Bob Bennett on McCain and the Keating Five Scandal

Keating 5:

ROBERT BENNETT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: [...]
You know, I'm in a pretty unique position to talk about John McCain. First, I should tell your listeners, you know, I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on his side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five, which, by the way, this New York Times article goes back to and discusses, goes back years and years.

And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest and honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him, [...] It's a smear job. I'm sorry.

[...]

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: [...]
What I see here is nothing but innuendo, rumor. [...]"the New York Times has lowered their standards to engage in a hit and run smear job." Do you agree with that, having read this piece?

BENNETT: I absolutely agree with that [...] And this was not my intention here, you know, to come on and defend John McCain. But I think it's the right thing to do. One thing I concluded, he is an honest man. And this is a real hit job.

[...] If your listeners want to know about the Keating Five case, I have a whole chapter on it. And what happened was that I had recommended that John McCain be cut out of it and not go forward. And, you know, I call it the way I see it. As I said, I'm a Democrat. And I recommended they go forward against Senators DeConcini, Senator Cranston and Senator Riegle.

But if you cut out John McCain, you would have had 28 days of public hearings with just Democrats in the dock. So, it's probably the first time in the history of the Senate that they rejected the advice of their counsel to exonerate a senator.

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