SAMPSON "Plans To Testify FULLY, TRUTHFULLY & PUBLICLY" (Just Out From His Lawyer)

[kpete]

Sampson: Nothing Can Stop Me Now

By Paul Kiel - March 26, 2007, 6:29 PM

Don't worry, Senate Judiciary Committee. Monica Goodling's choice to take the Fifth notwithstanding, Kyle Sampson will keep that date on Thursday. Just out from his lawyer, Bradford Berenson:

"Kyle plans to testify fully, truthfully, and publicly. Hearings in a highly politicized environment like this can sometimes become a game of gotcha, but Kyle has decided to trust the Congress and the process."

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002881.php

[blm]

1. I am there in front of my TV for this one.

GREAT NEWS. We always needed just ONE Bushie to get sick of taking the fall for them.

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. RUH ROH!

:bounce: I can't wait for Thursday!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. heh heh heh ha HA HAHAHAH HAHAHAH hee hee heh heh. ha

Mi knee-there
Book him danno.
be there, aloha.

[Skink]

35. Please enlightened on Ruh Roh?

[Generic Brad]

37. It's a direct quote from Scooby Doo

Just when Scooby and Shaggy realize they are in major trouble, Scooby says, "Ruh-roh". That's apparently dog for "Uh-Oh".

[eppur_se_muova]

46. I can never remember when to quote Scooby-Doo, and when to quote Astro. nt

[steelyboo]

49. Personally, I think he's taking that quote competely out of context :) NT

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

39. Let the popcorn flow like wine

[Critters2]

3. Oh, this should be good

but, if I were Mr. Sampson, I'd sleep with one eye open.

:popcorn:

[Me.]

4. So Kyle's Warning To WH Has Been Delivered Via His Lawyer

Fat lot of good it did I Liar Libby

[librechik]

5. Next one to be missing

just sayin...

[Subdivisions]

14. That's the first thing that came to my mind. n/t

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Hmmm...

Mayhaps Sampson is one pissed-off little repuke, who doesn't feel like being a foil for them.

Let it fly, son. Let it all out.

[The Wizard]

41. So far

the crime family has been making offers that couldn't be refused. Let's see what gets disclosed in his testimony before celebrating.

[whistle]

7. Great, then congress can ask Sampson what Monica Goodling's role was

...in all of this. That should compel her to be more forth-coming in her testimony instead of claiming that anything she says will incriminate her in the criminal activities of the Bush administration and DoJ.

[C_U_L8R]

15. Ka-pow

that would be something !

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. YES! maybe she'll have the 'need' to DEFEND herself.

:thumbsup:

[mmonk]

48. Yes, we'll see what comes out.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. I Hope To God This Is Shrub's John Dean Moment

John Dean's testimony (to the Senate, I believe) was what blew up Nixon.

Dean was young, and testified fully, truthfully, and publically... BOOM.

[robertpaulsen]

28. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you're right. n/t

[hootinholler]

32. Nah, we have at least an hour of this movie left...

That would be a premature climax, unless there's a long chase.

-Hoot

[babylonsister]

9. He's going to blame it all on bureaucratic bungling and accept no

personal responsibility. I'm noticing a rethug trend...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3282.html

Sampson Testimony May Be Key To Case

By: Mike Allen
March 26, 2007 07:33 AM EST

Friends say D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, believes that bureaucratic bungling rather than intentional wrongdoing was at the root of controversy over replacement of eight U.S. attorneys. Officials in both parties say Sampson’s testimony this Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee could provide a crucial roadmap to what happened, with Gonzales’ credibility at stake.

After the Justice Department released e-mails on Friday night that appeared to contradict the assertion by Gonzales that he had not been “involved in any discussions” about the firings, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the committee, said on Saturday: “The Sampson testimony is now more crucial than ever. He was at the center of it all. He can tell us what the attorney general knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it.”

Sampson’s questioners have e-mail showing that he discussed the replacement of the prosecutors with Gonzales beginning shortly after President Bush’s reelection in 2004. Sampson was also part of a meeting, documented in the e-mails released Friday, that Gonzales attended on the issue shortly before the firings occurred. He can be expected to tell Congress he was more involved in the details than Gonzales was.

Sampson is not gunning for anybody, according to friends. He believes that the issue has blown up because the Justice Department had an inadequate system for preparing officials to testify before Congress, the friends say. The Justice Department officials testified that the firings were based on performance rather than politics, an assertion called into question by e-mails the department later delivered to Capitol Hill.

