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June 3, 1998
Monica Lewinsky Picks Two Washington Lawyers to Replace Ginsburg
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By FRANCIS X. CLINES
ASHINGTON -- After four months of embroilment in the criminal investigation of President Clinton's sex life, Monica Lewinsky replaced William Ginsburg as her lawyer Tuesday and her new team of Jacob Stein and Plato Cacheris immediately set a different tone by standing mute before the news media.
The two lawyers, both seasoned spotlight performers of the Washington bar, played the taciturn antidote to Ginsburg, the California malpractice lawyer who became famous, then controversial, for his loquacious musings on his representation of Ms. Lewinsky, the former White House intern at the heart of the investigation of the president's behavior.
In contrast, Stein and Cacheris posed for curbside pictures with Ms. Lewinsky at their side in a smiling, unrevealing tableau. The group set off a minor media riot five blocks from the White House but offered no hint of any new strategems.
To the one shouted question that was finally acknowledged -- "What are you going to do that Mr. Ginsburg didn't?" -- Cacheris warily replied, "I don't want to get into that right now."
Hailed at first as a candid newcomer from California, Ginsburg eventually came to be widely criticized for his representation of Ms. Lewinsky, particularly for lacking Washington court experience and for failing to secure an early plea-bargaining agreement with prosecutors.
Most recently criminal defense specialists faulted him for his blistering open letter to Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel, in which Ginsburg declared: "As a result of your callous disregard for cherished constitutional rights, you may have succeeded in unmasking a sexual relationship between two consenting adults."
Maintaining the pressure, Starr, in another filing with the Supreme Court, raised the prospect Tuesday for the first time publicly that he is preparing to send to Congress an impeachment referral against the president in the Lewinsky matter.
Cacheris and Stein are seasoned plea-bargainers as much as litigators, but various colleagues in the bar cautioned against assuming their singular focus would be on attempting to cut a deal with prosecutors. They joined Nathaniel Speights, a Washington trial attorney who will remain on the defense team as Ms. Lewinsky awaits her fate at the hands of Starr, who has not yet summoned her to the grand jury.
The Starr investigation set off a national sensation when it opened in January when the prosecutor was authorized to look into reports that Clinton had a sexual affair in the White House with Ms. Lewinsky and then sought to have her cover it up under oath. The president has denied the affair and allegations that he suborned perjury.
The task of the Lewinsky legal team has been complicated by the fact that Ms. Lewinsky denied the affair in a sworn affidavit in the separate Paula Jones lawsuit against the president. At the same time, Ms. Lewinsky reportedly confirmed the affair in rambling conversations furtively tape-recorded by a one-time friend and, ultimately, by Starr's investigators. If so, she faces possible indictment, depending on Starr's efforts to turn her to his advantage as a witness.
"We just got into the case today, basically, so we hope we have a lot to bring to the table," Cacheris added in his only other comment on the task facing the new team as Starr presses forward with his investigation.
After the sidewalk photo opportunity that seemed well timed for 5 p.m. live news reports, the group retreated to the Cacheris, Stein law office on Connecticut Avenue. A sidewalk crowd of evening commuters stared open-eyed at Ms. Lewinsky.
A statement issued by Judy Smith, Ms. Lewinsky's new spokeswoman, said Ginsburg departed by mutual agreement and with the deep appreciation of the Lewinsky family for a "tremendous effort."
Soon after, Ginsburg was on CNN television, declaring, "I was not fired." New faces were needed, he said, "if this is to be resolved short of indictment and full litigation."
The two new lawyers bring decades of criminal and civil law experience to the case as well as the polish of veterans in the Washington media cauldron of celebrated cases.
Stein, a natty dresser widely known as "Jake," was himself an independent counsel in 1984 when he investigated charges of financial improprieties against Edwin Meese III, President Ronald Reagan's counselor. In the current era of long-running, multiple independent counsels, Stein is celebrated for the speed with which he concluded his task, in which he left Meese criticized but unindicted.
Cacheris, an affable former assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia's Eastern District, has represented such notorious clients as Aldrich Ames, now serving a life sentence for espionage, and John Mitchell, the attorney general for President Richard M. Nixon convicted in the Watergate scandal. Respected as a painstaking negotiator, he also represented Fawn Hall, a White House secretary caught up in the Iran-Contra investigation during the Reagan administration.
"Many prosecutors fear facing him in court," said Lawrence Barcella, a veteran defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who estimated the new Lewinsky team presented a formidable combination of backroom and courtroom skills.
Both lawyers are ranking members of the city's legal inner sanctum, with cross-ties to various figures in the Starr investigation. Cacheris is a close friend of Robert Bennett, who defended Clinton in the Paula Jones civil suit, and he has worked in the past with William Hundley, who represents Vernon Jordan, the president's confidante, in Jordan's role in the Lewinsky inquiry.
Cacheris and Stein are well tailored, with the former favoring customized French-cuff shirts and Stein resplendent Tuesday in a chalk-stripe suit and spectator shoes as he beamed in silent escort of Ms. Lewinsky.
Both lawyers are gifted in dealing with the media, although they could only nod and smile silently, in public at least, at old friends in the sidewalk media pack.
As his replacements came silently on stage, Ginsburg had a final musing on his time in the Washington glare: "It's been a very interesting experience."
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