NEW YORK (AP) — Robert B. Barnett, a powerhouse Washington attorney who became a fixture in the political and publishing worlds as the literary representative for Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and dozens of other leaders, has died at age 79.

Barnett’s executive assistant, Ashley Duffy, told The Associated Press that he died Thursday night. Additional details were not immediately available.

A stocky, raspy-voiced man with tortoise shell glasses, antique cuff links and a knack for being both forthright and discrete, Bob Barnett embodied an era when it was possible to work freely with both Democrats and Republicans and politics could stop at the edge of a good book deal. He was a longtime Democrat, working on Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign and helping Bill Clinton and ot

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