---

Turning lawyers into government spies
Paul Craig Roberts

When will the first lawyer be arrested, indicted and sent to prison for failing to help the government convict his client? You can bet it will be soon. Once the Securities and Exchange Commission, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Justice (sic) complete their assault on the attorney-client privilege, they will rush to make an example of a lawyer, lest any fail to understand that their new role in life is to serve as government informants on their clients.

Just as government bureaucrats used the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to assault the Bill of Rights and our constitutional protections, they are now using "accounting scandals" and "tax evasion" to assault the attorney-client privilege, a key component of the Anglo-American legal system that enables a defendant, whether guilty or innocent, to mount a defense against the overwhelming power of the state. ...

...In our days, the Benthamite attack on the attorney-client privilege was revived by Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Gerson, who declared the 400-member prominent law firm of Kaye, Scholer "an abettor of crime" for not ratting on its client, Lincoln S&L owner Charles Keating. The government froze the assets of the law firm and the personal assets of the 400 partners, an action that coerced the firm and its partners to hand over a $41 million ransom payment to the government.

Fierce opposition from bar associations and legal authorities could not prevent the government from succeeding in this act of robber barony, despite the fact that Keating had not gone to trial or been convicted of any offense. The law firm was robbed for abetting a crime that had not been tried or proven. ...