Michael Abal seemed like an a-list Washington lawyer.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, he joined the Justice Department and rose to

become its director of international affairs. The office in charge of

extra-diting accused criminals overseas so they can be tried in US courtrooms.

Then, like many Justice Department veterans, he left the government and joined a

Tony Whitechew law firm, a respectable member of the Washington Legal Community.

Or so he seemed. But a 1989 article in the Washington Post

cast a harsher look at Abal's career. It revealed that he had become the

trusted lawyer and advisor to the coppers of Columbia's Cali Cartel,

one of the most feared and powerful drug organizations in the world.

Abal wasn't just representing the Colombian drug lawyers inside the US court

room. He was fighting to keep them out of US courtrooms,

flying to Spain to testify against extra-diting the Cali Cartel's boss,

arguing that the US justice system was flawed. And he was also urging the

Congress to tinker with US treaties to make it harder to extradite foreign

criminals back to the United States without disclosing his drug-lord clients

who would benefit from the changes. One former Senate aide was quoted as saying

this about Abal. This goes beyond simple advocacy of people in need.

The question that has to be put is, do we have a cartel lobbyist in Washington?

Abal defended his conduct as part of the course. But five years after that

article appeared, the FBI raided his law office,

seizing documents and memos and other communications with his clients,

...