Email-Gate FACTS: Felons, georgewbush.com, gwb43.com , et. al.

[L. Coyote]

Googling the domain name, looking for facts about Email-Gate. This is a complex and entangled story that connects a lot of scandals. Some of the players are already in jail!!

======== RNC owns the domains ====

FACT: The RNC owns various domains, including georgewbush.com, the offical Bush Cheney 2004 campaign website, and gwb43.com.

Contact info for georgewbush.com:

Bush-Cheney 04, Inc.
PO Box 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
US 703 647 2700
[e-mail]

======== georgewbush.com domain was used in the 2000 election and for the Florida recount =====

Here is an e-mail to an Enron account:

From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Sent: 13/11/2000 at 20:56

Emergency funds needed: https://secure.apk.net/gb/contribute.html

On Election Night, George W. Bush won the most votes in Florida.
Not surprisingly, Al Gore's campaign did not like the result. ...
... we need your help to defend the integrity of the Florida election.

CLICK BELOW TO MAKE A SECURE ONLINE CONTRIBUTION TO THE BUSH CHENEY
RECOUNT FUND NOW:

https://secure.apk.net/gb/contribute.html

PLEASE SEND THIS TO AS MANY CONCERNED AMERICANS AS YOU KNOW....
.....
End e-mail content. Source: http://enron.trampolinesystems.com/focus/41461#focus=/focus/41461&lightbox=/show_email/25306&

INFO on apk.net: Registrant = https://secure.apk.net/gb/contribute.html
Expedient Holdings USA, LLC.
The Crane Bld., Suite 300, 24th Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: APK.NET
Created on: 17-MAY-94
Expires on: 18-MAY-09
Last Updated on: 18-MAY-04

========= Waxman acts to preserve evidence ====

The Washington Post March 27 article incorrectly attributed to Susan Ralston a warning that e-mail messages by lobbyist Jack Abramoff should not be put into the White House e-mail system "because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc." The author of the 2003 e-mail was Jennifer Farley, who was a deputy in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

GOP Groups Told to Keep Bush Officials' E-Mails
Democrat Cites Investigation of Firings
By R. Jeffrey Smith - Washington Post Staff Writer - Tuesday, March 27, 2007; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601979.html

A Democratic House committee chairman yesterday told the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign to retain copies of all e-mails sent or received by White House officials using e-mail accounts under their control....

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said his broadly written request was based on evidence that White House officials -- particularly aides to top political adviser Karl Rove -- have used their politically related e-mail accounts to hide the conduct of official business regarding the prosecutor firings and other matters being investigated by Congress....

"The e-mails of White House officials maintained on RNC e-mail accounts may be relevant to multiple congressional investigations," Waxman wrote to the group's chairman, Mike Duncan .....

DU Discussion of this issue at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2781758

This on Raw Story:

Waxman advises RNC not to destroy any e-mails
Michael Roston - Monday March 26, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Waxman_to_Republican_groups_Save_those_0326.html

Pointing to e-mails between Bush administration officials and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff that used private e-mail addresses, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ordered the Republican National Committee and the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign to preserve all e-mail records and to ensure that they aren't purged or destroyed.

"White House officials have used nongovernmental e-mail accounts, including those maintained by the RNC, to conduct official White House business," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote in letters delivered today, copies of which were sent to RAW STORY. "The Committee has questions about who has access to these e-mail records and how the RNC protects them from destruction and tampering."

.....

Waxman also noted that according to the terms of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, "Such e-mails written in the conduct of White House business would appear to be governmental records subject to preservation and eventual public disclosure."

...more....

====== Abramoff's aide becames Rove executive assistant, and then writes "to help us" ===

From http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/16977359.htm
and http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/03/27/crooksrus-2/

Waxman noted for example that J. Scott Jennings, the White House deputy director of political affairs, used a "gwb43.com" e-mail account last August to discuss the replacement of the U.S. attorney for Arkansas, Bud Cummins, according to e-mails released to Congress by the White House.

Barry Jackson, a deputy to Rove, in 2003 used a "georgewbush.com" e-mail account to consult with Neil G. Volz, then an aide to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, about nominating one of Abramoff's Indian tribe clients for a Medal of Freedom, according to a copy of an e-mail. Abramoff is now serving a prison sentence for bank fraud, and Volz plead guilty to conspiracy charges last year.

Susan B. Ralston, while she was executive assistant to Rove, similarly used "georgewbush.com" and "rnchq.org" e-mail accounts to confer in 2001 and 2003 with Abramoff, her former boss, about matters of interest to Abramoff's clients.

In a related e-mail, an Abramoff aide said Ralston had warned that "it is better to not put this stuff in writing in . . . email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc."

...much more....

======= Convicted felons used the e-mails =====

"Another official using the unofficial e-mail system for government business was Neil Volz, the former Chief of Staff to Rep. Bob Ney.
Both Volz and Ney were convicted of crimes related to their activities with Abramoff."
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Waxman_to_Republican_groups_Save_those_0326.html

===== "rnchq.org" also involved =====

That is the Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
202.863.8500 | [e-mail]

... Waxman also pointed to e-mails his committee received last year in connection to convicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, which show White House aides sending and receiving work-related e-mails from domains like "georgewbush.com" and "rnchq.org". ....

....

An RNC spokesman declined to comment, saying the organization had not yet had a chance to review the letter. The White House and former Bush-Cheney '04 campaign chairman Marc Racicot did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/white_house_aid.html

======= Did Fitzgerald know? ====

Friday, March 23, 2007
Joseph Cannon: The White House, vote theft, and the email trail
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/03/gwb43-white-house-vote-theft-and-email.html

.....

The White House has its own internal email system, ending in the .gov suffix, as mandated by the Presidential Records Act. As Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) notes:

CREW has learned that to fulfill its statutory obligations under the PRA, the White House email system automatically copies all messages created by staff and sends them to the White House Office of Records Management for archiving. It appears that the White House deliberately bypassed the automatic archiving function of its own email system that was designed to ensure compliance with the PRA.

.....

A not-unrelated question: Did Patrick Fitzgerald know about this bypass when he subpoenaed White House emails pursuant to the Plamegate investigation? I doubt that he did. If he had, Scooter might not have been the only one brought to trial.

..much more...

====== GeorgeWBush.org received e-mails intended for .com ====

Replacement U.S. Attorney Accused of Vote Suppression
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/03/3797_replacement_us.html

Calling an anti-Bush website GeorgeWBush.org was a stroke of genius that continues to pay off.

Remember Timothy Griffin, who replaced H. E. Cummins when the latter was unceremoniously sacked for not playing hardball with the Bush administration? Well Tim accidentally sent emails meant for senior RNC staff about a vote suppression scam he was running to addresses @GeorgeWBush.org instead of @GeorgeWBush.com.

===== Timeline for the US Attorney firings =====

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9003390

=====

Enough to start a thread. Laughing Coyote.

[hang a left]

1. I really have to wonder if Fitzgerald isn't the one who discovered

these other servers and this scam. Remember the "lost" emails that Rove came up with to save his ass from indictment??

[L. Coyote]

6. This will certainly change the civil lawsut. Plame knows now.

Plame now knows, so expect subpoenas of all the servers used by all the players.

[lovuian]

190. I think he could have let Congress know

and then Rove went after the lawyers and that was it

[grasswire]

2. good work, thanks

Keep digging.

[Fresh_Start]

3. In corporate world, these are firing offenses

you do not send confidential emails over non-corporate email.

Every employee knows this.

[Solo_in_MD]

132. Same with the Gov, only you can go to jail

[originalpckelly]

4. Yes, these are the Watergate tapes.

If they don't delete the e-mails and we can find them, I have a feeling that they;ll reveal some pretty dirty shit happening.

[yardwork]

18. Even if they try to delete them, they will fail - they're incompetent

IT can recover data from wiped disks, all kinds of data that was supposedly long gone. Nobody in this administration is smart enough or energetic enough to cover their tracks. The emails are probably even now being pored over by Plame's attorneys and others. I'm sure they're being hacked all over the world.

This is going to be worse for bushco than the Nixon tapes. Tapes exist in one location and can be erased with the help of dutiful secretaries. Email goes out to the whole world and really can't ever be erased.

[L. Coyote]

156. AP: White House e-mail recovery not trivial = Friday, April 13, 2007

Friday, April 13, 2007
White House e-mail recovery not trivial
By ANICK JESDANUN - AP INTERNET WRITER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_Fired_Prosecutors_Forensics.html


NEW YORK -- Although a top Senate Democrat believes even a teenager could recover missing White House e-mails, experts said Friday that doing so could be tough - but not impossible.

On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont disputed the Bush administration's claims that e-mails sent on a Republican Party account might have been lost, insisting that e-mail is never fully deleted and "I've got a teenage kid in my neighborhood that can go get 'em for them."

"I read that and I laughed," said Mark Rasch, managing director for technology at FTI Consulting Inc. "Senator Leahy is wrong when he says it's a trivial matter, but it's also not correct to say they cannot be recovered."

The life span of e-mail has become an issue after the White House said it may have lost electronic messages from Karl Rove and other administration officials. Democrats in Congress want the e-mails for their probe of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. In addition, by law, anything dealing with official White House business must be preserved.

White House officials say they will make a genuine effort to recover any missing e-mails dealing with official White House business and sent through accounts sponsored by the Republican National Committee........

.............more........

[L. Coyote]

159. WA POST Rob Pegoraro: 'Delete' Doesn't Mean 'Disappear'

'Delete' Doesn't Mean 'Disappear'\
By Rob Pegoraro
Saturday, April 14, 2007; Page D01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041301913.html

This might not seem obvious when you're struggling to locate the e-mail somebody sent you last week, but it's not easy to make an e-mail message vanish for good. A lot of the time, it's outright impossible.

Some executives at Enron found that out the hard way a few years ago. Some people in the White House -- who seem to have deleted important messages that they shouldn't have -- may be on their way to making the same discovery.

The secret life of e-mail isn't obvious from looking at your mail program. It sensibly simplifies things, presenting a message as a single object you can open, read, and then delete. Once you empty your mail program's trash, no trace of the message remains.

But under normal circumstances, nothing you delete on a computer vanishes immediately. The computer clears its own record of where it put the file, but the file itself won't disappear until enough other data gets written to that same spot. Given the vast size of most new computers' hard drives, that can take years.

...............

