Marcos Jimenez responds (UPDATED)

A couple days ago the American Constitution Society held a debate between former U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez and Neal Sonnett regarding NSA's warrantless wiretapping. The Daily Business Review ran an article (by Julie Kay) on the debate, highlighting Mr. Jimenez's answers to questions (by Richard Rosenthal) about what remedy there should be if the President violated the Constitution. The article reported that Mr. Jimenez responded that impeachment would be appropriate. Mr. Jimenez has called the article misleading and has asked that his letter in response to the Daily Business Review editor be posted on the blog. So here it is.

***Today's "Dueling Over Eavesdropping" Article on Page A3 of your publication misrepresents and takes out of context what I saidduring the debate with my colleague Neal Sonnett. Towards the end of the debate, I was asked a hypothetical question regarding remedies for inappropriate action by the administration, and as part of my response I said that impeachment is a constitutional avenue to hold the President accountable. I never said or "suggested" that it would be"appropriate" to impeach President Bush in connection with theNSA's warrantless intercepts of terrorism-related communications. Indeed, during the debate, I vigorously argued in favor of the NSA'sand the President's actions, which are wholly appropriate and necessary to protect our country in this time of war.***Marcos Daniel Jimenez Kenny Nachwalter, P.A. 1100 Miami Center201 S. Biscayne Blvd.Miami, FL 33131Main: 305-373-1000 mjimenez@kennynachwalter.com

Here is the intro to the Business Review article:
Former U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez has suggested that it would be appropriate to impeach President Bush if it’s found that the Bush administration monitored domestic calls or e-mails without court approval, or if his approval for the warrantless spying program exceeded his constitutional authority. “My opinion is the [National Security Agency] program should not be used domestically, for state-to-state calls,” said Jimenez, a partner at Kenny Nachwalter, during a debate on secret spying in Miami last week that was sponsored by the American Constitutional Society. “In those cases, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would apply and the Fourth Amendment would apply, and you would need a warrant. The remedy if he exceeds his authority is impeachment.”

I'd like to thank Mr. Jimenez for making this letter available to the blog for posting. I would also invite Julie Kay and Richard Rosenthal to respond to this letter, as well as anyone else who was at the event. (Disclosure -- I am on the board of ACS and helped to plan the debate... Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend as I'm still stuck in Savannah).

UPDATE:
RICHARD ROSENTHAL HAS EMAILED ME HIS RESPONSE. HERE IT IS:
"David Markus has asked me to comment on the controversy surrounding a recent Daily Business Review article by reporter Julie Kay. Ms.Kay's article concerns comments made at the American Constitution Society's recent debate on the Bush Administration's NSA wiretapping program. One of the panelists in the ACS event, former U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez, now states that Ms. Kay's article misleadingly takes out of context some of Mr. Jimenez's answers to questions I posed to him. Because Ms. Kay audiotaped the entirety of the program, there is little that my own memory of the event could possibly add here. The recording will speak for itself. Perhaps an impartial third party would want to review the recording to make an independent assessment of Mr. Jimenez's present assertion. But -- as the ViceChair of the organization sponsoring the event, and as the person whoposed the rather pointed questions to Mr. Jimenez in the first place -- I am probably ill-suited to serve such a role. I would add only that I have the highest professional regard for Ms. Kay's journalistic abilitites and ethics, and equally high regard for Mr.Jimenez's legal abilities and ethics. I thank both of them for their presence and respective roles at the ACS event."