WASHINGTON – One of President Bush’s top lawyers resigned from his campaign Wednesday, a day after disclosing that he had given legal advice to a veterans group airing TV ads challenging Democrat John Kerry’s Vietnam War service. The guidance included checking ad scripts, the group said.
Benjamin Ginsberg, who also represented Bush in the 2000 Florida recount that made the Republican president, told Bush in a letter he felt his legal work for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had become a distraction for the re-election campaign.
“I have decided to resign as national counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn’t distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing,” Ginsberg wrote.
The Kerry campaign portrayed Ginsberg’s departure as another sign of ties between the Bush campaign and the veterans group, which has been airing ads accusing Kerry of exaggerating his Vietnam record.
“The sudden resignation of Bush’s top lawyer doesn’t end the extensive web of connections between George Bush and the group trying to smear John Kerry’s military record,” said Kerry-Edwards campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. “In fact, it only confirms the extent of those connections.”
A senior House Democrat, Michigan Rep. John Dingell, sent a letter asking Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate the possible “illegal coordination” between the two. The Bush campaign and the veterans group have denied any coordination.
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said the campaign knew Ginsberg had other clients but didn’t know he was advising the Swift Boat group until reporters began asking about it Tuesday.
A spokesman for the veterans group said it would continue to get legal advice from Ginsberg.
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