Judy Smith

Nice scoop for the Associated Press during an otherwise slow week: Mayor Vince Gray’s chief of staff met with Judy Smith, an expert in crisis management:

Emails obtained by The Associated Press show that the mayor’s chief of staff was introduced to Judy Smith by a mutual friend and later arranged a breakfast meeting with her. A spokesman for the mayor confirmed the meeting but says Smith “has no role in the administration, paid or otherwise.” Smith declined to comment.

So who is Smith? She’s a crisis management consultant who has represented Monica Lewinsky, the Chandra Levy family, former Sen. Larry Craig, Wesley Snipes, Michael Vick, and BP after the Gulf oil spill. Her reputation even helped spawn an ABC show, Scandal, that premiered earlier this year.

This wouldn’t be the first person close to the scandal that almost felled Bill Clinton that has appeared in Gray’s shadow campaign troubles. Gray’s personal attorney is Robert Bennett, who represented Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. As the City Paper recently noted, Bennett’s role in representing Gray has closely paralleled his representation of Clinton—both leaders have largely been kept quiet by Bennett, for one.