Word: counsel
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...when Cooper was named to head the department's Office of Legal Counsel, he immediately thought of Alito to be one of his deputies. The office functions almost as a law firm within the Executive Branch, offering legal advice on the various ideas coming from other presidential aides?the perfect post for a man who focused more on the fine points of jurisprudence than on politics. This was a chance for a big step up. The question was, Could he be trusted...
...Because the NSA program was so sensitive, Administration officials tell TIME, the "lawyers' group," an organization of fewer than half a dozen government attorneys the National Security Council convenes to review top-secret intelligence programs, was bypassed. Instead, the legal vetting was given to Alberto Gonzales, then White House counsel. In the weeks since Dec. 16, when the program was disclosed by the New York Times, it has set off a ferocious debate in Washington and around the country about how the rule of law should constrain the war on terrorism...
...years that followed weren't much better. The 1992 defeat hit Bush so hard that friends say he needed half a decade to get over it, and an aide recalls that some of Clinton's angriest private moments during his impeachment were rants directed not at independent counsel Ken Starr but at the Bush family's aura of privilege at a time when Clinton felt persecuted. Besides, whatever their history, the dynastic calculations were dizzying: one man's son is President, and the other's wife is believed by many to be a contender for next in line--a pair...
...some had argued applied only on U.S. soil. But, Hadley suggested, McCain's amendment to the Pentagon policy bill may end up making it more difficult to prosecute interrogators if they employ techniques green-lighted by government lawyers and thus can use "good-faith reliance on the advice of counsel" as a defense...
Former CIA general counsel Jeffrey Smith, a key torture-ban advocate, said it would be "deeply distressing" if the amendment is interpreted as toothless. Another sign that the U.S. is sending mixed messages on torture: a provision in the bill would allow military panels to assess information obtained through "coercion" when considering whether to continue holding an enemy combatant...