Condo owners suing SMU seek depositions from George and Laura Bush about library site.

Former President George W. Bush is fending off efforts to pull him into a long-running legal battle that raises questions about whether SMU owns all the land where the Bush presidential library is set to be built.

Two condominium owners who are suing Southern Methodist University say they need sworn statements from Bush and his wife, Laura, about what SMU officials told them in private meetings before SMU was selected as the site of the presidential library. Attorneys for the former president have until 5 pm. today to file papers in state court outlining the legal rationale for their position that the couple should not be required to give depositions.

Already, businessman Ray Hunt, SMU president Gerald Turner and former White House counsel Harriet Miers have spent hours answering questions from lawyers for the two former condominium owners. Hunt is past chairman of SMU's board of trustees and Miers earned her undergraduate and law degrees there.

Bush's attorney is expected to cite cases in which courts have ruled that current and former presidents should not be drawn into civil disputes.

"What he's asking for is extraordinary," said Bush's lawyer, John H. Martin, referring to plaintiff Gary Vodicka. "He has had ample opportunity to ask others questions. He does not need to get any information from the president."

At issue is whether SMU officials pitched their proposal for the presidential library to the Bushes before the university bought condominiums that sat on a key tract at the proposed library site.
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