Report: Rove Deeply Involved in U.S. Attorney Firings

[L. Coyote]

Any more recent news about this case?
Is Wash. DC still functioning?

========
Report: Rove Deeply Involved in U.S. Attorney Firings
By Jason Leopold - The Public Record - Nov. 18, 2008
http://www.pubrecord.org/component/content/505.html?task=view


Former White House political adviser Karl Rove helped Department of Justice officials compile a list of U.S. Attorneys to fire in 2006 and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales engaged in a “cover-up” when he offered up reasons to explain the dismissals, according to a report released Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. (http://judiciary.senate.gov/resources/reports/upload/11-18-08-USAttorneysReport-2.pdf)

“The evidence shows senior officials were focused on the political impact of Federal prosecutions and whether Federal prosecutors were doing enough to bring partisan voter fraud and corruption cases,” said the 60-page Judiciary Committee report released by Tuesday’s chairman Patrick Leahy. “It is now apparent that the reasons given for these firings, including those reasons provided in sworn testimony by the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, were contrived as part of a cover-up.”

...........

================
REPORT: (http://judiciary.senate.gov/resources/reports/upload/11-18-08-USAttorneysReport-2.pdf)
The Committee on the Judiciary, reports favorably on resolutions authorizing the President of the Senate to certify the facts of the failure of Karl Rove and Joshua Bolten to appear and testify before the Committee on the Judiciary and to produce documents as required by Committee subpoena and recommends that the resolutions do pass.
....
The evidence obtained by the Judiciary Committee’s investigation, and the resulting reports issued by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, raises concerns about the violation of Federal laws, including possible obstruction of justice, laws that prohibit providing misleading or inaccurate testimony to Congress, and possible violations of laws, including the Hatch Act, that prohibit retaliation against Federal employees for improper political reasons.
....
The administration seeks to have it both ways by claiming that the President was not involved in the removal decisions, but simultaneously that executive privilege, premised on the need to secure candid advice for the President, should apply. If the White House wishes to assert executive privilege, it should describe the involvement the President had in the decision making process. It has not done so and the evidence is that the President was not involved. Accordingly, there is no justification for claiming executive privilege.

[RufusTFirefly]

1. Rove? Involved?!!

[calimary]

3. And golllll-llleeee, wonder how many excuses John Conyers will come up with

to avoid following up on any of this, or heaven forbid, holding ANYONE accountable.

:eyes:

[L. Coyote]

5. I believe this is now in the hands of a judge

who ordered Miers to testify, then granted a stay for a motion.

I'm getting the impression that election amnesia is setting in here on DU and everywhere!

"“I intend to ensure that our outstanding subpoenas and document requests relating to the U.S. attorneys matter are enforced,” said Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “I am hopeful that progress can be made with the coming of the new administration.” http://forums.somd.com/politics/160943-bush-out-office-could-oppose-inquiries.html

[calimary]

23. I hope to Heaven you're correct. There MUST be at least some consequences for

violations as egregious as these. I mean, these bastards were up to no good EVERYWHERE, and around the clock. They never slept. The assault on everything that makes America what she's meant to be was constant. If there's no accountability, no penalty to pay, no consequences to face, no punitive or deterrent action for all the multitudes of crimes these people have committed, that sets a hugely bad precedent. What's to stop somebody 10 or 12 or 20 or 30 years from now who decides to push the limit on abuses of power? We-The-People will be left with no recourse. The response will be "well? Hey - those guys did this and nobody said anything. There were years in which these things could have been investigated and prosecuted and nobody did a thing. Must not have been any big deal then, 'eh?"

There has to be a boom lowered to send a message to future would-be unitary executives or emperors or dictators that such abuses of power will NOT be tolerated. A clear message has to be sent. And judging from the track record I've seen, any such pursuit has been - well, anemic, to say the very least. Pathetic would be more like it. And Dems have had the majority since January 2007, so at least something more vigorous and with at least a few teeth in it could have been launched by now. ESPECIALLY as public opinion turned on this schmuck and suddenly he wasn't the untouchable "popular wartime president" anymore. But no. Our people had to take IMPEACHMENT off the table. And it seems as though that Pelosi decision determined the position of almost everybody else in Congress.

[Warpy]

6. Not while Stupid has veto power, he won't.

I'm hoping that's what they're all waiting for, to get Stupid out of the big chair so they can prosecute and have it stick.

After they got burned over Scooter Libby, I doubt any of them is in a hurry to prosecute these thieves.

[tularetom]

2. From the Department of No Shit Sherlock

He's up to his pudgy little armpits in it. And I still have faith it'll all be revealed sooner rather than later with or without the initiation of investigations by the Obama administration. There's just too much dirty laundry there to keep it hidden.

Besides there are books to be written and profits to be made. Brace yourself for a flood of tell alls soon after Inauguration Day.

[Tinksrival]

4. Really? Who'd a thunk?

[L. Coyote]

7. Senate GOPers On US Attorney Firings: Voter Fraud, Voter Fraud!

Senate GOPers On US Attorney Firings: Voter Fraud, Voter Fraud!
By Zachary Roth - November 18, 2008 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/senate_gopers_on_us_attorney_f.php


Election-law expert Rick Hasen picks out an interesting passage from the minority section of the Senate Judiciary Committee's just-released report into the US Attorneys firings.

