NYT: Fast-Riser’s High Hopes and Sudden Fall (D. Kyle Sampson...Gonzo's Chief of staff resigns)

[maddezmom]

Fast-Riser’s High Hopes and Sudden Fall
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By ERIC LIPTON
Published: March 13, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 12 — D. Kyle Sampson has never worked full time as a federal prosecutor. But for much of the Bush administration he played a considerable role in vetting who served in the Justice Department. And last year he used his post as chief of staff to the attorney general to make a bid for a job as a United States attorney in Utah.

In many ways, until his resignation Monday, the rapid rise of Mr. Sampson, from a low-level aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee to one of the most senior advisers to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, is like that of many other young, ambitious lawyers who come to Washington with a passion for politics.

He arrived in Washington in 1999, around his 30th birthday, with impeccable credentials — at least for a man his age — among religious conservatives. A native of Utah and a Mormon, he had completed his undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University. Mr. Sampson then followed the lead of Dallin H. Oaks, the former president of Brigham Young, by attending the University of Chicago for law school, another bastion of conservatism.

When President Bush was first elected, Mr. Sampson joined his transition team, helping screen nominees for judiciary or Justice Department jobs, said Taylor Oldroyd, a longtime friend. Mr. Sampson had learned about the nomination process from 1999 to 2001, when he worked for Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, while he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13sampson.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

background:

~snip~
Gonzales approved the idea of firing a smaller group of U.S. attorneys shortly after taking office in February 2005. The Gonzales aide in charge of the dismissals -- his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson -- resigned yesterday, officials said, after acknowledging that he did not tell Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information to Congress.

Lawmakers requested the documents as part of an investigation into whether the firings were politically motivated. While it is unclear whether the documents will answer Congress's questions, they show that the White House and other administration officials were more closely involved in the dismissals, and at a much earlier date, than they have previously acknowledged.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031201818.html

~snip~

Schumer said the committee would also consider whether to hold public hearings at which the aides would testify about their roles in the firings. Schumer said the decision makes it unnecessary for Democrats to pursue subpoenas to compel testimony from the aides, including Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, and the top aide to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

more:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003609246_attorneys09.html?syndication=rss

looks like another fall guy takes a tumble :eyes:

[goclark]

1. Another one bit the dust? Wonderful! nt

[kurth]

2. Freakin' Mormon Bushite takes the fall

"In 2002 Mr. Sampson told the Brigham Young University news service that he admired Mr. Bush because the president recognized that politics and religious beliefs could not be separated.

“He really means it when he says he believes that we shouldn’t chase religion from the public square,” Mr. Sampson was quoted as saying.

Mr. Sampson also helped fellow Mormons and friends win jobs in the administration, said Mr. Oldroyd, who landed a job at the Agriculture Department in part through Mr. Sampson’s efforts."

[Vidar]

3. Throwing a fallguy on the sword.

[EST]

4. I can't help it-the picture of Specter refusing to swear speedy

in and then getting really pissy at the senators who were justifiably outraged about it. The lies and obfuscation Speedy engaged in, at the hearing, were perfectly obvious to me and further cemented the view that repukes are either willing to eat shit and like it or nothing more than partisan spooks, willing to sell their souls, and everyone else's, to the highest bidder.

Crooks of the highest order-all of them.

[badgervan]

6. Specter

Sold out his soul to Party Supremacy. Used to respect Arlen. No more.

[EST]

15. (Apologetically) We've gotten a little afield from the OP, but I

have to agree with you. He is a manipulator extrordinaire, a duplicitous genius who, along with Chertoff, really looks like the secretly fiendish, maniacal split personality that he is. His demeanor suggests that he should be trusted and fools a lot of people, but his real glee at destroying lives and legal niceties sets one's teeth on edge.

[Hekate]

8. I haven't much liked Specter since he called Prof. Anita Hill "Miss Hill" over & over & over...

Clarence Thomas was always given his title: "Judge Thomas". But Anita Hill, who has a doctorate and is a university professor, was always "Miss Hill."

It used to infuriate me no end -- Specter's seeming respect that was actually a way of belittling her and her very real accomplishments.

He's had his moments in the past several years of being on "our" side, but I've never actually forgiven him for that earlier performance, especially since it resulted in us having to endure Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Thanks to Specter's catering to the Bush admin's whims regarding Gonzales, we are now stuck with Little Torquemada as AG.

Hekate

[EST]

14. One would hope this is Spectre's last go-round.

The only thing that brought this critically deceptive fossil back into the senate was the prospect of someone even worse taking his seat, although the blind partisanship of his then opponent would probably be preferable to the sneaking, slime ooze trailing spectre that is Specter. He is responsible for more than his share of damage to the country.

[ToeBot]

5. Nevermind.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. I have a really great idea:

Sometime in the not-too-far-distant future, let's raze the U. of Chicago to the ground and salt the earth with Plutonium, so nothing ever springs up there again. Especially its schools of law and economics.

