Bernard W. Nussbaum - Counsel To President Clinton

Counsel To President Clinton

In 1993, Nussbaum again left his law firm when he was appointed Counsel to the President of the United States. During his tenure as President Clinton's White House Counsel he was involved in a number of major personnel and policy issues facing the administration. These included the appointment of Janet Reno as Attorney General, the recruitment of a new FBI director, and the selection of approximately 100 federal judges, most notably Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court of the United States. He was also involved in handling the early stages of the Whitewater matter and the investigation of the suicide of his deputy, Vincent Foster. Contrary to the advice of others on the White House staff, in the administration and in Congress, Nussbaum strongly urged the President not to seek the appointment of an Independent Counsel with respect to these matters. He maintained there was no basis for such an appointment as there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the President either before or after he entered office. Nussbaum warned the President that the institution of the Independent Counsel, which is responsible to no one, tends to become (especially when it is investigating a President) an uncontrolled, never ending effort to find wrongdoing even where none exists. He predicted that conservative judges would replace anyone appointed by the Attorney General with a choice more to their liking. He predicted the investigation would likely last as long as the President was in office and beyond. The President nonetheless decided to request the appointment of an Independent Counsel. In his memoir (My LIfe) published after he left office, President Clinton wrote that the single biggest error he made as President was asking for the appointment of an Independent Counsel -- "It was the worst presidential decision I ever made, wrong on the facts, wrong on the law, wrong on the politics, wrong for the presidency, and the Constitution." (My Life, p. 574). Referring to media criticisim of Nussbaum's advice, the President wrote: " there would have been no investigation, subpoenas, or grand jury if I had listened to him and refused to give in to the demands for an independent counsel to 'clear the air.' Bernie's real offense was that he thought I should abide by the rule of law and accepted standards of propriety, rather than the constantly shifting standards of the Whitewater media, which were designed to produce the very results they professed to deplore." (My Life, p. 587).