KRT Wire | 07/25/2005 | Deputy attorney general nominee's record likely to draw scrutiny

BY ANDREW ZAJAC

Chicago Tribune


WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Timothy Flanigan, President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general, has repeatedly found himself in pitched political and ideological battles, including the court fight over the disputed Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election, and the crafting of White House memos that justified torture of alleged terrorists.

His involvement with those memos while serving as deputy White House counsel following the Sept. 11 attacks almost certainly will draw questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is slated to hold a hearing on his nomination Tuesday afternoon.

But Flanigan's resume contains other entries that also may draw scrutiny, particularly from committee Democrats.

In his current position as senior vice president and general counsel of Tyco International, Flanigan oversaw the work of Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who is the subject of at least two congressional investigations and a Justice Department inquiry and is alleged to have bilked millions of dollars from six Indian tribes.

Abramoff listed the president's office among the agencies his team of lobbyists sought to influence on behalf of Tyco during Flanigan's tenure at the Bermuda-based conglomerate.

In a brief telephone interview Monday, Flanigan said he did not personally lobby the White House and that he made a point of avoiding contact with it even beyond the requirements of "revolving door" rules restricting the contact of former government officials with their old offices.

He referred further questions to Tyco; a company spokeswoman declined to comment.

If confirmed, Flanigan would replace James Comey, a career prosecutor who has received bipartisan praise for his performance. He is leaving for a private sector job.

Flanigan, 52, has a lengthy pedigree in conservative and Republican circles.

During much of the administration of Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, Flanigan was assistant attorney general in charge of the office of legal counsel, which advises the executive branch on constitutional issues.

He subsequently practiced corporate law, but also testified occasionally before Congress, taking conservative positions on such issues as limiting the lobbying activities of groups receiving federal funding and on the need to limit judicial activism.

A graduate of Brigham Young University and the University of Virginia Law School, Flanigan in 1985 and 1986 was senior law clerk to the late Chief Justice Warren Burger.

Between 1996 and 1999, Flanigan was paid more than $800,000 as a consultant to the Federalist Society, an association of conservative lawyers with significant ties to the current Bush administration, to write an as yet unfinished biography of Burger.

The underwriters of the book were publishing magnate Dwight Opperman, whose family formerly controlled the West Publishing Co. legal publishing empire, and Wade Burger, Warren Burger's son, Federalist Society executive director Eugene Meyer said in an exchange of e-mails.

Flanigan said he took a leave of absence from his corporate law practice to write the book. It was supposed to be completed by mid-2001, but Flanigan said, "It was just a laborious effort ... it's still in process."

In the aftermath of the 2000 election, Flanigan was a key member of a legal team headed by former Solicitor General Theodore Olson that helped Bush capture Florida's electoral votes and with them the presidency.

Flanigan subsequently joined the White House and worked as a deputy to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, who is now the attorney general.

While working in the White House, Flanigan and Gonzales were part of a small circle of lawyers who worked to craft the legal justification to give Bush a free hand to wage the administration's war on terror. One outgrowth of their deliberations was a since-repudiated August 2002 memo that argued that the president was not limited by international treaties outlawing torture of detainees.

Flanigan left government to join Tyco in November 2002, after disgraced chief executive Dennis Kozlowski had left the company, and three months after Tyco had hired Abramoff's law firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP, to do lobbying work in Washington.

Greenberg billed Tyco $40,000 in 2002, and $280,000 for the first six months of 2003, according to lobbyist records filed with the Senate.

In August 2003, Abramoff himself signed on to the Tyco account for Greenberg and billings for the second half of 2003 zoomed to $800,000, records show. Abramoff listed the "Executive Office of the President" as among the agencies Greenberg was trying to influence.

The lobbyist left Greenberg Traurig in March 2004. The firm's lobbying billings to Tyco for the first six months of 2004 totaled $480,000. Abramoff could not be reached for comment.

Messages left with Greenberg Traurig's government affairs director were not returned Monday night.

White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said she needed more information before she could comment. "What do they mean by lobbying the executive office of the president?" Healy asked.

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© 2005, Chicago Tribune.