Howes Assembles Dream Team

G. Paul Howes, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the District who has been embroiled in a witness-payment scandal, has assembled a high-powered defense team to respond to serious charges from the D.C. Bar Counsel which could lead to sanctions including Howes' disbarment. Longtime D.C. defense attorney Plato Cacheris is leading the team. Cacheris has represented presidential paramour Monica Lewinsky and Aldrich Ames, the CIA employee sentenced to life in prison for spying for the Soviet Union, along with FBI turncoat spy Robert Hanssen. Other well-known lawyers for Howes from the Trout Cacheris firm include John F. Hundley and Barry Coburn, with Steven C. Tabackman from Tighe Patton Armstrong Teasdale rounding out the team. Tabackman also was a former assistant U.S. attorney in the District, where Howes worked in the 1990s. The ethics charges against Howes stem from his improper disbursement of more than $140,000 in witness payments during several high-profile multi-defendant drug and murder trials. For more info, read a Legal Times article on the case.