day he went to court "prepared to serve on a jury."
While there, Gonzales wrote, he "observed" the defense lawyer make a
motion to strike Bush from the jury panel "to which the prosecutor did
not object."
Asked by the judge whether he had "any views on this," Gonzales
recalled, he said he did not.
While Gonzales's account tracks with the official court transcript, it
leaves out a key part of what happened that day, according to Travis
County Judge David Crain.
In separate interviews, Crain--along with Wahlberg and prosecutor John
Lastovica--told NEWSWEEK that, before the case began, Gonzales asked
to have an off-the-record conference in the judge's chambers.
Gonzales then asked Crain to "consider" striking Bush from the jury,
making the novel "conflict of interest" argument that the Texas
governor might one day be asked to pardon the defendant (who worked at
an Austin nightclub called Sugar's), the judge said.
"He [Gonzales] raised the issue," Crain said. Crain said he found
Gonzales's argument surprising, since it was "extremely unlikely" that
a drunken-driving conviction would ever lead to a pardon petition to
Bush.
But "out of deference" to the governor, Crain said, the other lawyers
went along.
Wahlberg said he agreed to make the motion striking Bush because he
didn't want the hard-line governor on his jury anyway.
But there was little doubt among the participants as to what was going
on.
"In public, they were making a big show of how he was prepared to
serve," said Crain.
"In the back room, they were trying to get him off."
Gonzales last week refused to waver.
"Judge Gonzales has no recollection of requesting a meeting in
chambers," a senior White House official said, adding that while
Gonzales did recall that Bush's potential conflict was "discussed," he
never "requested" that Bush be excused.
"His answer to the Senate's question is accurate," the official said.
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Another story about baby George getting his ***** wiped.
Harry
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