1. Charles Frederick Carson Ruff was a prominent American lawyer based in Washington, DC, and was best known as the White House Counsel who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial in 1999.
21 Facts About Charles Ruff
1. 2.
Charles Frederick Carson Ruff was born on August 1,1939, in Cleveland Ohio; he grew up mostly in New York City.
3.
Ruff's mother was the public relations director of the Metropolitan Opera, and in an oral history recorded shortly before his death Ruff remembered frequently attending the opera as a child, giving him a lifelong love of music.
4.
In 1964, while in Liberia, Charles Ruff was sickened with flulike symptoms and almost died; he became paralyzed in the legs and used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
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Charles Ruff was a research associate at Columbia University's African Law Center and taught at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Charles Ruff joined the US Department of Justice as a trial lawyer in 1967.
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Charles Ruff then accepted a job at the Georgetown University Law Center and simultaneously at the Justice Department's Watergate Special Prosecution Force, which investigated the Watergate scandal.
8.
In 1978, Charles Ruff became deputy inspector general of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, investigating Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
9.
Charles Ruff's nomination was stalled in the Senate for several months by Robert Dole of Kansas.
10.
In 1979, Charles Ruff re-joined the Justice Department as acting deputy attorney general; in this role, Charles Ruff was involved in the prosecution of members of Congress implicated in the Abscam scandal.
11.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Charles Ruff as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; he held that job until 1981.
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Charles Ruff was considered exceptionally qualified for the post, although some African American leaders expressed disappointment that a black lawyer had not been chosen.
13.
From 1989 and 1990, Charles Ruff served a term as president of the District of Columbia Bar.
14.
In 1991, Charles Ruff was part of the legal team representing Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination; Charles Ruff arranged for Hill to take a polygraph test.
15.
Charles Ruff was considered by the Clinton administration in 1993 for the post of deputy attorney general, but he was passed over for the position.
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Charles Ruff was credited with restoring the reputation of the office, which had faced criticism after having been beset with a series of problems.
17.
In February 1997, Charles Ruff left the Corporation Counsel's Office to become White House Counsel to President Clinton, the president's fifth.
18.
Charles Ruff refrained from freely dispensing information to those who did not absolutely need to know the president's legal strategy.
19.
Charles Ruff died on November 19,2000, at the District of Columbia General Hospital, at the age of 61, following a heart attack in his home.
20.
At the time of his death, Charles Ruff was part of Vice President Al Gore's legal team in the Florida recount case.
21.
On January 8,2001, Charles Ruff was posthumously awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Clinton.