Lam Was on DoJ Hit List before Cunningham Case

[babylonsister]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002754.php

Lam Was on DoJ Hit List before Cunningham Case
By Paul Kiel - March 14, 2007, 12:20 PM

In March of 2005, Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff sent White House counsel Harriet Miers a list rating U.S. attorneys.

Certain prosecutors were rated “strong U.S. Attorneys who have produced, managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the President and Attorney General," others had not "distinguished themselves either positively or negatively, and others Sampson “recommend removing" -- those were “weak U.S. Attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administration initiatives.”

Carol Lam was one of the prosecutors Sampson recommended removing.

This was, of course, a full three months before the Duke Cunningham scandal came to light. The San Diego Union-Tribune broke the story on June 12, 2005.* So does that mean that Lam really was removed for other reasons?

Well, Sampson also wrote this list a number of months before Republicans started raising complaints about Lam's handling of border cases. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who led the charge against Lam, began publicly raising concerns in the summer of 2005.*

And while the list makes clear that Lam, one way or another, got on Sampson's hit list, it's very unclear whether that was because of some deficiency in performance.

Bud Cummins of Arkansas, for instance, also was categorized in Sampson's list as a “weak" U.S. Attorney. But there has never been any indication from any Justice Department official that Cummins didn't do a good job. Justice Department officials have never claimed that he was removed for "performance related" reasons, unlike all of the other fired prosecutors. Justice Department officials, in fact, have freely admitted that he was removed for no other reason than to install Karl Rove's former aide, Timothy Griffin.

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[napi21]

1. "a full three months before the Duke Cunningham scandal came to light"

doesn't mean a damn thing. Do you honestly believe Lam only worked on that case for 3 months? NO!!! Even if Lam never mentioned this case to anyone, Cunningham surely WOULD HAVE! I'm positive, once he realized he was in trouble, he called all the Pub operatives and said PLEASE GET ME OUT OF THIS MESS!

I still believe Lam's removal was because she not only brought down an old time Pub, but wasn't stopping there! Others were about to be discoveredand Gonzo & Co. tried to stop it.

[AlCzervik]

2. the same Darryl Issa thats now come out against the firings?

what in theee hell is going on?

[datadiva]

3. No,

It just means they knew about the Cunningham crap already and were trying to keep it from becoming public knowledge.