[bananarepublican]

239. Not to mention that a sent e-mail by definition means more than one e-copy! n/t

[L. Coyote]

22. E-mail Controversy Prompts Many Aides To Stop Usage

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/blogs/news_blog/070327/email_controversy_prompts_many.htm

DU Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3185631

This comes from Whispers editor Paul Bedard:

The growing controversy over the firing of federal prosecutors and what administration officials knew about it is renewing concerns among Bush aides over the less-than-secret aspect of E-mails. Those concerns were elevated this week when a House chairman asked that all aides retain their E-mails.

But just a week after E-mails in the U.S. attorneys case became a main focus of congressional Democrats probing the firings, several aides said that they stopped using the White House system except for purely professional correspondence.

.... more ...

[DemReadingDU]

24. Ohio GOP, gwb43.com, georgewbush.com

Another thread relating to those external emails that I posted earlier

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x469875

[DearAbby]

145. I bet the FBI could

recover my emails I have deleted if they needed too...what is the difference? Come on..There are ways of recovering lost deleted emails.

[Solly Mack]

5. It's fun isn't it?

Great compilation!!!!

Recommended

[L. Coyote]

7. HUGE. Executive Privilege does not apply to non-goveernment e-mails.

... people in the White House have ... been communicating by text messages, blackberries, personal accounts (like hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc), or accounts owned by the Republican National Committee ....

How ridiculous, really. Aside from the blatant contempt for Congress, the law, and the public record, there are major security risks to this too. That's why this sort of thing is banned in many government departments. Particularly when the user holds a security clearance.

The only (potential) happy ending? E-mails under the RNC domains are now being subpoenaed too, and they can't really be shielded by claims of Executive Privilege. Can't wait to hear the highlights of these! This should be good.

http://says-bomb.livejournal.com/163742.html

[L. Coyote]

9. The Rovian Theory by Dan Froomkin - washingtonpost.com

The Rovian Theory by Dan Froomkin - Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, March 23, 2007; 1:50 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/03/23/BL2007032301067_pf.html

Why are President Bush's Democratic critics so focused on getting White House political guru Karl Rove's testimony regarding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys?

Because based on Rove's history, the whole thing may well have been his idea -- and may be even more complicated than it initially appeared.

.....

Alexis Simendinger writes in a National Journal story (subscription required): "White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove may have forfeited potential claims of executive privilege over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys-- if he communicated about the latter outside the White House e-mail system, using his Republican National Committee e-mail account or RNC equipment. Or at least that's a legal possibility posed by rapidly advancing electronic technology and the evolving work habits of busy White House officials. . . .

"According to one former White House official familiar with Rove's work habits, the president's top political adviser does 'about 95 percent' of his e-mailing using his RNC-based account. Many White House officials, including aides in the Political Affairs Office, use the RNC account as an alternative to their official government e-mail addresses to help keep their official and political duties separate. Although some White House officials use dual sets of electronic devices for that purpose,

Rove prefers to use his RNC-provided BlackBerry for convenience, the former official said. . . .
........

[yardwork]

19. This is all about stealing elections

The White House needed compliant US Attorneys in states where there are tight races coming up. This is part of the same pattern of stealing elections by any way possible - fix the machines, stage "riots" to stop vote recounts, start bogus investigations against Democrats, and fail to investigate illegal behavior by Republicans.

[L. Coyote]

20. GOP was hungry to have "Dem voter fraud" in NM news.

And that election was very close, so close that the uncounted "undervote" could have changed the outcome.

Is this a case of pre-planning by those who knew Dem votes wouyld not be counted by the e-vote machines?


In New Mexico, why does the Sequoia and Danther E-voting equipment
fail to count so many votes? On average, 2.62% of voters did not vote
per these machines, compared to 0.46% non-votes in the Op-Scan counties.

New Mexico Election Data with a Statistical Summary and a Non-Voter Analysis.
http://jqjacobs.net/politics/xls/new_mexico_county.xls

[Joe Fields]

229. Insuring that the GOP remains in power was the bottom line, by

any means possible. But, to funnel 700 million dollars of taxpayer money through the appropriations committee chairman, to disburse to bogus companies, to then funnel back into Republican campaigns, while skimming a great deal of that money for personal gain is, I feel the great scandal.

[Solo_in_MD]

133. Neither does the requirement to keep records

[bobthedrummer]

137. KICK-it is a crime to conceal crimes using the pretext of national security

especially when there is a basis to say that some of these criminals have committed TREASON and used loyal Bushies in doing so.

Prosecute all of them-let's keep this thread kicked every now and then for researchers.

Thanks again, L. Coyote!

[L. Coyote]

8. Series of questions to the White House Communications Office.

Dan Froomkin posed a series of questions to the White House Communications Office.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10226.html

1) Does White House policy allow White House staffers to use non-White House e-mail addresses for official White House business? Does it prohibit it? What is the policy?

2) Would these e-mails be treated any differently from official White House e-mails when it comes to archiving or subpoena purposes?

3) Does it create either impropriety or the appearance of impropriety that gwb43.com is a domain owned by the Republican National Committee?

4) Do other White House staffers regularly use non-White House e-mail accounts for White House business, and if so, why?

5) Does non-White House e-mail fulfill security requirements for White House communications?

6) If other non-White House e-mail accounts are used, who are the providers for all of the other accounts? (Any others besides the RNC?)

7) Does White House policy allow White House staffers to use non-White House e-mail addresses from their computers, even for non-official business? I’m told that during the Clinton administration, access to external e-mail, including Web mail, was shut off from White House (eop.gov) computers. Was there a conscious change of policy by the Bush administration?

8) Have there been any recent changes in policy relating to e-mail practices, or are changes in policy contemplated?

So far, Froomkin hasn’t heard back. I’m not surprised.

[Eurobabe]

10. So why can't someone USE AN NSL or FISA to GET GWB43.COM SERVER??

JESUS!!! Come on people, WAKE UP!!

They can spy on US, but we can't find out what the hell they have been doing??

[L. Coyote]

12. No doubt Congressional subpoenas are forthcoming for all communications.

This may be the tip of the iceburg.
How many accounts are still unknown to investigators?
Just follow the communications trails...... omne leading to another, etc.

Congress now has just cause to review the RNC domain emails. Where will it lead?

Who should get a subpoena?

Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, George W. Bush??

Who would you add to the list?

[diva77]

94. I would add elections officials and vendors in all of the states/counties

targeted by GOP as "must-haves" - from Secretaries of State --e.g.Harris from Florida in 2000, Blackwell from Ohio in 2004 --to RoV's to private corporations that hold the voting machine contracts: Diebold, Sequoia, Hart Intercivic, ESS, etc. - too many machines switching or losing votes with end result being that GOP or republicrat wins election despite polls that indicate otherwise.

The legal system puts the onus on citizens to prove that the nontransparent machines or election results are inaccurate rather than putting the onus on the vendors and elections officials to prove that their allegedly HAVA compliant garbage DREs, optiscans and computerized tabulators are accurate, fair and transparent. Maybe the RNC server has some some tell-tale emails on this :shrug:

[L. Coyote]

11. Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA) FACTS. Iran-Contra link, Nancy too!

From: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20040430/index.htm

......

The Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA) emerged from the scandals of the Nixon presidency to require former presidents to release their records no later than 12 years after they leave office. Under the PRA, as amended, the U.S. government asserts complete "ownership, possession, and control" of all Presidential and Vice-Presidential records. Upon conclusion of the President's term in office, the National Archivist is required to assume custody of the records, and to make them available to the public when permissible under the PRA. Access to the records can be denied after the end of the 12-year embargo only if a former or incumbent president claims an exemption based on a "constitutionally based" executive privilege or continuing national security concern.

On February 8, 2001, shortly after President Bush came into office, he was notified of a scheduled release of Reagan presidential records (68,000 pages of records). His legal counsel requested two successive 90-day extensions of time to review the records prior to their release .... followed on November 1, 2001 with the issuance of Executive Order (E.O. 13,233) that gives the White House and former presidents uncontrolled discretion in deciding whether to deny the release of documents requested by journalists and scholars.

.......

Among the records withheld: a six-page 8 December 1986 memo to the President and Director of Public Affairs entitled, "Talking Points on Iran/Contra Affairs"; a series of memos dated 22 November and 1 December 1988 for the President entitled, "Pardon for Oliver North, John Poindexter, and Joseph Fernandez"; and a two-page memo for the President from the Attorney General, "Appeal of the Decision Denying the Enforcement of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987." Other withheld memos relate to the release of Justice Rehnquist's papers and materials relating to "Use of Military Aircraft by Mrs. Reagan."

[L. Coyote]

15. US CODE, PRA and Reagan and Bush Executive Orders re PRA

Bush revoked Reagan's order to cover up Iran-Contra and more.

=====
Executive Order 13233 - Further Implementation of the Presidential Records Act
Source: The provisions of Executive Order 13233 of November 1, 2001, appear at 66 FR 56025, dated November 5, 2001.
http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/appendix/13233.html

GWB: By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish policies and procedures implementing section 2204 of title 44 of the United States Code with respect to constitutionally based privileges, including those that apply to Presidential records reflecting military, diplomatic, or national security secrets, Presidential communications, legal advice, legal work, or the deliberative processes of the President and the President's advisors, and to do so in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court's decisions in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425 (1977), and other cases, it is hereby ordered as follows: ....

......

Sec. 13. Revocation. Executive Order 12667 of January 18, 1989, is revoked.

===========
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12667.html

Ronald Reagan: Executive Order 12667--Presidential Records

Source: The provisions of Executive Order 12667 of Jan. 16, 1989, appear at 54 FR 3403, unless otherwise noted.

By virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish policies and procedures governing the assertion of Executive privilege by incumbent and former Presidents in connection with the release of Presidential records by the National Archives and Records Administration pursuant to the Presidential Records Act of 1978, it is hereby ordered as follows:

......

This Order is intended only to improve the internal management of the Executive branch and is not intended to create any right or benefit....

============

TITLE 44 > CHAPTER 22—PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode44/usc_sup_01_44_10_22.html

[L. Coyote]

13. kpete: "Anything Rove Sent Out In E-Mail From RNC Is NOT Privileged"

kpete Wed Mar-28-07 12:39 PM
"Anything Rove Sent Out In E-Mail From RNC Is NOT Privileged" & Neither is He
DU Discussion started at the same time: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x524601

.....

So what does this mean? NYU law professor Daniel Shaviro says, "The easy and obvious point is that anything Rove sent out in an e-mail from his RNC address is not privileged." But then, drawing on an analogy with attorney-client privilege, he suggests it may mean even more:

"A further interesting question is the extent to which using RNC e-mails to communicate stuff about meetings with Bush et al should be viewed as a further waiver of other executive privilege claims, at the limit on everything pertaining to the meetings and topics discussed in the RNC e-mails. On this point I would have to defer to those more knowledgeable than I am about how the attorney-client privilege is interpreted and applied."

