Who Is Richard Cullen? Pence's Lawyer Linked To Watergate And Iran-Contra Deal

Vice President Mike Pence has sought legal counsel from Richard Cullen, a seasoned lawyer who worked for Republican politicians during the Watergate scandal and the Iran-Contra Deal. The Washington Post reported Thursday that Pence had hired Cullen as "outside legal counsel to help with both congressional committee inquiries and the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia."

The Richmond, Virginia-based lawyer and chairman of McGuireWoods law firm was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to be U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in 1991, serving until 1993. Later, he was appointed attorney general of Virginia, where he served from 1997 until 1998.

Additionally, Cullen was part of the legal team for then-President-elect George W. Bush during the 2000 election recount of ballots in Florida. Before that, he worked for and counseled Republicans, like Pence, who played tertiary roles in scandals that plagued the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

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Cullen got his start in politics as a staff member in the congressional office of Virginia Rep. M. Caldwell Butler, who was a key player in the Watergate scandal.

Butler initially supported Nixon during the unfolding of the Watergate scandal, which began when members of the president's reelection campaign broke into the Democratic National Convention headquarters at the Watergate hotel in June 1972. They bugged the office and investigated activist groups and political figures they believed were untrustworthy.

Most in Nixon's Republican party, like Butler, thought allegations about the administration's involvement were a partisan witch-hunt by Democratic enemies. That all changed when the existence of the tapes of the president talking about covering up the break-in were mentioned during the Watergate hearings.

Butler decried the scandal when he announced to a House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, that he would vote for impeachment. "For years we Republicans have campaigned against corruption and misconduct," he said. "But Watergate is our shame."

Two days later, he and a majority of the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon, who resigned after the Senate signaled their intention to move forward.

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During the scandal surrounding the Iran-Contra Deal, Cullen served as special counsel to another Republican congressman from Virginia, Paul Seward Trible Jr.

Trible, like Butler, was one of the Republican mavericks who verbally sparred with Air Force Major Gen. Richard V. Secord on live television, according to an archived article by the Washington Post in 1987.

The Iran-Contra Affair involved officials in the Reagan administration facilitating the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo at the time. The officials then used a portion of the profits to fund the right-wing Nicaraguan militant groups known as the Contras. At the same time, another portion of the profits were used to negotiate the release of several American hostages being held in Lebanon by the paramilitary group Hezbollah.

Secord was involved in Operation Tipped Kettle, a precursor to the Iran-Contra affair that also transferred Palestinian Liberation Organization weapons seized by Israel in Lebanon to the Contras. He was later questioned at the Iran-Contra hearings in November 1986 about meetings he had with Oliver North, the main figure in the affair.

Trible flew in the face of partisan politics and called Secord a profiteer when he was president of Stanford Technology Trading Group Intl., a company involved with arms sales to Iran during the Reagan presidency.

''My concerns are institutional,'' Trible said in the televised argument. ''I don't want to get into a give and take with Secord, that's not my intention.''

A pattern emerged: Cullen's resume includes Republicans who sought to stay above the fray in times of tumultuous scandal. In the cases of both Butler and Trible, both bucked partisan positions to question the line laid down by the administration, citing institutional corruption.

As such, Pence could be next.