I have a feeling that Cthulhu and The Elder Gods live under that place.

[porkrind]

13. Great idea! You bring the plutonium and I'll bring the bulldozer.

This poor bastard is really steeped in right-wing nuttery. First, Brigham Young "University" and then U. of Chicago? It's amazing these little straussian creeps keep springing up. I hope this bootlicker serves hard time with his masters.

[Lasher]

9. Brett Tolman helped slip the legislation into the Patriot Act

Brett Tolman ended up as US attorney in Utah, the same job that Sampson was trying to get. Tolman was involved in slipping the legislation into the Patriot Act.

On Feb. 6, when the Senate held hearings on the issue of prosecutorial independence, former judiciary committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., proudly claimed to have been as clueless as the rest of us. Denying New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer's claim that he or his staff had "slipped the new provision into the Patriot Act in the dead of night," Specter asserted, "The first I found out about the change in the Patriot Act occurred a few weeks ago when Sen. Feinstein approached me on the floor."

Specter added that he only looked into how the provision was altered after Feinstein told him about it. As he explained, "I then contacted my very able chief counsel, Michael O'Neill, to find out exactly what had happened. And Mr. O'Neill advised me that the requested change had come from the Department of Justice, that it had been handled by Brett Tolman, who is now the U.S. attorney for Utah, and that the change had been requested by the Department of Justice because there had been difficulty with the replacement of a U.S. attorney in South Dakota."

http://www.slate.com/id/2161260/

Sampson was Speedy's Chief of Staff in the DoJ. Tolman had spent the previous three years working for the Senate Judiciary Committee staff. Apparently it was these two who conspired with Specter's chief counsel, Michael O'Neill, to slip the provision in. The White House wanted to reward their boy Sampson with the Utah US attorney job but the Senate (Hatch & Specter) managed to give that prize to their key conspirator.

So many cronies, yet so few lucrative positions with which to reward them.

[salin]

11. So... the DOJ guy who finagles getting the provision into the legislation

is angling to get past the nomination system so that he, himself can become a USA? Hope this little item in the unfolding story gets big play - and big pressure for him to step down. It would be interesting to read about changes in prosecutor priorities between the purged, and the politically newly placed USAs - esp this one's USA office in Utah.

[Lasher]

21. Yes, that's right.

And when the recommendations started comeing in to the DoJ to give the job to Tolman, it was Sampson as Speedy's 'gatekeeper' who managed the input. And it was known at the time that Sampson himself wanted the job too.

But it was Tolman who ended up getting the job. Tolman, who also conspired to slip the legislation in that would empower the Bush junta to appoint him. I think it would be proper for Tolman to follow Sampson's fine example and resign from his US attorney job in Utah.

What a tangled web we weave...

[formercia]

26. I think there will have to be a couple of more

Supermax Federal Prisons built to hold this bunch.

[maddezmom]

10. more if you haven't read it: Fuel to the Firings (Newsweek)

Newsweek:Fuel to the Firings
Eight U.S. attorneys lost their jobs. Now investigators are assessing if the dismissals were politically motivated.
Bud Cummins never had any intention of making a fuss. A folksy Arkansas lawyer, Cummins had been abruptly fired last year as U.S. attorney in Little Rock to create a slot for a former top aide to Karl Rove. But Cummins is a loyal Republican; he knows how the game is played in Washington, so he kept quiet. Then last month, as the press picked up on the story of Cummins and seven other fired U.S. attorneys, he was quoted in a newspaper story defending his colleagues. Cummins got a phone call from the Justice Department that he found vaguely menacing.

It came from Michael Elston, a top Justice official. Cummins says Elston expressed concern that he and the dismissed attorneys were talking to reporters about what had happened to them. Elston, Cummins says, suggested this might not be a good idea; Justice officials might feel compelled to "somehow pull their gloves off" and retaliate against the prosecutors by publicly trashing them. "I was tempted to challenge him," Cummins e-mailed colleagues later that day, "and say something movie-like such as 'are you threatening ME???' " (Elston acknowledges he told Cummins, "it's really a shame that all this has to come out in the newspaper," but says "I didn't intend to threaten him.")

Was there an attempted cover-up? The disclosure of Cummins's e-mail at a Senate hearing last week only stoked the controversy surrounding a Justice Department already under fire for politicizing the legal process. Even Republican lawmakers stepped forward to criticize the attorney general's handling of the matter. "It was clumsy and unseemly," Sen. Lindsey Graham tells NEWSWEEK. By the end of the week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had made a rare acknowledgment of error and agreed to let a congressional probe into the firings move forward.

