being impeached by the House of Representatives in December 1998. He was ultimately acquitted by the Senate, but the impeachment proceeding subsequently affected future presidential elections, first involving Vice President Al Gore and later Hillary Clinton. In his memoir My Life, published after he left office, President Clinton said the single biggest error he made as president was not listening to Nussbaum and, instead, requesting the appointment of an Independent Counsel. He wrote: "It was the worst presidential decision I ever made, wrong on the facts, wrong on the law, wrong on the politics, wrong for the presidency, and the Constitution." Referring to media criticism of Nussbaum's advice, the President wrote "there would have been no investigation, subpoenas, or grand jury if I had listened to him and refused to give into the demands for an independent counsel to 'clear the air.' Bernie's real offense was that he thought I should abide by the rule of law and accepted standards of propriety, rather than the constantly shifting standards of the Whitewater media, which were designed to produce the very results they professed to deplore." Nussbaum resigned on March 5, 1994, as a result of the Whitewater controversy and the position he took regarding the appointment of an Independent Counsel. President Clinton later wrote: "Bernie Nussbaum resigned in early March; he never got over my foolish decision to ask for an independent counsel, and he didn't want to be a source of further problems ... [he was an] able, honest public servant." Nussbaum returned to his law firm in late 1994 and resumed the private practice of law. Allegations of obstruction of justice After the suicide of Vince Foster the justice department and the United States Park Police sought papers found in Foster's briefcase that Nussbaum refused to hand over to both the department and the police. During the investigation into the travel office firings Nussbaum refused to hand over Foster's travel office notebook to Congress and the FBI. Later career Over the years, as a senior litigation partner at Wachtell Lipton, Nussbaum represented clients such as major corporate entities, law firms, law firm partners, government officials, political figures, and the judiciary. Working together with his firm's partners and associates, Nussbaum was the lead trial lawyer in many cases tried in various state and federal courts around the country, including significant corporate cases won by his firm. Among the cases he