The friends say Sampson, 37, does not plan to deliver bombshells, and say that Democrats looking for plots and schemes will be disappointed. Like other Republicans, Sampson will contend there was no underlying sin, just a botched response.

more...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

13. He can "contend" and "toe the party line" all he wants but he still is >

under oath and has to take questions.

On the other hand, maybe he's saying all that ahead of time to keep the goons away for a few days. }(

[sendero]

36. That's what I thought..

.... they're going to send him in hoping he can defuse this mess.

I sure hope he doesn't tell any lies because that would be most unfortunate.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Stay off small planes, Mr. Sampson

And don't accept any hunting trip offers from Cheney.

[Fresh_Start]

11. theres stories from his friends that he's not about to

do anything except the party line.

[AnnInLa]

12. Bullshit....look at this about Berenson:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/19/12148/2763

Well, three prominent speakers were introduced by prominent neocon David Frum at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) meeting on April 26, 2004. They were Bradford Berenson, Richard Klingler, and Adam Charnes -- the first two were described as leaders or founders of CCD, while Charnes is described as their counsel. Frum calls Berenson and Klingler his "friends".

Political savvy readers should recognize some of these names. Berenson, for instance, is the current attorney for key U.S. attorney scandal figure Kyle Sampson!!

Klingler is a recently appointed Senior Associate Counsel to President Bush!

Charnes is a former Principal Deputy District Attorney General at the Department of Justice, also said to work in the Office of Legal Affairs there. Charnes is also described as a protege of John Roberts while Charnes was at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson.

Bradford Berenson: this guy is Everywhere!

So, to recap. Moschella calls Collins about changing the Patriot Act provision on how interim U.S. attorneys are appointed. Moschella believes leaving such appointments to judges is too political (see my last diary). He then also leaves out Congressional approval when drafting that portion of the law. Collins says he doesn't understand how that happened.

Collins is linked to CCD, presenting an amicus curiae to the Supreme Court re Hamdan on CCD's behalf. CCD is led by former and current White House Counsels.

Former? Well, Bradford Berenson was Associate White House Counsel from Jan. 2001 to Jan. 2003. He was an associate counsel to Alberto Gonzales. This member of the Federalist Society now works as an attorney at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood:

After serving as associate White House counsel under President George W. Bush, Bradford A. Berenson has rejoined the Washington office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood as a partner. He will divide his time between the firm’s white collar and appellate litigation groups, where he practiced before being appointed by the president in January 2001. During his two-year tenure in the White House, he handled a variety of legal, legislative and policy issues associated with the Administration’s initiatives with Congress, domestic issues, and the war on terrorism.

At the White House, Mr. Berenson’s responsibilities included work on judicial selection, executive privilege, and responses to congressional oversight efforts. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, he played a significant role in the executive branch’s counterterrorism response. He worked on the USA Patriot Act, the military order authorizing the use of military commissions, detainee policy and anti-terrorism litigation, presidential action against terrorist financing, and the restructuring of the federal government to create a new Department of Homeland Security.

Oh, yes, and besides being the current attorney for Kyle Sampson, Berenson was also the attorney for Rove aide Susan Ralston, implicated in the Abramoff scandal.


But before all this, according to a Jane Meyer piece at the New Yorker, Berenson was a close associate of David Addington, now Cheney's chief of staff. He also helped draft the original Military Commissions executive order!

On November 13, 2001, an executive order setting up the military commissions was issued under Bush's signature. The decision stunned Powell; the national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice; the highest-ranking lawyer at the C.I.A.; and many judge advocate generals, or JAGs, the top lawyers in the military services. None of them had been consulted. Michael Chertoff... was also bypassed.... According to multiple sources, Addington secretly usurped the process. He and a few hand-picked associates, including Bradford Berenson and Timothy Flanigan, a lawyer in the White House counsel's office, wrote the executive order creating the commissions.

SourceWatch has also plenty to say about Mr. Berenson. And I note they also call CCD a "shadowy group".

Bradford A. Berenson is one of the original eight associate counsels during Alberto Gonzales's tenure as White House counsel, that was described in a Washington Post 2005.01.02 article titled, Gonzales Helped Set the Course for Detainees, as being comprised of:

a tightknit group of Washington-based former clerks to Supreme Court or appellate judges, all of whom had worked on at least one of three touchstones of the conservative movement: the Whitewater and Monica S. Lewinsky inquiries of former president Bill Clinton, the Bush-Cheney election campaign, and the Florida vote-counting dispute.