...more...

[TexasLawyer]

26. New federal e-discovery rules

I wonder also whether this use of RNC e-mail accounts constitutes an invitation to litigants and prosecutors, under the very wide-ranging new federal e-discovery rules, to examine ALL of the messages that have floated about on ALL tainted RNC e-mail accounts between anyone and anyone else.

There could be some VERY interesting e-mails that get retrieved in this net.

[L. Coyote]

27. Waxman's request infers that any relevant e-mails are subject to scrutiny

And, from a legal perspective, that determination is not left to the defendant!! In other words, I suspect that at least a judge will get to see everything ever sent by the players of interest. That list can expand quickly under this rubric.

And, this usage has been going on since 2001.

[Solo_in_MD]

134. You assume records were kept, Its not required

[L. Coyote]

14. DU babylonsister: Whose Election Fraud? Great background article.

babylonsister Wed Mar-28-07 01:03 PM
Whose Election Fraud?
Barbara Burt and Jonah Goldman
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/28/whose_election_fraud.php

DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x469917

Barbara Burt is director of election reform programs for Common Cause. Jonah Goldman is director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections with Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The scandal involving Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, some for alleged lack of vigor in pursuing voter fraud, provides us with a peek into the machinations of politicians who attempt to manipulate the election system for their own benefit. The rapidly unfolding facts highlight how unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud are used as a proxy for political decision-making designed to disenfranchise eligible Americans. It is a shame that some in the Justice Department, an agency with a noble history of defending the rights of all Americans to cast a ballot, are focusing instead on strategies to remove politically “undesirable” voters from the process.

Unfortunately, it is not just the Department of Justice that is taking advantage of this nefarious strategy.

.....

[L. Coyote]

16. CONTRIBUTE a permanent record by e-mailing the President, et. al.

Did you know that whatever you e-mail to the President can become part of the permanent archive of Presidential Records? Includes electronic communications.

From: http://clinton.archives.gov/project_overview/presidential_records_act.html

Presidential Records Act Overview

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978, 44 U.S.C. ß2201-2207, governs the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents created or received after January 20, 1981.

.........

Presidential records are defined as:
Documentary materials, or an reasonably segregable portion thereof, created or received by the President, his immediate staff, or a unit or individual or the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise and assist the President, in the course of conducting activities which relate to or have and effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President <44 U.S.C. ß 2201(2)>.

These records can be in a variety of media, including paper, audiovisual, and electronic.

[blogslut]

17. I love this story

K&R

[malaise]

48. Oh yes

K & R

[L. Coyote]

21. OPEN LETTER by Thom Hartmann: James Madison - "Impeach Bush Over Purgegate!"

An interesting lesson from history and a great read.

OPEN LETTER by Thom Hartmann:
James Madison - "Impeach Bush Over Purgegate!"
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/032807Hartmann.shtml

Madison was prescient. The remedy for this High Crime against American democracy is impeachment.
According to James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," if a President were to order or allow the "wanton removal of meritorious officers" such as US attorneys, such an action "would subject the President to impeachment and removal from his own high trust."

The issue of the firing of people within the Executive branch for political purposes came up during a debate in 1789 about how to create agencies within the Executive branch that would be consistent with Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution, which says that the President can appoint people (like US Attorneys/prosecutors), but they couldn't take office unless the Senate votes to confirm each individual appointment:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for.....

.....

Mr. Gerry, of course, had not foreseen a day when a certain Senator Specter would be forced by ideologues in the White House to hire a right-wing operative. He never imagined such an operative could then slip into law over Senator Specter's name (but, according to the good Senator, without his knowledge) a change in the Constitutional requirement of Senate confirmation of presidential appointments to the position of federal prosecutors known as US Attorneys. And Congressman Gerry (after whom Gerrymandering would later be named - no saint himself) would, no doubt, have been boggled at the idea that that same operative would then would himself end up as a federal prosecutor.

Madison was prescient. The remedy for this High Crime against American democracy is impeachment.

[L. Coyote]

39. DUer babylonsister: “Impeach Bush Over Purgegate!”

babylonsister Tue Mar-27-07 05:25 PM
Thom Hartmann: James Madison - “Impeach Bush Over Purgegate!”
DU Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x271425


James Madison - “Impeach Bush Over Purgegate!”
by Thom Hartmann - http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/27/113

[L. Coyote]

23. PLEADING THE 5TH: Aide to Gonzales Won't Testify

Aide to Gonzales Won't Testify
Counselor Cites Fifth Amendment Right in Refusal

By Dan Eggen - Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 27, 2007; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032600935.html

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's senior counselor yesterday refused to testify in the Senate about her involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Monica M. Goodling, who has taken an indefinite leave of absence, said in a sworn affidavit to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she will "decline to answer any and all questions" about the firings because she faces "a perilous environment in which to testify."

....more....

[wordpix]

72. "Goodling faces 'a perilous environment in which to testify.' " bwahahaha

:rofl: :popcorn: :beer:

[L. Coyote]

192. CNN: Conyers postpones Goodling immunity vote

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Conyers postpones Goodling immunity vote
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/04/conyers-postpones-goodling-immunity.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Michigan, announced Monday morning that he has postponed a planned committee vote on whether to offer former top justice official Monica Goodling immunity in return for her testimony on the U.S. attorney firings.

Conyers said he decided to postpone the vote for a week after Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the committee, asked for it.

...ALL...

==================
DU Discussion at:
sabra Wed Apr-18-07 10:28 AM
Conyers postpones Goodling immunity vote
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x689318

[L. Coyote]

193. WA POST: Immunity for Ex-Gonzales Aide Weighed

Immunity for Ex-Gonzales Aide Weighed
Potential Witness's Role in Firings Cited
By Paul Kane
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 18, 2007; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041701984.html?nav=rss_politics


The confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys escalated again yesterday as Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said they are weighing an offer of immunity to a potential key witness in the investigation.

At the same time, the Republican National Committee yesterday turned down congressional demands that it hand over e-mails related to the firings, angering Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).

.......

Such a grant of immunity, which would require the approval of two-thirds of the nearly 40-member panel, would free Goodling to speak about the plan to fire the U.S. attorneys and the dismissals' aftermath, without fear that prosecutors could use her testimony in a criminal proceeding. Goodling has invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.

Conyers cited Goodling's dual role as Gonzales's aide and the Justice Department's liaison to the White House for the unusual immunity offer, saying she could "clear up the many inconsistencies and gaps surrounding this matter."

.............more ........

[L. Coyote]

211. April 18, 2007, AP: House panel may vote today = offer immunity to Goodling

House panel offers deal for ex-Gonzales aide
GOODLING WOULD BE FORCED TO TESTIFY ON ATTORNEY FIRINGS
By Laurie Kellman - ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.kentucky.com/216/story/45774.html


WASHINGTON --
Monica Goodling, once Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' White House liaison, would be granted immunity from prosecution and forced to testify under a plan being considered by a House panel investigating the firings of federal prosecutors.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said yesterday that Goodling, who has refused to testify, has much to contribute to the investigation.

"I am hopeful we can approve immunity so that we can schedule her to testify as soon as possible and begin to clear up the many inconsistencies and gaps surrounding this matter," said Conyers, D-Mich.

The committee vote, scheduled for today, is part of an effort by Democrats to find out why the Bush administration dismissed eight of the nation's 93 federal prosecutors.

...........

[L. Coyote]

25. News: Waxman Demands All "Non-Internal" WH Docs = THAT'S "ALL"

This is a very comprehensive request. Where will this lead? How will the WH react?

News: Waxman Demands All "Non-Internal" WH Docs
by MediaFreeze - Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 01:19:53 PM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/27/151427/194

The Letter: http://judiciary.house.gov/Media/PDFS/Fielding070328.pdf

Henry Waxman has sent a letter to Fred Fielding requesting that the White House turn over all documents other than the "internal" documents that they are withholding based on their claim of executive privilege.

We urge you to provide all relevant documents without delay. The White House documents to and from the Deptartment of Justice and with third parties, such as Republican state party officials, should be provided to us without delay. You have acknowledged your willingness to provide those to us previously.

......

an e-mail account at the Republican National Committee designated "gwb43.com." There is another, similar use of a nongovernmental e-mail account in an exchange including Mr. Jennings and Monica Goodling, the Justice Department official...who recently invoked her privilege against self incrimination.

Accordingly, we trust that you will be collecting and producing e-mails and documents from all email accounts, addresses and domains and that you are not artificially limiting your production to the official White House email and document retention system.

[L. Coyote]

28. DU kpete: discussion here

kpete Mar-28-07 12:39 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x524601

"Anything Rove Sent Out In E-Mail From RNC Is NOT Privileged" & Neither is He Updated at 1:49 PM

EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE....Last week we learned that Karl Rove and the White House staff have routinely used their RNC accounts .....

[L. Coyote]

29. Lou Dobbs to discuss Gonzales, et. al later today. n/t

[The Count]

30. Does anyone remember the big "Al Gore e-mail scandal?"

They said he sent some e-mails from the White House for his campaign benefit - and for this they went through every e-mail he ever sent looking for dirt (unsuccessfully).They called it a "scandal"

[L. Coyote]

31. SAMPSON: "distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons ... largely artificial

Aide: U.S. attorneys fired over politics

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070328/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors

WASHINGTON - Eight federal prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently support
President Bush's priorities, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff says in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday to Congress.
ADVERTISEMENT

"The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial," said Kyle Sampson.

The aide, who quit because of the furor over the firings, is to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. A copy of his prepared remarks was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

"A U.S. attorney who is unsuccessful from a political perspective ... is unsuccessful," Sampson said.

Democrats have described the firings as an "intimidation by purge" and a warning to remaining U.S. attorneys to fall in line with Bush's priorities. Political pressure, Democrats say, can skew the judgment of prosecutors when deciding whom to investigate and which indictments to pursue.

.....more....

DU Discussion: Aide (Sampson): Attorneys Fired For Not Supporting Bush
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2785246

[L. Coyote]

32. Congressional Letter to Gonzales. "Mr. Rove was himself apparently still being investigated"

An important point not yet much mentioned, Rove was himself being investigated during the US Attorney firings. Any relationships??

"In light of the unprecedented nature of the appointment, we are especidly
interested in understanding the role played by Karl Rove. In particular, what role
did Karl Rove, with whom Griffin was closely associated, play in the decision to
appoint Griffin?"

