Gorelick

The New York Post comes down hard on Jamie Gorelick. In addition to the conflict of interest over the now infamous chinese wall memo, they also disclose this bit of information:

As it turns out, the memo is just the tip of the iceberg concerning Gorelick's questionable fitness as a member of the panel.

That's because she's a litigation partner in one of Washington's most high-powered Democratic law firms - Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.

And that firm represents Prince Mohammed al-Faisal al-Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family and director of a key Saudi financial agency, against a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 600 Sept. 11 families.

The lawsuit, filed by Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism, seeks "to cut off the pipeline that fueled the al Qaeda terrorists" - a pipeline in which the high-paying client represented by Gorelick's law firm reportedly played a central part.

The prince is chairman of Dar al-Maal al-Islami (DMI), which boasts $1 billion in assets.

I was unaware that she was an attorney at Wilmer Cutler, but thats not surprising. It does create a HUGE conflict of interst for her though. Lloyd Cutler, probably the most powerful Democrat in the city, has been paid fortunes by the Saudi Royal family to shop them around D.C. and highlight their good deeds. Its nauseating, but he's not the only one. In fact, I would be surprised to learn of any large or powerful (some small firms in this town are VERY powerful and some large firms have little to no actual political power) firm that wasn't on the Saudi payroll.

Its one of the most disturbing legacies to arise form 9/11. The Saudi's have created massive professional conflicts of interests throughout Washington. However, as an interesting aside, Cutler was trying VERY hard for a couple of years to get Prince al-Saud into the tony Metropolitan Club and encountered quite a bit of resistance, which is at least heartening.