Condo owners suing SMU seek depositions from Bushes about library site

[kskiska]

Source: Dallas Morning News

Former President George W. Bush is fending off efforts to pull him into a long-running legal battle that raises questions about whether SMU owns all the land where the Bush presidential library is set to be built.

Two condominium owners who are suing Southern Methodist University say they need sworn statements from Bush and his wife, Laura, about what SMU officials told them in private meetings before SMU was selected as the site of the presidential library. Attorneys for the former president have until 5 pm. today to file papers in state court outlining the legal rationale for their position that the couple should not be required to give depositions.

Already, businessman Ray Hunt, SMU president Gerald Turner and former White House counsel Harriet Miers have spent hours answering questions from lawyers for the two former condominium owners. Hunt is past chairman of SMU's board of trustees and Miers earned her undergraduate and law degrees there.

Bush's attorney is expected to cite cases in which courts have ruled that current and former presidents should not be drawn into civil disputes.

(snip)

At issue is whether SMU officials pitched their proposal for the presidential library to the Bushes before the university bought condominiums that sat on a key tract at the proposed library site. The timing is important, plaintiffs say, because it could establish that SMU officials did not disclose information that could affect the value of the land.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/030909dnmetbushdepo.3841b26.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. Typical republicon ripoffery

Some things are eternal.

[Lorien]

2. Just how large a structure will they need

for all those boxes of shredded paper, plus that copy of "my pet goat"?

[santamargarita]

3. You could display "My Pet Goat" in an outhouse

[BeliQueen]

4. Didn't the suit against Bill Clinton reset the precedent...

so now any and all Presidents can be included in civil matters?

Aren't they arguing a dead precedent?

[Wizard777]

6. Basically Bush is STILL trying to claim executive privilege even though he's no longer President.

[booksenkatz]

5. Stealing land is nothing new for Gee Dub.

If the Boy King wants something, he takes it. Were these folks not around when he did his land grabbing for his baseball stadium in Arlington? And Rove was right there as always (http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/pearly/htmls/bush-sec5.html).

This behavior is nothing new.