Clinton Builds Capitol-Savvy Legal Team

Gregory Craig has always relished a challenge. Last December, while accompanying Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on a diplomatic tour of Africa, Craig--the State Department’s director of policy planning--plunged 350 feet into the Zambezi River gorge at the end of a bungee cord.

The 53-year-old Washington lawyer took another dive into the unknown Tuesday when he agreed to help defend President Clinton against possible impeachment proceedings arising from the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal.

Craig was joined by Susan A. Brophy and Steven J. Ricchetti on Clinton’s augmented legal defense team. All three have extensive experience on Capitol Hill.

Brophy, 46, was the Clinton administration’s deputy White House liaison officer to Congress until she resigned last January after she married Gerald McGowan, who had just been named U.S. ambassador to Portugal.

Ricchetti, 41, is a lobbyist in private practice who earlier worked in Clinton’s office of legislative affairs.

By turning to Craig, Brophy and Ricchetti, Clinton abandoned earlier attempts to recruit a former member of Congress, such as one-time Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine). And former Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste has told friends that he turned down the post because he could not see himself “dealing with this kind of material every day.”

Craig, Brophy and Ricchetti are all highly regarded on Capitol Hill, though their experience has been more extensive in the Senate than the House. That could prove an initial handicap to Clinton, since it is the House that decides whether a president should be impeached. If it approves impeachment, the matter then goes to the Senate for a trial, with a two-thirds vote required to remove the president.

On the three new aides, Craig comes the closest to membership in Washington’s corps of super-lawyers. Over the last two decades, he has swung between a senior partnership in the prestigious firm of Williams & Connolly and high-level government posts.

Since the start of Clinton’s second term, he has been director of the State Department’s Office of Policy and Planning. His previous posts include serving as senior advisor on foreign and military affairs to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

A colleague at the State Department said that Craig would be missed at policy planning, where “he was just starting to hit his stride.”

But the colleague added: “He was somewhat frustrated [at State] because he’s used to getting things done quickly.”

Associates described Craig as a non-ideological, centrist Democrat who loves the challenge of fixing complex political problems. He has worked on issues over the last 20 years involving El Salvador, Nicaragua, Eritrea, Tibet, the Caspian Sea and Turkey.

Leonel Gomez, a longtime human rights crusader in El Salvador, called Craig “a hero” who provided free legal advice to human rights groups.

In private practice, Craig helped defend John W. Hinckley Jr., acquitted by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981. He also represented the government of Panama in a $6.5-billion civil suit against former dictator Manuel A. Noriega. But clearly the Clinton defense will mark his highest-profile case.

Brophy was director of the Washington office of Clinton’s 1992 campaign and then director f congressional relations for the transition team before settling into her post as an administration lobbyist for congressional affairs.

She met McGowan two years before their wedding, when both accompanied Clinton on a visit to Northern Ireland. At the time of her wedding, she told the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger: “I have never been a wife before, let alone an ambassador’s wife. It’s going to be a big adjustment but a nice adjustment.”

Ricchetti is described as affable and well liked on Capitol Hill, especially in the Senate. A Clinton loyalist, he played an important role during the president’s first term in the unsuccessful push for health care reform.

After leaving government service, Ricchetti became a partner in Public Strategies, a lobbying firm started by a onetime aide to former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen.

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The Rest of the Story

In room H2-186 of the Gerald R. Ford House Office Building, under 24-hour guard by the U.S. Capitol police, there are 17 boxes of unreleased material from Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation. Among the boxes are:

* President Clinton’s videotaped testimony to the grand jury.

* Monica S. Lewinsky’s statements.

* Immunity agreement between Lewinsky and Starr’s office.

* Tables documenting phone calls, contacts between Lewinsky and the president, and her visits to the White House.

* Legal documents from the Jones vs. Clinton sexual harassment lawsuit.

* All evidence referenced in the report (presumably computer e-mail, FBI lab reports and the like).

Source: Office of Independent Counsel report

Researched by TRICIA FORD / Los Angeles Times