GOP Strategist Ed Rollins Facing $12-Million Lawsuit

Los Angeles media consultant Joseph Scott filed suit Tuesday against GOP political consultant Ed Rollins charging the Republicans’ favorite strategist with “unlawful publication” of Rollins’ 1995 autobiographical best-seller “Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms.”

In a $12-million conspiracy and plagiarism complaint filed in New York Supreme Court, Scott alleges that Rollins, writers Thomas M. DeFrank and John B. Roberts II and Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc. breached an agreement with Scott to publish a “substantially similar” book under the title “Rawhide.”

Rawhide is the Secret Service code name for former President Reagan--Rollins’ most famous client. According to both Scott and Rollins, the two agreed in 1985 to collaborate on a book for Simon & Schuster about Reagan’s 1984 campaign.

That book was never published, according to a prepared statement by Scott’s attorneys, because Rollins “ceased providing information.” In 1990, Simon & Schuster sued the two, forcing Rollins to repay $36,000 in advances.

In the statement, Scott, who lives in Redondo Beach, claims the notes for “Rawhide,” which he made during many lengthy interviews with Rollins, were illegally appropriated by Rollins’ then-associate Roberts and used to prepare “Bare Knuckles.” That aspect of the lawsuit echoes charges newly published by Roberts, a former White House speech writer, in the November issue of George magazine.

In a telephone interview from New York on Wednesday, Rollins said he was “astonished” by the charges from his former friends. “This is all absurd,” he said. “What we’re talking about here is my life story. This is not Joe Scott’s life story. It’s mine and just because he had an idea to write a book with me back in 1984 doesn’t mean I am bound to [Scott] for life.”