"Given that Mr. Rove was himself apparently still being investigated by a U.S.
Attorney in June of 2006, it would be extremely untoward if he were at the same time
leading the charge to oust a sitting U.S. Attorney and install his own former aid."

These questions go to the heart of the public's confidence in the fair
administration of justice. Once appointed, U.S. Attorneys, perhaps more than any other
public servant, must be above politics and beyond reproach; they must be seen to enforce
the rule of law without fear or favor."

[L. Coyote]

33. DU Omaha Steve: Republicans Worry Firings Flap Is Distracting, MORE

Omaho Steve is working:

====
Analysis: Republicans Worry Firings Flap Is Distracting From Their Message, Hurting Bush
03-28-2007 4:09 PM
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
http://omaha.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8O5DJMG0&_action=validatearticle

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Republicans say the flap over firing U.S. attorneys is muddling their message and damaging President Bush. ...

DU Discussion: Omaha Steve Wed Mar-28-07 03:40 PM
Analysis: Republicans Worry Firings Flap Is Distracting From Their Message, Hurting Bush
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2785199

=====
White House Asked to Reconsider Opposition to Rove Testimony in Prosecutor Firings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2785210

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
http://omaha.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8O5DGO00&_action=validatearticle

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Lawmakers prodded the White House Wednesday for a new answer on whether President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, will testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.

"We have not heard from you," Patrick Leahy of Vermont and John Conyers of Michigan, the Senate and House Judiciary committees' chairmen, wrote to President Bush's counsel, Fred Fielding.

=======

[L. Coyote]

34. DU's hang a left: White House OK'ed Sampson Statement on Rove

White House OK'ed Sampson Statement on Rove
By Paul Kiel - March 28, 2007, 7:12 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002901.php

Earlier, I flagged an email in the documents that showed Kyle Sampson preparing to run his letter to Congress by the White House.

The letter stated, "The Department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Griffin." Sampson told fellow Justice Department officials that "because this letter mentions Rove and alludes to Harriet, I'd like to send it to the for their review..."

The statement itself is one Sampson's own emails show to be false. ...more...

DU discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x526949

[L. Coyote]

53. DUewr maddezmom: TPMuckracker: White House OK'ed Sampson Statement on Rove

Editorials & Other Articles
maddezmom Thu Mar-29-07 05:07 AM
TPMuckracker: White House OK'ed Sampson Statement on Rove
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x271689


Earlier, I flagged an email in today's document dump ....

[L. Coyote]

35. DU'er DemReadingDU: Ohio GOP, gwb43.com, georgewbush.com

DemReadingDU Wed Mar-28-07 06:53 AM

Ohio GOP, gwb43.com, georgewbush.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x469875

for even more discussion today of these issues.

[DemReadingDU]

46. Great compilation of links

Thank you for putting them all in this one thread!

[L. Coyote]

36. DUer LiberalFighter: Are they subpoening emails with FULL HEADERS or Standard Headers?

Excellent observation re the document dump:

LiberalFighter Wed Mar-28-07 06:35 PM
Are they subpoening emails with FULL HEADERS or Standard Headers?
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3186795

Emails with standard headers will not show the path of the email.

Full headers will determine the real source of the email. A user could use a computer at home and utilize the account at work or vice versus. It will aid in determing whether the email is true or forged. It will show the ip of the computer sending the message.

If receivers were BCC it will show all addresses in the sender's copy.

[L. Coyote]

37. DUer babylonsister: Why little Gonzogate might be Bush's Watergate

babylonsister Wed Mar-28-07 12:19 PM
Why little Gonzogate might be Bush's Watergate
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x271557

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Why little Gonzogate might be Bush's Watergate (not why you think)

At first I thought it was really odd that this Gonzales business was what Congress and the press latched onto to unravel Bush. But if you think about the parallels with Nixon, it makes sense. Was Watergate the worst thing Nixon did in office? Probably not by a country mile. ....

.....

At: http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-little-gonzogate-might-be-bushs.html

[L. Coyote]

38. DUer maddezmom: Why Is a DOJ Lawyer Taking the Fifth?

maddezmom Wed Mar-28-07 08:31 AM
Why Is a DOJ Lawyer Taking the Fifth?
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x271514

Wednesday, Mar. 28, 2007 By REYNOLDS HOLDING
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1603785,00.html

The strangest event so far in the U.S. attorney-firing mess may be the decision by a Justice Department lawyer to plead the Fifth rather than risk incriminating herself in testimony before Congress Thursday.

Monica Goodling, counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and liaison to the White House, cited the politically charged and "perilous environment" of the House and Senate judiciary committees in refusing Monday to testify about her part in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. In a letter to the Senate committee, her lawyer says the "potential for legal jeopardy" from "even her most truthful and accurate testimony" is "very real," and cites the recent conviction of I. Lewis Libby for lying during a CIA-leak investigation.

To use a technical legal term, huh?

Before Goodling, 33, can assert the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, she must believe that her testimony could somehow lead to evidence that she committed a crime. .........

[L. Coyote]

40. DUer ProSense: NYT: E-Mail Shows Rove’s Role in Fate of Prosecutors

ProSense Wed Mar-28-07 09:02 PM
NYT: E-Mail Shows Rove’s Role in Fate of Prosecutors
DU Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x528862

Justice Department e-mail messages reveal Karl Rove’s role in selecting and dismissing federal prosecutors.

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: March 29, 2007 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29rove.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, March 28 — Almost every Wednesday afternoon, advisers to President Bush gather to strategize about putting his stamp on the federal courts and the United States attorneys’ offices.

The group meets in the Roosevelt Room and includes the aides to the White House counsel, the chief of staff, the attorney general and Karl Rove, a top adviser to the president, who tries to attend himself. Each of them signs off on every nomination.

Mr. Rove takes charge of the politics......

[bobthedrummer]

139. KICK.

[mod mom]

41. WOW L. Coyote, that what I call a body of work!

I just finished several hours of teaching fractions and percentages to a third and fifth grader. Looks like I have some catching up to do. Thanks!

:hi:

[L. Coyote]

43. I can barely keep up with this story today. I was going to do other work.

The Republicons give me no rest!

Imagine how Leahy feels.

[L. Coyote]

42. DUer cal04: Gonzales Draws Strong Criticism of Prosecutors

cal04 Wed Mar-28-07 08:30 PM
Gonzales Draws Strong Criticism of Prosecutors
DU Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x528534

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys, complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion.

About a half-dozen United States attorneys voiced their concerns at a private meeting with Mr. Gonzales in Chicago.

.....

On Wednesday, the Justice Department released more than 200 additional pages of e-mail messages and other documents and sent a letter to lawmakers saying that it had given Congress inaccurate information in an earlier letter that asserted that Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, had played no role in the removals.

...more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29gonzales.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1175135311-z/5+G22MXS6bIDeU5H9XxA

[L. Coyote]

49. DU maddezmom: Prosecutors Assail Gonzales During Meeting

Editorials & Other Articles
maddezmom Thu Mar-29-07 02:39 AM
Prosecutors Assail Gonzales During Meeting
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x271677

By DAVID JOHNSTON and NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29gonzales.html?_r=2&hp&oref=login&oref=slogin


WASHINGTON, March 28 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys, complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership,

[L. Coyote]

44. Letter shows Justice misled investigators

By Kevin Johnson and Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-february-letter_N.htm

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department misled a congressional investigation into the firings of eight federal prosecutors last month by saying it was "not aware" that White House political strategist Karl Rove played any role in the dismissals, newly released documents show.

On Feb. 23, the Justice Department said in a letter — signed by acting Associate Attorney General Richard Hertling — to four U.S. senators that it didn't know about any involvement by Rove.

That contradicts a Dec. 19 internal Justice e-mail in which Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, says that Rove wanted to put former aide Tim Griffin into the Arkansas U.S. attorney's job.

In the e-mail, Sampson says that "getting (Griffin) appointed was important to Harriet and Karl." .....

..more...

[L. Coyote]

45. Cryptic thank-you note may link Rove to US Attorney scandal

Cryptic thank-you note may link Rove to US Attorney scandal
RAW STORY - Published: Wednesday March 28, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cryptic_thankyou_note_may_link_Rove_0328.html

A previously overlooked e-mail from the Department of Justice document dump may turn out to be a smoking gun, of sorts, that links White House Adviser Karl Rove to the US Attorney firing scandal, reports Newsweek.

"New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici's chief of staff sent a cryptic thank-you note to Karl Rove just as the senator was recommending replacements for David Iglesias, the fired U.S. attorney in New Mexico, according to internal White House and Justice Department documents," writes Michael Isikoff.

"Thanks for everything," read the e-mail, dated January 8th, 2007, which included the name of a replacement candidate for Iglesias' position.

The email, which was sent to Rove and two other White House officials, may have been initially overlooked because it was sent to a more obscure e-mail account of Rove's.

... more ...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

47. Emails sent through gwb43.com were mentioned yesterday in the GSA hearing! Oh what tangled webs they

weave!

[L. Coyote]

50. DUer DeepModem Mom: WP op-ed: "The Myth Of Voter Fraud"

DeepModem Mom Thu Mar-29-07 03:23 AM
WP op-ed: "The Myth Of Voter Fraud"
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x529889

The Myth Of Voter Fraud
By Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt
Thursday, March 29, 2007; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801969.html?nav=hcmodule&reload=true

As Congress probes the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, attention is centering on who knew what, and when. It's just as important to focus on "why," such as the reason given for the firing of at least one of the U.S. attorneys, John McKay of Washington state: failure to prosecute the phantom of individual voter fraud.

Allegations of voter fraud -- someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote -- have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom.

But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud.

[L. Coyote]

51. DUer DeepModem Mom: Inside the Bush DOJ: "Bush's long history of tilting Justice"

DeepModem Mom Thu Mar-29-07 03:51 AM
Inside the Bush DOJ: "Bush's long history of tilting Justice"
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x529923

LAT op-ed: Bush's long history of tilting Justice
The administration began skewing federal law enforcement before the current U.S. attorney scandal, says a former Department of Justice lawyer.
By Joseph D. Rich (JOSEPH D. RICH was chief of the voting section in the Justice Department's civil right division from 1999 to 2005. He now works for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.)
March 29, 2007 - http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rich29mar29,0,1507657.story?coll=la-home-commentary

"Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections."

