corruption, that sort of thing, and it's what I'm known for.
And so, you know, I can't tell you what other people were thinking about why they hired me, but, generally speaking, people hired me because that's what they know I do.
MR. GOWDY: Well, let's try to approach it this way: When you were hired by Perkins Coie, did you consider them to be the client?
MR. SIMPSON: Yes.
MR. GOWDY: Do you recall who, if anyone, you specifically talked to at Perkins Coie?
MR. SIMPSON: I think that would be getting into client communication.
MR. GOWDY: I'm going to have to look at my colleague from California. For months and months I have been hearing about all the privileges that we do not recognize in congressional investigations, and this is a brand new one to me. So is this a privilege that we recognize?
MR. SCHIFF: I think the answer is we should get through the interview, and then we can decide whether there's a privilege we are going to recognize or whether we're going to use compulsory process. I don't know the answer, but I suggest we try to get as much information as we can voluntarily and then figure out whether we need any more than that.
MR. ROONEY: Well, this did come up, as you know, with another witness where I was in chair and this exact thing came up. And I asked the witness to answer one of your questions, because of this congressional committee not recognizing the privilege of attorney-client. And they answered the question. So we didn't wait until it was over.
MR. SCHIFF: But we had a couple interviews, one in which we asked
UNCLASSIFIED, COMMITTEE SENSITIVE