The Curious Case of Richard Ben-Veniste

View this article at The Weekly Standard

The Washington lawyer is the quintessential Washington type. He has the huge house in Wesley Heights or Potomac; the million-dollar partnership bonuses; the Rolodex with everyone’s private number; the squad of young associates who do the grunt work and call him Godfather; the easy intercourse with pols and corporate chieftains seeking free advice or high-priced counsel — and, of course, the ego to go with all of the above. He slips and slides in and out and around government, usually making his reputation through political work he can then sell on the open market.

The Washington lawyer comes in a number of shapes and sizes, from the avuncular Bob Bennett, now representing Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones matter, to the cerebral Ted Olson, everybody’s favorite Republican litigator. Perhaps the most interesting iteration is the attack dog — an in-your-face, take-no-prisoners type best represented these days by Richard Ben-Veniste.

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How the FBI Is Ignoring and Mishandling a Major Child-Pornography Investigation

View this article at The Weekly Standard

For three years now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been running an undercover operation called “Innocent Images” that targets people who use computers to traffic in child pornography — and the results have been oddly reassuring. Innocent Images has nabbed over 70 people so far, from time to time generating headlines about the arrest of a truly vile perpetrator. But given the explosive growth in online services and Internet use — some put the number of users at 20 to 30 million — the number seems very small. And that, in turn, seems to vindicate those who argue that the problem of online smut has been overstated.

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