A key question for investigators now: did Justice officials, with involvement from the White House, fire attorneys in retaliation for actions that didn't favor the GOP? David Iglesias, who was dumped as U.S. attorney in New Mexico, says Sen. Peter Domenici called him and pressed him to bring indictments in a corruption case involving local Democrats before last November's election. When he didn't give the answer Domenici wanted, "the line went dead." A senior Justice official, who didn't want to be named discussing sensitive legal issues, says Domenici had earlier complained to the deputy attorney general about Iglesias's record on "public corruption." (Domenici apologized for his call to Iglesias, but says he "never pressured" him.)

(snip)
Justice officials say the dismissals were for "job-performance reasons," as well as for failure to pursue Bush administration policy priorities. But where did the list of particular U.S. attorneys to fire come from? Two senior Justice officials, who didn't want to be named discussing the dismissals, tell NEWSWEEK that Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's chief of staff, developed the list of eight prosecutors to be fired last October—with input from the White House. In a recent statement, the White House said it approved the firings, but didn't sign off on specific names.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x267997

[ClayZ]

12. Thanks! K and R

:popcorn:

[maddezmom]

27. you're welcome

I missed it in E&O on Monday myself. :)

[formercia]

16. The Mormon Mafia

One of DC's dirty little secrets, working behind the scenes.They have been in control of the Justice Department for a long time.
Perhaps this time they went too far, too fast.

[Olney Blue]

17. Unfortunately, instead of shame, he will likely be a hero to the right.

[tanyev]

18. He's never worked as a federal prosecutor.

But he's watched a lot of law shows on TV.

[Divernan]

19. Sampson knows where too many skeletons(literally) are; he'll be rewarded privately

Sampson is far too ambitious and powerful (because of his knowledge of all the behind-the-scenes dealings at DOJ) for anyone to fall for the charade that he is falling on a sword.

Yes, he is the designated fall guy, but against the laws of physics, he'll be falling upward, compensation-wise. There is doubtless a quid-pro-quo in play which will result in him getting a package of very lucrative positions in the private sector. I'm thinking a number of high paying appointments to various Boards of Directors, along with a lucrative slot as a partner in some private, govt. lobbying DC law firm. And that may also include a six figure "signing bonus".

Just think about what this man knows - all of the covered up illegalities at Guantanamo; Bush's knowledge of and comments about the torturing going on there - including the deaths of prisoners while being tortured; plus he was the liaison with the White House on a lot of actions/issues of which we know nothing.

And he is still very young - he is like a young Rumsfeld or Cheney, with the potential to do all kinds of damage to democracy over the course of his future career - and to be rehabilitated and brought back into power by some future neo-con admiinistration (the gods forbid!)

[peacetalksforall]

24. Does he get his subpoenas now or when he goes with Carlyle?

Ever wonder if the religious thrillers (thrilled about bringing Christ to the WH, Justice Dept, country) would enjoy talking to the Madam about what it's like to be out?

[gratuitous]

20. Stay on target . . . stay on target

Okay, the AG's chief of staff is a good beginning for this week. Let's see if we can pry loose another corrupt grifter out of this gang of thieves this week, eh?

[peacetalksforall]

22. Know any WH Press Room journalist - here's a question for George

about his position on the separation of church and state. Ask him - did he say this?

"In 2002 Mr. Sampson told the Brigham Young University news service that he admired Mr. Bush because the president recognized that politics and religious beliefs could not be separated.

“He really means it when he says he believes that we shouldn’t chase religion from the public square,” Mr. Sampson was quoted as saying."

ceo's, country club republicans, stockholders, board of directors, religious fanatics, soldiers of christian domination of a democracy, bigots, gun lovers, fetus lovers, blindfolded lemmings. This country has been taken over or is close to being taken over if we don't (do what)?.

[yardwork]

23. Scum. The Bush White House is full of the scum of the earth.

[lovuian]

25. Another underling goes down for his master

He was only doing his Masters bidding like Scooter

but you play with these guys your gonna get burned

[ProudDad]

28. This kind'a says it all

"White House and Justice officials backed Mr. Sampson in his bid to replace Mr. Warner, making that clear to the staff of Senator Hatch. But the senator wanted Mr. Bush to nominate Brett Tolman, a one-time Utah federal prosecutor who had spent the previous three years working on antiterrorism issues for the Judiciary Committee staff.

This put Mr. Sampson in an unusual position. As Mr. Gonzales’s chief of staff, he was fielding calls and letters from Mr. Hatch’s office, even though he was vying for the job that Mr. Hatch was writing about, two former officials from Mr. Hatch’s office said. That made at least some Senate officials uncomfortable.

“It was a little like the fox watching the hen house,” said one former Senate staff member, who asked not to be named because he now works in a different job."


FOX WATCHING THE HEN HOUSE. That pretty much sums up the whole right of center cabal...

[nealmhughes]

29. Wonder where they will put him? A job at BYU, AEI or Heritage?

Maybe as a special asst. to the "Prophet" of Moronism -- je m'ajuste -- Mormonism as the Giant Salamander Wrangler?