Was Obama Hiring of Criminal Lawyer Due to Benghazi E-mails?

Did President Obama lawyer up in anticipation of Judicial Watch’s release of the Benghazi e-mails? On April 29, Judicial Watch announced that it had obtained the “smoking gun” e-mail on April 18, 2014 – days before Obama announced that Neil Eggleston would replace Kathryn Ruemmler as White House counsel to the president.

Politico reported on the switch and made mention of Eggleston’s role in the Whitewater investigation during Clinton’s first term, as well as his ties to Obama’s former White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. The high-powered lawyer helped Emanuel avoid jail time in the pay-to-play schemes involving former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Politico then suggested that Obama needed Eggleston in case of a GOP sweep in November. Eggleston is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and has extensive experience in the kinds of oversight cases that the Obama White House is likely to face more of if Republicans take control of the Senate in November and retain control of the House. Is the Obama administration simply gearing up for battle due to myriad unconstitutional and possibly illegal activities? Eggleston will certainly have his hands full after the last six years. Or is the announcement of Eggleston’s new position directly related to the Benghazi e-mails and the murder of four Americans? The timeline is interesting on this one. Judicial Watch has fought for two years to get documents from the State Departments specifically pertaining to the talking points used by former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on talk shows. A federal judge finally ordered their release two weeks ago. Three days later, Obama hired Eggleston. Eight days later, JW went public with the e-mails.