President Obama picks W. Neil Eggleston as new White House counsel [investigation probe?]

Eggleston served as an associate counsel in Bill Clinton’s White House during the Whitewater hearings, after serving earlier as a deputy chief counsel of the congressional committee that investigated Iran-Contra. After leaving the White House, he represented Clinton in a pair of high-profile court battles over executive privilege.

In the 1990s, the Clinton White House hired Eggleston to defend executive branch secrecy in two independent counsel investigations: Donald Smaltz’s probe of Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy and Ken Starr’s probe of Whitewater — an inquiry that evolved into an examination of whether Clinton lied under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

While the Mainstream Media has barely noted Mr. Eggleston’s newly elevated position inside of the Obama White House, what little coverage there has been largely ignores the fact that Neil Eggleston has made his living, and his name, from defending those involved in serious political scandal.

I’ll repeat that for emphasis – Neil Eggleston defends those involved in serious political scandal, and now he has been made Barack Obama’s White House Counsel.

Eggleston was part of the Clinton administration defense during the Whitewater scandal, as well as two subsequent executive privilege battles. He also worked with the Bush administration in 2007 during yet another executive privilege dispute.

And perhaps more important to the direct link to Barack Obama himself, Neil Eggleston was the one who provided current Chicago Mayor, and former Obama White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, legal defense during the infamous Rod Blagojevich trial that included a myriad of pay to play allegations that eventually resulted in the former Illinois governor being sent to jail, while Rahm Emanuel emerged relatively unscathed.

Eggleston’s current placement in the Obama White House is a clear signal by the administration that it is preparing for battle should Republicans win back the Senate following the November 2014 Elections, and for the first time, face the prospect of REAL congressional investigations into administration wrongdoing. Neil Eggleston is not a political legal wonk. He is, first and foremost, a man who is called to protect politicians and/or administrations who find themselves in serious legal difficulties.

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