Willam G. Hudley, 80; Former Prosecutor Defended D.C. Notables

William G. Hundley, a former Justice Department prosecutor who became a criminal defense lawyer specializing in white-collar Washingtonians in trouble, died Sunday of liver cancer at his home in Vienna, Va. He was 80.

Hundley first rose to prominence while prosecuting underworld and racketeering figures during the 1950s and ‘60s. He once helped persuade loan shark and narcotics dealer Joseph Valachi to become the first person to describe in detail the leadership structure and inner workings of the Mafia.

Hundley later said he was “much more comfortable keeping people out of jail than putting them in,” and developed a fondness for many of his clients. They included former Atty. Gen. John N. Mitchell, convicted of obstruction of justice for his role in the Watergate affair; flamboyant South Korean businessman Tongsun Park, for whom he won immunity on a congressional bribery matter; and Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a lawyer and confidant of President Clinton, who successfully fought coverup charges stemming from the president’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Hundley had a disarming, often jocular courtroom demeanor that became a trademark. During the Watergate trials, U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica ordered spectators not to laugh when the White House tapes were being played. After a portion of the tape proved damaging to Mitchell, his client, Hundley raised his hand and asked: “Judge, how do you feel about crying?”

Over the years, Hundley got charges dismissed against junk bond trader Warren Trepp, a key figure in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s insider trading case against Michael Milken. He was not as successful with one client, former West Virginia Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr., who was convicted of corruption charges.

“I’ve won more than my share,” Hundley told a publication of the D.C. Bar in 2001. “It’s a great feeling. But you don’t win that much, and you don’t always win on the merits. You win on technicalities, statute of limitations and things like that.”

William George Hundley was born Aug. 16, 1925, in Pittsburgh and was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. He served in the Army in Europe during World War II and earned a Bronze Star.

He graduated in 1950 from Fordham University law school in New York and went to work for the Justice Department’s internal security division. He remembered that experience mostly for what he saw as its farcical elements, telling the D.C. Bar publication that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover largely kept the domestic communist movement alive because “his informants were nearly the only ones that paid the party dues.”

Reading the informant reports, Hundley said, “I came across a line where a guy jumped up and said, ‘Let’s cut out all the bull. When are we going to start the revolution?’ I got excited and ran to the FBI supervisor. All the agents had a big huddle, and they came back and said, ‘Well, you can’t use that. That’s one of our informants.’ ”

In 1958, he was named chief of the department’s organized crime and racketeering section. In the 1960s, Hundley developed a workable but wary relationship with his boss, Robert F. Kennedy. Hundley said he repeatedly clashed with the attorney general over his aggressive pursuit of certain figures, such as Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, without sufficient proof of crime.

By 1966, Hundley began seeking more lucrative work in private practice. He became special assistant to Pete Rozelle, the National Football League commissioner. At the NFL, Hundley’s chief responsibility was to prevent gambling scandals.

The Mitchell case proved a major break. Hundley described him as “a stand-up guy.” Mitchell’s wife, Martha, became his biggest worry, he said, because she wanted her husband to blame President Nixon for everything, which worked against Hundley’s legal strategy.

He was admired by colleagues for his fast and accurate evaluation of a client’s honesty.

While working on an international criminal case, Hundley stepped away from the client, pulled aside two younger legal partners and whispered: “Before we get started, can either of you tell me how we’re gonna know when this guy is lying to us?”

After a moment, Hundley answered his own question: “His lips will be moving.”