This group of associate counsels exerted a great deal of control in the creation of the Patriot Bill, Gonzales' determinations regarding the legal statures of "detainees" captured in the War on Terrorism, the validity of the Geneva Conventions, and a new less stringent legal definition of torture.

Quite a club, eh?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/19/12148/2763

[peacetalksforall]

18. IF ANYTHING IS PROOF THAT CHENEY IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY, THIS IS.IT!

This lawyer worked on the theft of the election in 2000 and then he worked on covering up the cheating results (with the help of the Boards of Directors of the newspapers who did their dirty part).

We're not going to get anything out of Bramson. That lawyer is there to protect Cheney #1, Bush #2, and Gonzales #3.

Bungling, indeed.

Do you feel the wool coming down over your eyes?

It appears he may have also been on the team to set up the torture parameters? What else could they mean by 'military commissions' that startled the top rungs of operatives.

It's becoming more obvious that the pretend game that put Cheney in there to run things with a maleable mind who only needed a certain number of perks and rewards to get out their and fundraise and play-act providing he (George) also had his own team around him.

I'm sure the Cheney team is disgusted with the Bush team - Miers, Gonzales, and Rice. It's obvious that this is who they think bungled and now they have to have hidden faces out front.

This is going to be a MEET THY ENEMY Thursday.

[annabanana]

19. (not sure how this relates to Sampson's testimony). . . . .n/t

[EVDebs]

20. Brad Berenson's bio intell ties and knows about Abramoff/CIA/GOP$ ???

http://www.sidley.com/news/pub.asp?PubID=17153282003

Looks like they wanted to institute REX84 and the dissenter detention camps on an expedited basis. Maybe Berenson himself could be asked to testify ... he was formerly in the White House Counsel's office himself !

[whistle]

21. Kyle Sampson can fill in all the blanks where Monic Goodling is scared shitless to talk

...and then Monica can go to Federal Prison taking the 5th!

[texpatriot2004]

22. Wow! You mean he's going to do the right thing? nm

[mtnester]

24. I live in skeptic land

he threw that out there to get "the deal" from the WH is my guess.

I do not trust ANY of them to do the right thing...weasels all of them

[garybeck]

23. uh, did we expect him to say he's going to LIE?

not trying to be skeptical but don't they always say they're going to tell the truth? I'd bet Libby's lawyer has said the same thing.

notwithstanding, let's hope SOMEONE, ANYONE, starts telling the truth, and soon! that would be great!!!

[bluerum]

25. Yeah. Right. Put the republic POS under oath. The American people

deserve the truth.

[malaise]

26. He's better have 24 hour security

for the rest of his life.

[Spiffarino]

27. To paraphrase Mary McCarthy,

Every word will be a lie, including "and" and "the."

[Beetwasher]

29. Yeah, Well, We'll See, I Won't Just Take His Word On It

I hope so, but this could just be his lawyer spinning.

[kohodog]

30. And who butters his bread?

Who is prepping him? Rove or some underling?

[Skink]

31. This could be redundant but good!

:beer:

[johnnydrama]

33. i have no doubt

That if the perfect questions comes up, he'd plead the 5th.

This is all about the questions.

I found the questions in the Plame hearings to be very very good.

Maybe Josh Marshall can send some questions over to Leahy & Schumer, since he's the expert.

[Skink]

34. Johnny Questions please. Just the facts.

This almost to easy.

[EVDebs]

42. Berenson, Sampson's lawyer, used to be in * WH Counsel office

So, shouldn't Congress be also questioning HIM ?

[Oilwellian]

38. A republican will testify truthfully??

Cue Mike Malloy's giggling like a loon.

[19jet54]

40. I won't hold my breath...

... but will wait for comment here until after Thursday!!!!

[jmowreader]

43. The three options

He's had it up to here with Bush and is willing to lose it all to get rid of him...

or he's the designated fall guy...

or Conyers set him up with a place to run to after the testimony's finished.

[dflprincess]

44. It's probably more important that they keep him hidden BEFORE his testimony

once what he has to say is public, he'll be a little safer.

[helderheid]

45. When???

[Jack Rabbit]

47. I hope he's in an undisclosed location until then.

I'm not one to think there's anything mysterious about a light plane going down in freezing rain, but the stakes are higher than a single election this time.

Stay safe, Mr. Sampson.

[bdamomma]

50. this testimony will tomorrow, the clock is ticking for gonzo.