And so it came to be, according to Van Os, that a man unknown to Burkett walked up to the Simmental Association booth at the Astrodome and said, "Are you Bill Burkett?"

"The man gave Bill a sealed manila envelope," Van Os said, adding that it remained unopened until Burkett was in his car in the parking lot.

"He looked at the documents and . . . the documents scared him," Van Os said.

For years, Burkett, who blames Bush for denying him medical care after he contracted a serious infection while serving in Panama, has been a high-volume Bush critic.

Despite that history, Burkett planned to do nothing with the documents, according to his lawyer. The papers were stashed in a cold storage locker, and Burkett did a minimal amount of checking on the person who provided them but nothing by way of trying to determine the documents' authenticity.

Van Os said Burkett determined that the man who provided them was using the name of somebody who once held a National Guard position that would make him privy to the documents. But Burkett had no way of knowing if the man was who he said he was.

"No evidence has been represented to Bill suggesting that the person that called him was using a false name. He doesn't have proof one way or another," Van Os said.

By August, reporters somehow knew about the documents and started calling Burkett, who, according to Van Os, had no intention of getting involved. Burkett told some reporters he had no documents.

But he decided to cooperate with CBS.

"They just did the slickest job of sweet-talking him," Van Os said.

Now he regrets doing so. Van Os says his client has been had by the media giant. Burkett never vouched for the authenticity of the paperwork, trusting CBS to do the due diligence before airing the report, Van Os said.

"Bill Burkett trusted and believed that CBS, being a huge news organization and with the resources to do so, would conduct a proper, professional investigation before they did anything," Van Os said.

"He now knows they haven't done it. It's obvious to the world they haven't done it," he said.

"Bill was just a passive custodian and CBS wanted these things. In giving these things to CBS Bill's pitch to CBS was 'I don't know what to make of these. It's up to y'all to decide what to make of them," Van Os said, noting that CBS also promised not to divulge Burkett's identity.

Burkett's identity emerged after it was determined that the documents had been faxed from a Kinko's in Abilene, the closest one to Burkett's Baird home. Van Os said Burkett didn't do the faxing, a CBS producer did.

"Bill is consulting with legal counsel about possible legal avenues," Van Os said.