transcript with David Shuster
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17737423/DAVID SHUSTER, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: Keith, good evening.
A couple of interesting details. First of all, in going through the 3,000 pages of documents, there is a gap, with the exception of one e-mail on November the 29th, from one Justice Department official to another, asking for a form. But the lack of e-mails, the lack of documents, the scarcity from November 15 to December the 4th, is so intriguing because of the flurry of activity on the 15th, based on documents that were turned over, and the flurry on December 4.
And specifically regarding November 15, this was the day when, according to the documents, that the Justice Department was then going to start notifying the prosecutors that they started—that they would start needing to make other plans in December. And November 15 is the date of an e-mail from Kyle Sampson, the attorney general‘s chief of staff, to White House counsel Harriet Miers.
And the e-mail says, quote, “Who will determine whether this requires the president‘s attention?” question mark. Earlier in the e-mail string, there was a mention of Karl Rove, and there‘s a point made by Harriet Miers, the White House counsel, that the president would be going out of town. So it appears that Kyle Sampson is simply asking, Is it going to be Karl Rove, or who‘s going to be the person who‘s going to be talking this over with President Bush?
And then again, starting on November 15, until December 4, there‘s essentially no trail. There‘s no response, there‘s no response saying that, yes, it was Karl Rove. There was no indication that the president was told. There was no indication back to the Justice Department about what the Justice Department took away from the information that the White House may or may not have provided.
To be fair, the president was out of town for—in Asia for a period of time, and then in Europe. But the White House did find time during this period to make some decisions related to the Department of Interior.
Specifically, the White House issued this on November the 27th, which said the president signed five different measures into law, including one that would examine whether the Farmington River and Salmon Brook in the state of Connecticut should be added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, the argument being that if the president had enough time to make a decision about whether to sign a river into a scenic system, that perhaps the president would have also had time to have Karl Rove or somebody else discuss a possible change in scenery for seven U.S. prosecutors who were going to be dismissed in early December, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Now, to be fair, having seen the Farmington River, it is very scenic, and that does deserve a lot of attention.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
