Rivkin says NY Times

In an appearance on Fox News, lawyer David Rivkin said that media outlets such as the New York Times had “blown up” the controversy surrounding a video released by Liz Cheney’s advocacy group questioning the patriotism of Justice Department lawyers representing terrorist detainees.

“We have a principled disagreement about an issue relating to legal ethics,” Rivkin said.

Rivkin said he felt the issue was not a major debate among conservatives as it had been portrayed in the media throughout the last week.

“The biggest concern is the presumption [in this ad] that you can make meaningful deductions about the sympathies or proclivities of lawyers based upon the causes of the represented,” he said. “That is not true in our legal system.”

The Fox News broadcast played a clip of the video released by the advocacy group, Keep America Safe, that asked President Obama for the names of seven lawyers who advocated for terrorist detainees, calling them “the al-Qaeda Seven.” You can see video on this site under "Media Gallery -TV Appearances."

Rivkin was one of many prominent conservatives who later signed a letter condemning the ad.

“I deplore the positions [the lawyers] have taken, but I don’t want to jump to the conclusion that someone who represented an al-Qaeda detainee is sympathetic to them,” he said.

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