[L. Coyote]

52. DUer tom_paine: Help blow the lid off Gonzogate! Call Pat Leahy and your Senator!

tom_paine Thu Mar-29-07 04:20 AM
Help blow the lid off Gonzogate! Call Pat Leahy and your Senator!
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x529957

Edited on Thu Mar-29-07 04:30 AM by tom_paine
My God, it's the Mother of All Whistleblowers!

The man's name is Frank P. Rich and he was a DOJ attorney in the Civil Rights Division for 35 years. ....

"It's not often we here at DU can really make a direct impact and difference (we're more of the drip drip dripping of gradually exposing...."

[L. Coyote]

54. DUer maddezmom: Top 10 Questions for Sampson at Judiciary Hearing

maddezmom Thu Mar-29-07 05:34 AM
Top 10 Questions for Sampson at Judiciary Hearing
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x271690


Top 10 Questions for Sampson at Judiciary Hearing
By Chitra Ragavan - Posted 3/28/07
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070328/28sampson.htm


1. Sampson wrote in an E-mail to the White House last January that he would like to replace 15 to 20 percent of "underperforming" U.S. attorneys but that the "vast majority ... are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies, etc., etc." What were Sampson's criteria for "loyal Bushies"?

.......

=======

I like this one: "9. Why was the administration in such a hurry to replace Arkansas U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins that his slated replacement, Timothy Griffin, had to cut short his honeymoon to take Cummins's spot?"

[L. Coyote]

55. DUer maddezmom: Question Time in the Attorney Firings

maddezmom Thu Mar-29-07 05:39 AM
Question Time in the Attorney Firings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x271691


Leahy and Schumer held a briefing for reporters Wednesday afternoon after reviewing Sampson's testimony and said there were no smoking guns expected Thursday. But they will press Sampson on inconsistencies between Gonzales's assertions of ignorance and documents produced by the Justice Department that show the Attorney General approved the firings and was involved in at least some of the deliberations.

Sampson will also directly address in his testimony the question of White House involvement. Karl Rove, Bush's closest advisor, is as much a target of Democratic interest as Gonzales is ......

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1604401,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

[L. Coyote]

56. DUer maddezmom: Gonzales resignation wouldn't end firings probe (Leahy)

maddezmom Thu Mar-29-07 05:55 AM
Gonzales resignation wouldn't end firings probe (Leahy)
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2785885

Source: Associated Press
Thursday, March 29, 2007
By LAURIE KELLMAN - ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDcmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxMDE2MTgmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky


WASHINGTON -- If Alberto Gonzales resigns, Democrats will not confirm a new attorney general until they are satisfied they have the full story of the firing of eight federal prosecutors, .......

[L. Coyote]

57. DUer mirrera: White House using secret GOP server instead of .gov????

mirrera Thu Mar-29-07 07:30 AM
White House using secret GOP server instead of .gov????
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3187185

This may have been covered on DU, I have been busy and may have missed it. But wow...

--TrustMe.com Original Editorial---
http://www.trustme.com/story.php?title=secret-White-House-comunication-system

Posted by josephcannon 3 days ago

The White House has its own internal email system, ending in the .gov suffix, as mandated by the Presidential Records Act. The law requires that public business be conducted on a public server. ....

=======

ALSO in part: "fter one Abramoff/Ralston communication, a follow-up email to Jack Abramoff clearly states that people in the White House use private servers to conduct business of dubious legality:

Your email to Susan was forwarded to Ruben Barrales and on to Jen Farley, who read it to me last night. I don't know what to think about this, but she said is better not to put this stuff in writing in their email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc. Who knows?

=====

DU knows!!

[L. Coyote]

58. DUer babylonsister: Schumer: Rove, Miers subpoenas authorized, ready to be issued

babylonsister Thu Mar-29-07 07:41 AM
Schumer: Rove, Miers subpoenas authorized, ready to be issued
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3187190


Schumer: Rove, Miers subpoenas authorized, ready to be issued
RAW STORY - Published: Wednesday March 28, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Schumer_Rove_Miers_subpoenas_authorized_ready_0328.html


A source from the office of Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) tells the New York Observer that subpoenas to compel White House adviser Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to testify before the Judiciary Committee regarding their roles in the dismissals of eight US Attorneys have been authorized and are ready to be issued.

.......

[L. Coyote]

59. DUer Justice: USAs, Justice Dept lawyers take oath to uphold rule of law not a political party

Recommended read:

Justice Thu Mar-29-07 06:39 AM
USAs, Justice Dept lawyers take oath to uphold rule of law not a political party -
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3187250

"Most people know that lawyers take an oath before they can practice ....

"What sickens me most about the DOJ politics and deceit is what it does to that oath, to the job that all lawyers do every day and to our legal system of justice. I always picture DOJ lawyers like Patrick Fitzgerald, hard working, scary smart, intense seekers of the truth and justice - and many DOJ lawyers are just that way. But what has happened with this justice dept is really sickening, and undermines the oath and the profession - and justice. I hope that the truth comes out, and all lawyers involved are brought up on ethics charges in addition to any other charges - so that the system can be righted and justice again will prevail."

[L. Coyote]

60. DUer maddezmom: Kennedy: Justice firings are keyed to '08 vote

maddezmom Thu Mar-29-07 04:00 AM
Kennedy: Justice firings are keyed to '08 vote
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2785889


Kennedy: Justice firings are keyed to '08 vote
By Rick Klein, Boston Globe Staff | March 29, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/29/kennedy_justice_firings_are_keyed_to_08_vote


WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy yesterday accused President Bush of using the Department of Justice to further his administration's "right-wing ideology," saying that veteran prosecutors were replaced by political operatives in key states to ensure that "reliable partisans" are in place in time for the 2008 presidential election.

Kennedy noted that the recent rash of firings among US attorneys put new top prosecutors in place in several presidential swing states, including Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Arkansas.

At least two of the eight US attorneys fired by the administration refused to investigate spurious claims of voter fraud that were initiated by Republicans, Kennedy said. .......

[bobthedrummer]

61. kick

[L. Coyote]

62. DUer kpete: Cryptic thank-you note may link Rove to US Attorney scandal

kpete Thu Mar-29-07 08:10 AM
Cryptic thank-you note may link Rove to US Attorney scandal
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x530800

Cryptic thank-you note may link Rove to US Attorney scandal RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday March 28, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cryptic_thankyou_note_may_link_Rove_0328.html

A previously overlooked e-mail from the Department of Justice document dump may turn out to be a smoking gun, of sorts, that links White House Adviser Karl Rove to the US Attorney firing scandal, reports Newsweek.

"New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici's chief of staff sent a cryptic thank-you note to Karl Rove .......

==========

Here's the original Newsweek story:

Thanks for Everything'
Did Karl Rove have a hand in replacing the fired U.S. attorney in New Mexico? An overlooked e-mail may provide a clue.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17837826/site/newsweek/

Web exclusive By Michael Isikoff - Newsweek
Updated: 12:46 p.m. MT March 28, 2007

March 28, 2007 - New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici’s chief of staff sent a cryptic thank-you note to Karl Rove just as the senator was recommending replacements for David Iglesias, the fired U.S. attorney in New Mexico, according to internal White House and Justice Department documents. ......

[L. Coyote]

63. DUer benld74: GWB43 Connection Strikes Again!

benld74 Thu Mar-29-07 07:57 AM
GWB43 Connection Strikes Again!
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x530710

The GSA hearings provided more insight into the political goings on with this administration. This link : http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=36474&dcn=todaysnews provides information on how a powerpoint presentation was used during a meeting of GSA officials. The link also provides an email from which the PPT came from, with the words " Its a close hold and we're not suppose to be emailing it around". ......

=======

As we await Sampson's testimony, coming up live in moments.

[L. Coyote]

64. DUer cali: Whose water is Sampson carrying?

cali Thu Mar-29-07 06:58 AM
Whose water is Sampson carrying?
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x530450

One thing seems clear: Sampson did not agree to appear before the Senate Judiciary to heap blame on the administration. He may have been shit canned, but he's evidently still a loyal bushy.

I am puzzled though, by his opening statement in which he conflates strict political fealty with job performance. Does he really think he can get away with that line ......

[L. Coyote]

65. DUer babsbunny: DOJ Emails Illustrate Plan to Mislead Congress

babsbunny Thu Mar-29-07 08:35 AM
DOJ Emails Illustrate Plan to Mislead Congress
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3187425


DOJ Emails Illustrate Plan to Mislead Congress
By Jason Leopold - Thursday 29 March 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032907J.shtml

Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his closest advisers have stated repeatedly over the past two months that the selective firings of eight United States attorneys last year were justified because President Bush has the authority to purge federal prosecutors at will, a fact that is not under dispute.

However, the common thread in the thousands of pages of documents released by the Department of Justice in conjunction with a Congressional probe into the US attorney dismissals is that top officials in the DOJ who worked behind the scenes believed that they were doing something improper in selectively dismissing the attorneys and acted with a clear intent to deceive lawmakers if any questions into reasons for the firings arose. ......

[L. Coyote]

66. DUer autorank: Rough Justice at DOJ: "Voter Fraud" Equals Voter Suppression

autorank Wed Mar-28-07 11:39 PM
Rough Justice at DOJ: "Voter Fraud" Equals Voter Suppression
DU Post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x469880

U.S. Attorney Firings Exposes Rough Justice
Election Fraud versus Voter Fraud
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0703/S00474.htm

Lorraine C. Minnite, PhD of Barnard College, Columbia University just published a major article explaining voter fraud. Here distinctions between voter and election fraud are critical:

Voter fraud is the “intentional corruption .......

[L. Coyote]

67. DUer babylonsister: Bush, Rove Joke About White House Felonies. Reporters Laugh.

babylonsister Thu Mar-29-07 10:03 AM
Bush, Rove Joke About White House Felonies. Reporters Laugh.
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3187528

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/6425

Bush, Rove Joke About White House Felonies. Reporters Laugh.
by RJ Eskow | Mar 29 2007

I have a lot of sympathy for David Gregory, who was pressed into a bad "comedy" routine with Karl Rove at the Radio & Correspondents' Dinner tonight. Rove had already cracked a lame joke about Patrick Fitzgerald, while mangling his first name as "Peter." Then he and Gregory went on to "rap" with the bad comedian hosting the event. (Video here, courtesy Atrios.)

Bear in mind that the real subject of Rove's humor was the conviction of a senior White House official for committing a felony while serving this Administration. Make that three felonies. Proven, beyond a reasonable doubt. That would be three felonies committed by someone on Rove's team.

Three felonies that involved using journalists to destroy a woman's career, to hurt her husband for telling the truth.

