There may have been a more personal factor in Washington, D.C. Attorney General Irv Nathan’s decision to let NBC’s David Gregory off the hook Friday than the “prosecutorial discretion” he claimed he was exercising by declining to prosecute Gregory for alleged possession of a high-capacity gun magazine.
Professor William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection uncovered an established relationship between Gregory and Nathan’s families. Gregory’s wife Beth Wilkinson (pictured left), an attorney herself, acted in a play with the Attorney General (pictured right) in 2011.
The play, a sort of “mock trial” conducted for charity for the Washington, D.C. Shakespeare Theatre Company, was performed in front of a crowd of 800.
Legal Insurrection tracked down the following post, which covered the play:
In this town full of lawyers it should be no surprise that this event sold out in 44 seconds….. The attorneys were Beth Wilkinson a partner at Paul Weiss (and wife of David Gregory, aka the Silver Fox, who was snapping pictures like a proud hubby!) and Irv Nathan, Acting Attorney General for DC. Both were hilarious and Beth looked so great in her black dress and patent leather heels, I was totally motivated to stick to my overly arduous diet. [emphasis in original]
Attorney General Nathan acknowledged in his letter to NBC a preponderance of evidence against Gregory, referencing “the clarity of the violation of this important law.” Could Gregory–because of his connections or because of his wife’s playacting with the Attorney General or simply because he’s a member of the DC establishment–be getting a pass from justice?
Which brings to mind the famous lines from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
I’ll have grounds
More relative than this–the play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.
Photo credit: Bisnow.com
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