Plato Cacheris (May 22, 1929 – September 26, 2019) was an American lawyer. He was known as one of Washington D.C.'s premier defense lawyers, known especially for representing people involved in

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, Political party, party officials and Lobbying, lobbyists can be accused of various ...

Early life

Cacheris was the son of a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

. He grew up in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. His father co-owned a chain of restaurants including the historic downtown restaurant The Waffle Shop in Washington, D.C. In 1951, he joined the

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary ...

as an

officer candidate Officer candidate or officer aspirant (OA) is a rank in some militaries of the world that is an appointed position while a person is in training to become an Officer (armed forces), officer. More often than not, an officer candidate was a civilia ...

, but left in 1953 to enter law school. Cacheris graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

and received his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the

Georgetown University Law Center Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...

in 1956.

Career

Cacheris was a co-founder of the law firm of Trout and Cacheris in Washington, D.C. He represented various figures in Washington, D.C., scandals, including: * Defense of Attorney General

John N. Mitchell John Newton Mitchell (September 5, 1913 – November 9, 1988) was the 67th attorney general of the United States, serving under President Richard Nixon and was chairman of Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns. Prior to that, he had been ...

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...

figure, with his former partner, the late William G. Hundley. * Defense of Fawn Hall, Iran-Contra scandal figure, who worked with

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Sec ...

. * Defense of Congressman Michael "Ozzy" Myers,

ABSCAM Abscam, sometimes written ABSCAM, was a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members from both chambers of the United States Congress and others for bribery and co ...

scandal. * Co-representation, with Jacob Stein, of

Monica Lewinsky Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American activist. Lewinsky became internationally known in the late 1990s after U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an affair with her during her days as a White House intern ...

, associate of President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

. * Plea bargain for

Aldrich Ames Aldrich Hazen Ames (; born May 26, 1941) is an American former Central Intelligence Agency, CIA counterintelligence officer who was convicted of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia in 1994. He is serving a life sentence, without th ...

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

officer turned Russian agent, that enabled his wife to receive a lighter jail sentence for aiding and abetting Ames' espionage. * Defense of

Robert Hanssen Robert Philip Hanssen (April 18, 1944 – June 5, 2023) was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States periodically from 1979 to 2001. His espionage w ...

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agent and secret agent for the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

; a

plea bargain A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include a ...

allowed him to avoid the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

in exchange for complete cooperation in revealing his activities to the government, but not to the public. His wife would receive a "survivor" pension. *Defense of Lawrence Franklin of the

AIPAC The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC ) is a pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates its policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States. It is one of several pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the ...

lobbyist Espionage Act controversy *Defense of Ana Montes, analyst of the

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) specializing in military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense and the United States In ...

who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage for the

Intelligence Directorate Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ...

of Cuba *Defense of Mimi Robinson, ex-wife of Dr. John Rixse In April 2014, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that during the summer of 2013,

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

leaker

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

retained Cacheris to negotiate a plea deal with federal prosecutors that would allow Snowden to return to the U.S. and spare him significant prison time. However, ''The Times'' noted that nearly a year after Cacheris became involved, negotiations remained at an early stage and no agreement appeared imminent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cacheris, Plato 1929 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers American criminal defense lawyers Lawyers from Pittsburgh Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni Georgetown University Law Center alumni American people of Greek descent Military personnel from Pittsburgh United States Marines Deaths from pneumonia in Virginia