Ha-ha, the reporters laughed gamely. ......

[L. Coyote]

68. DUer usregimechange: Fitzgerald Ranked During CIA Case (Purgegate)

usregimechange Mon Mar-19-07 09:44 PM
WP: Fitzgerald Ranked During CIA Case (Purgegate)
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2773126


washingtonpost.com > Politics > Special Reports > U.S. Attorney Firings
Fitzgerald Ranked During Leak Case
Justice Dept. Fired 2 With Same Rating
By Dan Eggen and John Solomon - Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031902036.html


U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had "not distinguished themselves" on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading a CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday.

The ranking placed Fitzgerald below "strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty" to the administration but above "weak U.S. Attorneys who . . . chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.," according to Justice documents.

The chart was the first step in an effort to identify U.S. attorneys who should be removed. Two prosecutors who received the same ranking as Fitzgerald were later fired, documents show. ......

The chart was drawn up by D. Kyle Sampson

[L. Coyote]

69. I'm heading back into the unconnected wild desert West. WHEW!

What a news day it has been. Way to go DUer's covering this story.


Download the 1280 pixel deskpicture here:
http://jqjacobs.net/southwest/betatakin.html

[bobthedrummer]

70. Thank you ! KICK

[wordpix]

71. bwaha, Tim Griffin sent emails meant for RNC staff re: vote suppression to GWB.org, not GWB.com

:rofl: :rofl:

Send Timmy to slammer for this one!!!! :woohoo: :nuke: :rofl:

Now it's clear why the RNC bushies hate the attorneys for their "frivolous" lawsuits!!!

[bobthedrummer]

73. kick

[L. Coyote]

74. I'm back. And catching up. TOP DU PICKS so far are

GREAT work by MissWaverly Sun Apr-01-07 12:27 PM
DOJ interfered with Abramoff investigation
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x553431

"Remember they promoted the Chief Prosecutor off the case. We should be looking at any
personnel changes during major criminal investigations, not just the "firings." "

Article: Bush picks Abramoff prosecutor for federal judgeship
Democrats wonder about the timing of president's move
Philip Shenon, Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times - Friday, January 27, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/27/MNGCNGU1J01.DTL

============
IMPORTANT consideration from Zan_of_Texas Sun Apr-01-07 12:37 PM
Prosecutor Posts Go To Bush Insiders
Less Preference Shown for Locals, Senators' Choices
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x553265#553497

By Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 1, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033101158.html?nav=rss_politics

About one-third of the nearly four dozen U.S. attorney's jobs that have changed hands since President Bush began his second term have been filled by the White House and the Justice Department with trusted administration insiders.

The people chosen as chief federal prosecutors on a temporary or permanent basis since early 2005 include 10 senior aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, ......

===========
calipendence Fri Mar-30-07 10:28 AM
EXCLUSIVE: Key Rove aide could face subpoena and is expected to resign soon, sources say...
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2787549

Key Rove aide fingered in US Attorney investigation to step down; Could face subpoena
Michael Roston Source: Raw Story - http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Key_Rove_aide_fingered_in_Attorneygate_0330.html

Multiple sources reported today that a top aide to President George W. Bush's key adviser Karl Rove will soon step down from her job in the White House. The aide, Sara M. Taylor, was identified in yesterday's hearing with a former top Justice Department official as seeking the resignation of a US Attorney in Arkansas. She could still face a subpoena, RAW STORY learned.

===========
Omaha Steve Sun Apr-01-07 01:35 AM
Terry calls for attorney general to step down
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2788767

Source: Omaha World Herald - April 1, 2007 -
BY JOSEPH MORTON - WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., called Saturday for embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign or be fired immediately.

Terry said his trust and faith in Gonzales have been "greatly diminished" as evidence has accumulated that contradicts Gonzales' assertions ....

==
ALSO discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2788767
tiptoe Sat Mar-31-07 12:00 PM
GOP Lawmaker Urges Gonzales to Resign - Source: By JENNIFER TALHELM, Associated Press
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors

WASHINGTON Mar 31, 2007 (AP)— A Republican congressman on Saturday urged Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign,...

===========

[L. Coyote]

75. More GRRREAT DU posts

WillyT Sat Mar-31-07 11:15 AM
Prosgate: It Was About The 2008 Elections, Y'All !!!
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x548266

Questions for Karl Rove – and President Bush
by Elizabeth Holtzman and Cynthia L. Cooper - http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/30/205

....A third firing pattern may exist: using firings to influence election outcomes.

E-mails suggest political strategist Rove’s involvement. Rove’s job is helping his wing of the GOP win future campaigns. What does that have to do with firing judicial appointees?

Consider the districts they served in .......

=============
maddezmom Fri Mar-30-07 01:11 PM
Lies about U.S. attorney purge continue, fired prosecutor says
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2787841

Lies about U.S. attorney purge continue, fired prosecutor says
Friday, Mar 30, 2007 - Arkansas News Bureau - By John Lyon
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/03/30/News/341490.html

LITTLE ROCK - Fired federal prosecutor Bud Cummins took strong exception Thursday to testimony by a former Justice Department official about the firings of Cummins and seven other U.S. attorneys.

Cummins objected to the testimony of Kyle Sampson, .....

=============
maddezmom Sat Mar-31-07 02:13 AM
(Schumer) Senator demands AG clear Iglesias' name
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2788419


Senator demands AG clear Iglesias' name By JENNIFER TALHELM, Associated Press Writer
Source: Associated Press - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors

WASHINGTON - A New York senator is demanding a retraction from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on behalf of New Mexico's former U.S. attorney, who was fired along with seven other prosecutors last year. ....

==============
sabra Fri Mar-30-07 03:06 PM
Justice officials go to Hill for questioning as White House backs Gonzales anew
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2787984

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress pursued more details from another senior Justice Department official Friday in the firing of federal prosecutors and inconsistencies in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' account of it as the White House predicted Gonzales will survive.

...

House and Senate investigators spent hours behind closed doors Friday interviewing Michael Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, about inconsistencies in Gonzales' account .....

Article: http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6304790

===============
tiptoe Fri Mar-30-07 11:57 PM
House Committee requests deposition of former Rove assistant in connection with Abramoff (Ralston)
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2788372


Source: Raw Story - http://rawstory.com/news/2007/House_Oversight_Committee_requests_deposition_of_0330.html
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today requested that former Special Assistant to the President Susan Ralston present a deposition on April 5 as part of the committee's ongoing investigation into the connection between the White House and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

[L. Coyote]

76. DUer hang a left: How can we get rid of the USA's that replaced the fired prosecutors??

How can the damage be undone?

Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x554550

[L. Coyote]

77. DUer KoKo01: New Utah Prosecutor is Person who Tampered with Patriot Act ...

KoKo01 Sun Apr-01-07 11:14 AM
New Utah Prosecutor is Person who Tampered with Patriot Act to Allow USA Firings!
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x553754

.... it seems it was Orrin Hatch who rewarded Tolman by pushing for him to be Prosecutor for Utah. AMAZING!

.....

Sampson sought to be a U.S. attorney, too, and he was the administration's preferred choice last year to be chief prosecutor in his native Utah. But he was nudged aside for another GOP lawyer, Brett L. Tolman, who was favored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). Tolman was counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in late 2005 when, at Justice's request, he had language inserted into USA Patriot Act legislation that allowed Gonzales to circumvent Senate confirmation by appointing interim U.S. attorneys indefinitely. Congress is in the process of repealing the provision.

....MUCH MORE....

ARTICLE:
Prosecutor Posts Go To Bush Insiders
Less Preference Shown for Locals, Senators' Choices

By Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 1, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033101158.html?nav=rss_politics

[L. Coyote]

78. DUer Omaha Steve: Dems Say No to Gonzales Date Change Bid

Omaha Steve Sun Apr-01-07 12:53 PM
Dems Say No to Gonzales Date Change Bid
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2789808

By BEN FELLER - http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070401/D8O7VEG00.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House scrambled Sunday to move up Attorney Alberto Gonzales' planned testimony to Congress on April 17 about his involvement in firing eight federal prosecutors, only to get a cold shoulder from majority Democrats.

The effort reflected the frustration by Republican senators and the White House itself over how long it is taking the embattled attorney general to explain himself under oath. ....

[L. Coyote]

85. CBS News: Democrats Won't Reschedule Gonzales

Democrats Won't Reschedule Gonzales
Senate Democrats Reject White House Push To Move Up Date For Attorney General's Testimony
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/01/ap/politics/main2635562.shtml

Associated Press writers Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Lara Jakes Jordan contributed to this story.

.......

The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, said Gonzales had been offered earlier dates but turned them down. It was Gonzales who chose April 17, said Leahy, D-Vt., and that date will not change now because "everybody has set their schedule according to that."

"It's the date that the attorney general originally picked. It's the date the hearing will take place," Leahy said.

.....more....

[Ms. Clio]

79. amazing work

bookmarked.

[L. Coyote]

81. Hopefully a model to aid organization of themes on DU

and seems a necessary evolution of what we do. Now, if posters would start cross-posting themselves to such threads, we will be off and running on this organization front.

[Ms. Clio]

84. it's a very good model, yes

and definitely a link I will use in the future.

I'd be careful with sources like CapHillBlue, however. Although personally I think it's good to put just about all possible links out there, some people may not know that is a fairly controversial site.

[L. Coyote]

80. Capitol Hill Blue: "Prosecutors will be Violated "

Prosecutors will be Violated
Saturday, 31 March 2007 - http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cm/content/view/413/174/


Every time someone from the administration tries to justify the firing of the eight United States attorneys they seem to make matters worse.

The core explanation centers around "they serve at the pleasure of the president" equating the eight with flat out political hacks such as Karl Rove, the architect of extreme partisanship. This explanation is simplistic, deceptive and dissembling.

While all appointments to the administration are political in every sense of that term, those made to act on behalf of the people in the administration of justice occupy a unique position. Foundational to any free society is the faith that its laws are being applied fairly and without preference. Lacking such trust in a fair system of justice, the rule of law evaporates and people increasingly feel that they, too, can pick and choose among the laws they obey.

Firing eight officers of the law for political reasons eats at this trust, ......MORE.....

[L. Coyote]

82. Playfuls.com: Leahy: Gonzales 'has Not Been Truthful'

Leahy: Gonzales 'has Not Been Truthful'
http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_22083-Leahy-Gonzales-has-Not-Been-Truthful.html

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., says Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "has not been truthful" about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

.....

Leahy appeared Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press."

