Don’t miss Roderick Boyd’s interview with Bill Burkett’s former lawyer, David Van Os—who reveals that Burkett is planning to sue CBS: Burkett Readying Suit Against Network. (Hat tip: Allah.)

Mr.Van Os, the lawyer, said in a telephone interview with The New York Sun that his former client had “several meetings with lawyers to determine the best course of action.” He said the planned lawsuit would center on what he termed “defamation of character and libel.”

Mr. Van Os declined to name the attorneys Mr. Burkett consulted with, nor would he discuss why he is no longer representing Mr. Burkett. Mr.Van Os is currently running as a Democrat for the Texas Supreme Court.

Mr. Burkett “told me everything about the process” of his dealings with CBS and how he came into possession of the documents at the heart of the controversy, the lawyer said.

It was Mr. Burkett who was misled, according to Mr. Van Os. The lawyer said the CBS News producer, Mary Mapes, promised to protect Mr. Burkett with complete anonymity and CBS was to “expend both time and money authenticating” the memos.

“Bill Burkett went with CBS News on this over ABC News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post because they promised to work the hardest to protect him and authenticate the documents,” Mr.Van Os told the Sun. “Bill leveled with [CBS] about his doubts over the papers, and they promised him they would take their time. They spent all of three days, maybe less, on authentication.”

Ms. Mapes declined to comment, said a CBS spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards.

Mr. Van Os conceded, however, that his client “was not direct” about where he got the memos, “to protect a promise he made to the man who gave them to him.” He said Mr. Burkett’s lies “pale in comparison to CBS’s.”

But here’s the really interesting revelation in the Sun’s story, contradicting the claims made by Burkett: Van Os says Burkett’s source was a Texas man with National Guard experience.

Mr. Van Os described Mr. Burkett as a struggling rancher — and frequent Bush administration critic— who received a phone call one night in late February, after an appearance on the MSNBC show “Hardball” in which he was critical of Bush administration policies.

The caller asked Mr. Burkett to go to Houston to view “some important paperwork” detailing Mr. Bush’s record of service in the National Guard.

Mr. Burkett told the caller, whom Mr. Van Os identified only as “a Texas man with Air National Guard experience,” that he would not go to Houston for that but would be in the city March 4 for the Simmental cattle show, said Mr. Van Os.

At the show, a man approached the booth manned by Mr. Burkett and gave him a manila envelope with the now-controversial documents in it.

UPDATE at 9/21/04 2:25:54 pm:

USATODAY has the name:

In earlier conversations with USA TODAY, Burkett had identified the source of the documents as George Conn, a former Texas National Guard colleague who works for the U.S. Army in Europe. Burkett now says he made up the story about Conn’s involvement to divert attention from himself and the woman he now says provided him with the documents. He told USA TODAY that he also lied to CBS.

Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.