Court may have declared Bush a felon

So argues one of the attorneys for the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation Inc., noting that on July 3, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that President Bush lacks the authority to disregard FISA.

Even if that sticks, though, Shrub could pardon himself along with everybody else.

Back to the main article, though. Jon B. Eisenberg’s “burst of healthy paranoia” is certainly understandable, given the Kafkaesque use of the “state secrets privilege” argument by this administration.

Not so understandable, though, is the degree to which Eisenberg knuckled under. He was and is part of a seven-lawyer team, and one of the other counsels, Tom Nelson, was specifically nixed by Department of Justice attorneys from sitting in on some negotiations about how to handle statements related to a top-secret document the FBI accidentally gave to al-Haramain’s attorneys.

No, let me rephrase that.

Nelson was NOT nixed by the DOJ. He was nixed by Eisenberg knuckling under to the DOJ. Eisenberg also consented to having his hard drive physically destroyed by the DOJ, which Nelson refused — without further DOJ attempts to do so.