He was asked by host Tim Russert whether he believed "the chief law enforcement official in this country, the attorney general, has lied?"

"I believe he has not been accurate, and I believe he has not been truthful," Leahy said.

......MORE... Digg et.al.....

[L. Coyote]

83. July '05 Wash Post: Sampson quote, "talking about a White House mafia..."

For Gonzales, a Familiar Cast at the Table
Attorney General Brought Key Aides From Previous Post in White House Counsel's Office

By Dan Eggen - Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 5, 2005; Page A11 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/04/AR2005070400883.html?nav=hcmodule

For Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, some meetings at the Justice Department must feel similar to those he held when he was President Bush's chief lawyer. After all, at least half a dozen of his senior aides also worked under him when he ran the White House counsel's office.

Former colleagues now at Justice include his chief of staff, his deputy chief of staff, two senior counselors and the head of the legal policy office. In addition, the Bush administration's nominee to be Gonzales's second-in-command, Timothy E. Flanigan, also served as his White House deputy.

But Justice officials are quick to stress that this group of alumni is part of a broader circle of advisers that Gonzales relies upon, including holdovers from John D. Ashcroft's tenure and new hires who have not worked closely with him in the past.

D. Kyle Sampson, his deputy chief of staff, said that "talking about a White House mafia or something like that would not accurately characterize his openness and inclusiveness."

....more....

[annabanana]

86. Dear L. Coyote .. Is there anything here?:

This guy looks to be in the middle of bunches of stuff: (John Nowacki)

http://misterapologist.blogspot.com/2007/03/document-dump-john-nowacki.html

[L. Coyote]

93. Very interesting. I've been expecting this, blogger analysis of the doc dumps

Obviously, we are dealing with the DOJ Office of US Attorneys Director's in-house lawyer.
As such, he may be one person difficult to question.
Does attorney-client privilige apply to a USG counsel consulting with a USG employee about performance of USG business? Maybe not, since the lawyer is representing US DOJ per se, not any person.

Obviously, Nowacki is a vocal political insider. His role herein is as an attorney, so no suprise he is in the loop and a decision maker in offical statements to SJC. He is certainly in the middle of all this.

Questions:

Where are the "talking points" mentioned in http://bp2.blogger.com/_z0mKPqzPNCQ/Rg1lUAiH9aI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/B_ZLcik9bNY/s1600-h/john7.bmp ??

Notice also therein, Seidel in an official USG cvommunication uses name-calling to refer to Democrats, as "Dents." Shameful?

Notice in http://bp2.blogger.com/_z0mKPqzPNCQ/Rg14AAiH9iI/AAAAAAAAALQ/lNtczN5G7Xs/s1600-h/john33.bmp that Nowachi is making sure everyone knows Cummins is willing to speak with anyone at DOJ before testifying. Getting the story straight?

[MisterApologist]

98. Just an Update

I'm working on another update regarding the Kyle Sampson testimony but I just thought i'd mention on here that about 50-60 DOJ employees have logged into my website reading this story since about 6 am this morning. Every single one of them was referred to the site from private email accounts. Some spent as much as 50 minutes reading the site and the average was around 15. If that doesn't mean that they aren't concerned about this than I Don't know what does..
Zach
http://misterapologist.blogspot.com

Update- But on a more positive note maybe some of our requests got through... someone in the House of Representatives system also logged on for awhile... I don't think we should count this guy out as a someone who could be called to give interviews before the committees..

[L. Coyote]

87. DUer kete: The Emails the White House Doesn’t Want You to See

kpete Sat Mar-31-07 06:52 AM
The Emails the White House Doesn’t Want You to See ((Mother Jones)
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x547009


The Emails the White House Doesn’t Want You to See
By Dan Schulman - March 30, 2007 - http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/03/white_house_emails.html

Instead of responding to an email account administered by the Republican National Committee ([e-mail] ) as he had intended, he sent the message to Ralston’s White House address. The following day Abramoff was alerted to his error by a colleague, Kevin Ring, who’d spoken to a White House official to whom Abramoff’s request had been forwarded. “She said it is better to not put this stuff in writing in their email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc.,” Ring wrote. Abramoff responded swiftly: “Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system.”

......

[L. Coyote]

88. DUer Hissyspit: NYT Editorial: Story Time In The Senate

Hissyspit Thu Mar-29-07 09:30 PM
NYT Editorial: Story Time In The Senate
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x537538

Editorial - Story Time in the Senate - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/opinion/30fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

In his Senate testimony yesterday, Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, tried to be a “loyal Bushie,” a term Mr. Sampson used in his infamous e-mail message to describe what he was looking for in United States attorneys. But if Mr. Sampson was trying to fall on his sword, he had horrible aim. In testimony that got so embarrassing for the White House that the Republicans tried to cut it off, Mr. Sampson simply ended up making it clearer than ever that the eight prosecutors were fired for political reasons.

..... much more....

[L. Coyote]

89. DUer Hamlette: Former US Atty says goal of Bush's DOJ was to fix elections.

Hamlette Thu Mar-29-07 11:24 PM
Former US Atty says goal of Bush's DOJ was to fix elections.
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x538187

THE SCANDAL unfolding around the firing of eight U.S. attorneys compels the conclusion that the Bush administration has rewarded loyalty over all else. A destructive pattern of partisan political actions at the Justice Department started long before this incident, however, as those of us who worked in its civil rights division can attest.

I spent more than 35 years in the department enforcing federal civil rights laws — particularly voting rights. Before leaving in 2005, I worked for attorneys general with dramatically different political philosophies — from John Mitchell to Ed Meese to Janet Reno. Regardless of the administration, the political appointees had respect for the experience and judgment of longtime civil servants.

Under the Bush administration, however, all that changed. Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.

......

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rich29mar29,0,3371050.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[L. Coyote]

90. DUer sabra: Waxman Requests Deposition of Former White House Aide Susan Ralston

sabra Fri Mar-30-07 10:56 AM
Waxman Requests Deposition of Former White House Aide Susan Ralston
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x540471

with pics/

[L. Coyote]

91. DUer seafan: BREAKING: Rove Aide Resigns (Sara Taylor)

seafan Fri Mar-30-07 11:30 AM
BREAKING: Rove Aide Resigns (Sara Taylor)
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x540838

Rove Aide Resigns
By Paul Kiel - March 30, 2007, 1:13 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002927.php

Maybe it's a coincidence.

White House political director Sara Taylor is out the door at the White House, according to Washington Wire. Taylor came up a number of times yesterday during the Kyle Sampson hearing as having worked closely with Sampson (along with another Karl Rove aide Scott Jennings) to install Rove's former aide Tim Griffin as the U.S. Attorney in eastern Arkansas.

......

[L. Coyote]

92. DUer CatWoman: Congress Investigates Plans To Target '08 Dems

The presentation is from a RNC domain. Difficult to deny the political nature, hence a violation of the Hatch Act.

CatWoman Fri Mar-30-07 09:56 AM
Congress Investigates Plans To Target '08 Dems
Discuss at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x539975

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sought more information yesterday about a presentation by a White House aide given to political appointees at the General Services Administration that discussed targeting 20 Democratic congressional candidates in the next election.

In a letter to White House political affairs director Karl Rove, the committee chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), asked about the Jan. 26 videoconference by Rove deputy J. Scott Jennings, which was directed to the chief of the GSA and as many as 40 agency officials stationed around the country.

========

... more from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032901962_pf.html

The matter is being investigated by the independent Office of Special Counsel.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the presentation was not out of the ordinary.

"There is regular communication from the White House to political appointees throughout the administration," he said.

[L. Coyote]

95. DUer marmar: Meet Monica "Buzz Saw" Goodling (TPM Muckraker)

marmar Sun Apr-01-07 08:12 PM
Meet Monica "Buzz Saw" Goodling (TPM Muckraker)
Discuss at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3192484

Meet Monica "Buzz Saw" Goodling
By Paul Kiel - April 1, 2007, 12:04 PM - http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/

There has been an assumption that Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, is pleading the Fifth simply because of her role in preparing false testimony to Congress. That is, at least, the impression given by her lawyer's letter to the investigating committees.

But this profile in Legal Times shows that Goodling is far from just a mid-level aide who played a peripheral role in the purge. On the contrary, she's very well-connected and apparently one of the main drivers behind the process of selecting U.S. attorneys.

Just look at how Legal Times describes Goodling's role .....

[annabanana]

96. bookmarked and kicked. . . n/t

[L. Coyote]

97. Steve Chapman = Public servants or our masters?

chicagotribune.com >> News columnist
Steve Chapman = Public servants or our masters?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0703310092apr01,1,6880053.column?coll=chi-news-col

Published April 1, 2007

A presidential pardon is entirely at the discretion of the president. The Constitution sets no bounds on his power to forgive crimes, no matter how heinous. ...

There are countless follies, presumptions and temptations that can lead a government employee to embarrassment and disgrace. But whether you are a high-ranking member of the federal government's executive branch or a Chicago police officer, the road to ruin begins with a simple lapse of memory: forgetting that the job is a public trust, not personal property.

In feudal times, the people were at the mercy of their rulers. But the American Revolution upended that presumption. Our democracy rests on the proposition that all legitimate power derives from the people, ....

.....

Presidents are free to fire and hire U.S. attorneys for the crassest of political reasons -- just as they are free to grant pardons out of sleazy motives. But if they do, they should not expect everyone to swallow the fiction that they are strengthening law enforcement.

....

[L. Coyote]

99. DUer salin: per USA GATE 'voter fraud' explanations

salin Tue Apr-03-07 05:17 AM
per USA GATE 'voter fraud' explanations
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x565064


this line of rationale for complaints has been irritating to read per the projection of the allegations in the 2004 elections. I clearly recall reports in state after state of a paid voter registration outfit that was accused of tampering with the registrations. When I read the Newsweek piece which ties the republican charges to voter suppression efforts via challenging voter registration efforts of ACORN - I decided to try to find some of those stories.

On another thread I started posting local news stories from October 2004 - about the efforts and the name I was trying to recall surfaced: Nathan Sproul.

===========

I was very surprised, when this story broke, that Sproul was not handcuffed and hauled away.

Who are the USA's in the jurisdictions where Sproul's Tools threw Dem registrations in the trash bin?

[L. Coyote]

100. CNN: Gonzales gears up for 'make or break' testimony

DU Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2790864

8:01 a.m. EDT, April 3, 2007 - http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/03/fired.attorneys.ap/

WASHINGTON (AP) -- His job on the line, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has shelved plans for a family vacation and begun prepping for a showdown with senators over the firings of federal prosecutors.

