DA Mike Nigong says he’ll fight NC State Bar charges that could lead to his disbarment following a public trial conducted by the Bar and scheduled for next month.
Now to Byron York at NRO:
There’s been some confusion in the last few days about the latest development in the classified-documents-theft-and-destruction case of former Clinton national-security adviser Samuel Berger.I don’t know whether at this point Nifong can stop the State Bar proceedings by agreeing to surrender his license to practice law. But I would think if he did it would stop the proceedings. What grounds would the State Bar have to go forward if Nifong surrenders his law license?
When Berger announced that he had agreed to give up his law license, some readers wondered, perhaps hopefully, whether that meant the Justice Department was still pursuing the case — prosecutors still have the right to subject Berger to a polygraph examination, even after his guilty plea, $50,000 fine, agreement to perform community service, and three-year ban on handling classified material — or that perhaps Berger was under some sort of pressure from congressional investigators.
The answers are no and no.
Berger’s voluntary disbarment has nothing to do with the Justice Department or Capitol Hill. It is entirely the result of Berger’s desire to head off an investigation by the District of Columbia Bar. By giving up his license voluntarily, before an investigation was set to begin, Berger effectively closed another probe into his activities. …
Berger’s agreement stopped a process that was about to begin in the DC Bar.
Mind you, I’m not suggesting Nifong will do that; I’m just raising a question.
Does anyone know the answer?
BTW – I’m still trying to find out what happened with Professor Kim Curtis in regards to the Dowd suit in which she, along with Duke University, was named a respondent.
Byron York’s NRO article is here.