Some members of the committee's Republican minority -- including senior senators like McCain pal Lindsey Graham, new NRSC chair John Cornyn, and ex-presidential candidate Sam Brownback -- strenuously disagreed with the findings of the Majority (and with an internal report produced by DOJ's Office of the Inspector General) that the White House helped engineer the firings, and that several of the dismissals were made for inappropriate political reasons.

Instead, they used the report as a chance to bang the drum on "voter fraud" one more time. But they continue to willfully confuse voter registration fraud with voter fraud -- even though numerous experts have now pointed out that there's no evidence that fraudulent voter registration forms lead to fraudulent votes being cast.

The dissenting Republicans wrote:

Perhaps the most Orwellian aspect of the Majority report is its repeated insistence that there is no vote fraud in this country that is ever worth investigating. ..............

[MadMaddie]

8. Shut up!! It never would have crossed my mind, Rove involved...

:banghead:

[L. Coyote]

9. Leahy to pursue Justice firings

Okay, I found this much, a very positive report:

===========
Leahy to pursue Justice firings
Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - November 20, 2008 - http://www.timesargus.com/article/20081120/NEWS01/811200386/1002/NEWS01


Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the head of the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee, said that despite the impending change in presidential administrations, he will pursue his inquiry into political influence in the U.S. Department of Justice under President George Bush.

Leahy said it was "encouraging" that the U.S. Department of Justice has said it will provide some of the information about the allegedly politically motivated firings in 2006 of nine U.S. attorneys.

And if President-elect Barack Obama's administration releases some of the information his committee has sought, he will not have to pursue that material through congressional means, Leahy said.

"I won't have to if the administration just turns a lot of it over and makes it available," he said.

Leahy wants to know what influence members of the White House – including Karl Rove – had on the firings of the prosecutors. The firings led to several investigations and were followed by the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"My ultimate goal is to find out what they did … where law enforcement was manipulated," Leahy said of any potential White House influence in the firings. ...............

[bleever]

10. Sorry, but there's no way.

Rove has assured various controlling legal authorities that he has no incontrovertible testimony to the culpability of anyone either known or unknown to him.


I think that Rove, in dodging a subpoena in the Plame case, burned more than a couple of escape routes.

He is being painted into smaller and smaller corners, and his own brushwork is an important part. :)

[annabanana]

17. but..but..but... That would mean he's not a "GENIUS". .

..... how is that possible? I mean, he's on TV and everything.

[Botany]

22. 3 things

1) Bush can pardon him but Don Siegleman is gonna own him
after a civil suit.

b) The scam; The NSA did the spying and the DoJ was the muscle w/
the U.S. Attornys being the hit men .... all the time having major sections
of the media in their back pocket ....

iii) All Rove needs is to get a case in front of a Republican judge who
isn't burden by the law or ethics i.e. Tony Scallia and Florida 2000.

The whole lot of them need to be tried under the RICO law.

[Iggo]

11. Reaction: Duh. (n/t)

[ProfessorGAC]

19. My Reaction Is The Same As Iggo's

The Professor

[YellowRubberDuckie]

27. Ditto.

[Fridays Child]

12. Will we ever see the frogmarching of Rove?

I hold little to no hope. x(

[Bolo Boffin]

13. I understand that a lot of "background information" is going to hit primetime January 20th...

Hold on...

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Do we have to wait so long?

[annabanana]

18. I am so looking forward to January 21. . . n/t

[tavalon]

14. duh!

[trumad]

16. Same reporter who said Rove was secretly indicted....

N ow he's reporting something that's as obvious as the nose on his face.

[L. Coyote]

20. The Senate Judiciary Committee is stating this about Rove

Leopold is reporting the NEWS.

Obviouly, DU's collective attention has waned since the election.
This should have been posted the day it came out.

[tom_paine]

21. MORE than enough to warrant a FULL INVESTIGATION

Will someone invetsigate arrest, try, convict, and imprison that filthy Kinder and Gentler Goebbels?

And that is only one of SEVERAL felonies Herr Roverer has performed.

But any one felony conviction, of the many to choose from, should serve.

ARREST, TRY, CONVICT, and IMPRISON that filthy odious criminal!

Nancy Pelosi says, "Yeah, right. Shut yer' trap, you filthy little peasant. Karl is one of US, The Elite. Now go fuck yourself before I have you arrested for vagrancy, you cheeky upstart."

[elizfeelinggreat]

24. k & r

[jtrockville]

25. Jason Leopold ....

Didn't he say that Rove would be indicted back when Fitzgerald was investigating which of our own administration officials outed a US spy during wartime?

I believed him then, and wrongly got my hopes up.
I wish I could believe him now.

[FriendlyReminder]

26. How is it that this guy can keep skating after all the shenanigans

he has pulled over the past 8 years or so. When is the long arm of the law going to catch up with him?????

[L. Coyote]

29. U: "When is the long arm of the law going to catch up with him?????"

When rule by law is restored in the USA.

[barbtries]

28. when will he be arrested?

will the story make it to the msm?