Crawford, Texas ? A top lawyer to President Bush’s re-election campaign acknowledged Tuesday that he has been advising the veterans group seeking to discredit Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s military record, an admission the Kerry campaign said was evidence the president’s campaign was orchestrating a “smear” by the private group.

Benjamin Ginsberg, the chief outside counsel to the Bush campaign who also has advised Swift Boat Veterans for Kerry, said, “I’ve done some work for them. … The law lets lawyers do that … and does not include lawyers among the coordinated political activities” that are prohibited by federal election law.

He said two prominent Democratic lawyers were doing exactly the same thing. He said Robert Bauer, the top legal counsel for the Kerry campaign, also is the attorney for an independent group, America Coming Together, that has been mobilizing voters in support of Kerry. In addition, Ginsberg said, Joseph Sandler, is a lawyer for both the Democratic National Committee and for the independent group MoveOn.org, which has run advertisements attacking Bush.

Other election lawyers agreed that the fact that Ginsberg, who also was active in Bush’s 2000 campaign, has been giving legal advice to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did not violate campaign-finance law prohibiting collusion between campaigns and independent groups. But Ginsberg’s dual roles complicate the Bush campaign’s effort to rebut as “frivolous” Kerry’s complaint that the Bush campaign is behind the Swift boat ads.

Asked about the Ginsberg matter Tuesday night, Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said: “There has been no coordination at any time between Bush-Cheney ’04 and any 527 organization.”

The veterans group’s advertisements casting doubt on Kerry’s Vietnam War decorations have turned the senator’s earning of a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts during four months of duty in Vietnam into a dominant election issue this month. The Kerry campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging illegal coordination between the Bush campaign and the group.

The Kerry campaign jumped on Ginsberg’s admission Tuesday night. “If the Bush campaign truly disapproved of this smear, their top lawyer wouldn’t be involved with the Swift boat veterans group,” said Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton.