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The go-to lawyer for public officials moving into private life

Los Angeles Times

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September 27, 2025

Robert Barnett, a Washington attorney who represented powerful politicians and many of the biggest stars in TV news business, died Friday after a long, unspecified illness. He was 79.

- BY STEPHEN BATTAGLIO

The go-to lawyer for public officials moving into private life

CADE MARTIN via AP

POLITICAL INSIDER Barnett helped procure lucrative book deals for three former presidents.

Barnett's death in a Washington hospital was confirmed by his wife, retired CBS News correspondent Rita Braver.

A longtime partner at the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly, Barnett was the go-to lawyer for politicians and public officials moving into private life. He helped procure multimillion-dollar book contracts for former Presidents Obama, Clinton and George W. Bush.

Barnett was a Democratic political insider as well. He would play opposing candidates in mock debates to help prepare the presidential tickets of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman in 2000, John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004, Hillary Clinton when she first ran for president in 2008, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.

"I baited [Ferraro] a lot and she got so angry with me that she frequently walked over to me and slugged me on the arm," Barnett told CNN in 2008. "So I left the process black and blue."

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