An appearance next week in front of a Senate panel that oversees Justice Department spending is shaping up as a trial run for Gonzales' scheduled April 17 testimony to a separate Senate committee investigating the eight dismissals.

The White House said Monday that Gonzales' testimony cannot come too fast for the besieged attorney general to explain his previous statements about the firings, which Democrats contend were politically motivated.

"Look, the attorney general thinks it's in everyone's best interest -- and we agree with him -- that he be able to get up and talk to Congress sooner than later," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

.....more....

[L. Coyote]

101. DUer autorank: US Attorneys: Asleep at the Switch. How about ELECTION FRAUD?

autorank Mon Apr-02-07 08:14 AM
US Attorneys: Asleep at the Switch. How about ELECTION FRAUD?
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x470078

U.S. Attorneys: Asleep at the Switch

How About Election Fraud?


Michael Collins
Washington, DC
April 2, 2007

The sacked eight, as we’ll call the fired federal prosecutors, are a hot topic nationwide. Their inauspicious Dec. 7, 2006 firing became a major controversy when New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias caused a furor by actually objecting to his firing. It seems his former sponsor for that position, the intense Senator Pete Domenici, (R-NM) had called attorney Iglesias and implied (as in insisted) that that he prosecute some Democrats before the election.

.......

There was controversy in 2004 in New Mexico. Greg Palast investigated and found thousands turned away from voting due to restrictive voter identification laws (just the type encouraged by the “voter fraud” prevention program).

.......

To my knowledge, there has been no federal investigation by any official body into election fraud in the 2004 election.

.....much more..

[L. Coyote]

102. DUer maddezmom: Democrats Seek to Interview Gonzales Aide (Goodling)

maddezmom Wed Apr-04-07 04:52 AM
Democrats Seek to Interview Gonzales Aide (Goodling)
Discuss at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2793424


By DAVID JOHNSTON - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/washington/04attorneys.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1175676636-H4wW0RTMJpKpzl2uxEa1TA
Published: April 4, 2007 - Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 3 — House Democrats on Tuesday requested a private interview with an aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales who has asserted her constitutional right not to testify at a public hearing about the dismissals of United States attorneys.

Representative John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sought the interview in a letter to a lawyer for the aide, Monica Goodling, .......

[L. Coyote]

103. DUer WillYourVoteBCounted: Conyers warns Justice official Fifth Amendment wont stop interview

WillYourVoteBCounted Tue Apr-03-07 11:45 PM
Conyers warns Justice official Fifth Amendment wont stop interview
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x572950

Lawmaker warns Justice official Fifth Amendment won't stop interview
By Terry Kivlan, CongressDaily - http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=36532&dcn=e_gvet

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., on Tuesday warned Justice Department official Monica Goodling that she has to appear for questioning on her role in the fired federal prosecutors affair even though she intends to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

In a letter to her lawyer, John Dowd, Conyers cited "long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedents" finding that witnesses who seek the protection of the Fifth Amendment might be required to invoke it on a question-by-question basis.

......more....

[L. Coyote]

105. DUer babylonsister: (Goodling's) Lawyer to Dems: No No No No

babylonsister Wed Apr-04-07 02:51 PM
(Goodling's) Lawyer to Dems: No No No No
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3198027

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002950.php

Lawyer to Dems: No No No No
By Paul Kiel - April 4, 2007, 3:02 PM

In a four-page letter today, the lawyer for Justice Department official Monica Goodling again rebuffed Democrats' efforts to hear her testify.

Responding to a letter from House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) yesterday, Goodling's lawyer John Dowd pulled no punches, at one point even comparing Conyers to Sen. Joseph McCarthy......

[L. Coyote]

104. DUer babylonsister: Waxman To RNC: Turn Over Your Emails

babylonsister Wed Apr-04-07 10:44 AM
Waxman To RNC: Turn Over Your Emails
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3197353


Waxman To RNC: Turn Over Your Emails
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/04/waxman-rnc-emails

Earlier this month, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee made public a secret PowerPoint presentation created by Karl Rove’s office...

.... presented to dozens of political appointees at the General Services Administration by Rove deputy Scott Jennings. ....

Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) issued a letter today to the Republican National Committee to turn over all email communications by White House officials relating to the presentation.

In communicating with GSA about the presentation, Mr. Jennings and his assistant used “gwb43.com” e-mail accounts maintained by the RNC ...they described the presentation as a “close hold” and said that “we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”

....

Waxman notes that the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has “issued a report finding that the presentation itself and Ms. Doan’s comments could be violations of the federal Hatch Act,” ....

.... full letter ....

[L. Coyote]

106. DUer kpete: NEW Legal Problems For Gonzales-Iglesias Firing = Discrimination

kpete Wed Apr-04-07 02:29 PM
NEW Legal Problems For Gonzales-Iglesias Firing = Possible Violation of Discrimination Laws (Newsweek)
DU Dscussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x577135


Web-exclusive commentary
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17951419/site/newsweek/

Docked for Duty?

The Justice Department called David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, an 'absentee landlord'—a key reason listed for his firing last December. Just one problem: Iglesias, a captain in the Navy Reserve, was off teaching classes as part of the war on terror. Now Iglesias is striking back, arguing he was improperly dismissed.

......

[L. Coyote]

107. Sidney Blumenthal: Bush Besieged "follow the emails."

The United States president's response to scrutiny of his administration's behaviour confirms his imperiousness, says Sidney Blumenthal.

Bush besieged - http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy/bush_beseiged_4499.jsp
Sidney Blumenthal - 4 - 4 - 2007

The rise and fall of the Bush presidency has had four phases: the befuddled period of steady political decline during the president's first nine months; the high tide of hubris from 11 September 2001, through the 2004 election; the self-destructive overreaching to consolidate a one-party state from 2005 to 200, culminating in the repudiation of the Republican Congress; and, now, the terminal stage, the great unravelling, as the Democratic Congress works to uncover the abuses of the previous six years.

Richard M Nixon and George W Bush both invoked secrecy for national security. Both insisted war - the war in Vietnam, the war on terror - justified impunity. And both offered the reason of secrecy to cover political power-grabs.

In Watergate, "Deep Throat" counselled that the royal road to the scandal's source was to "follow the money." In the proliferating scandals of the Bush presidency, Congress is searching down a trail of records that did not exist in the time of Nixon: follow the emails.

.......

Discuss at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x272882

[L. Coyote]

108. Behind the firewall, Who is Mike Connell? = Connected to Ohio's felonious Bob Ney

Behind the firewall, Who is Mike Connell? Part II
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/3/19924/39133
Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 07:09:24 PM EST
Contributed by Todd Johnston and Luaptifer

......

So why was this Internet guru for the Republican Party -- once fired for "unethical" campaign tactics - selected as the first private vendor to set up behind the firewall at the U.S. House of Representatives? And how did GovTech Solutions, the company he co-founded with scandal-ridden lobbyist Thomas J. Synhorst, get security clearance to re-design and install the Intelligence committee's web site on the House intranet?

This article, "Part II: Behind the firewall," picks up the Connell thread in 1996 .....

.....

Alarmingly, Connell had been ushered in by fellow Ohioan Bob Ney, the former chairman of the House Committee on Administration (CHA) convicted last year for conspiring with Jack Abramoff to defraud the United States........

[L. Coyote]

109. Who is Michael L. Connell? Part I: The Atwater School of Politics

Who is Michael L. Connell? Part I: The Atwater School of Politics
by Todd Johnston - http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/3/28/143050/889
Wed Mar 28, 2007
Contributed by Todd Johnston and Luaptifer

As reported yesterday, in 2001 a GOP operative and close confidant of the Bush family was tapped to re-program the Capitol Hill IT network for the 21st century....

The "Mayor of Capitol Hill" and fellow Ohioan Bob Ney opened the door for Michael "Mike" L. Connell after the GOP put House IT under the control of the Committee on House Administration. Ney, who chaired the committee from 2001 to 2006 is now serving 30 months in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and falsifying financial disclosure forms.

So who is Mike Connell? Who is the man behind .... GovTech Solutions, the company whose custom-made proprietary databases and content management systems run silently and deep beneath the powerful Intelligence, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees at the U.S. House of Representatives? .......

===========================

........more on unethical campaigning activities......

ALARMING INDEED!!

[bobthedrummer]

140. KICK

[L. Coyote]

110. 3 U.S. Attorney's Lawyers Resign Posts

Three lawyers in Minneapolis resign management posts
3 lawyers with U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis resign management posts
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=nation_world&id=5187022

(Minneapolis - AP, April 6, 2007) - Three lawyers in the U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis resigned their management posts and will return to prosecuting case.
U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose confirmed Friday that John Marti, a first assistant U.S. attorney, Erika Mozangue, head of the office's civil division, and James Lackner, who heads the office's criminal division, have "decided to go back to being prosecutors," spokeswoman Jeanne Cooney said.

[L. Coyote]

114. Gonzales’s Former Assistant Causes Turmoil As U.S. Attorney

Gonzales’s Former Assistant Causes Turmoil As U.S. Attorney
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/06/gonzales-assistant/


The Justice Department has faced criticism not only for firing well-respected U.S. attorneys, but also for replacing them with loyal Bushies.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota demonstrates the havoc that ensues when the Bush administration places politics over justice. Four top staffers to Rachel Paulose, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, have voluntarily demoted themselves in protest of Paulose’s “highly dictatorial style” of managing. Paulose has also “earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.”

According to news reports, the staffers’ dramatic moves were “intended to send a message to Washington — that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head.” The Bush administration tried to prevent the resignations by sending a “top justice official to Minneapolis Thursday to mediate the situation. The mediation failed.”

A look at Paulose’s background .....

She was a special assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is best buds with Monica Goodling — the assistant U.S. Attorney who recently took the Fifth rather than testify before Congress.

........

[L. Coyote]

111. Senate Democrats Delay Gonzales Testimony

Senate Democrats Delay Gonzales Testimony
Further Frustrating the White House
AP - http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=politics&id=5189349

WASHINGTON, Apr. 6, 2007 - Senate Democrats postponed on Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' first chance to testify in his own defense over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

The decision to shelve next week's Senate Appropriations hearing frustrated the White House, which wants Gonzales to quickly give lawmakers his side of the story amid calls for his resignation.

But Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md, said the political firestorm should be resolved before Gonzales talks about the Justice Department's spending plan for next year.

"It would be very difficult in this environment to give the department's budget request the attention it deserves until the Senate has examined the department's leadership failures," said Mikulski, who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that had planned to hear from Gonzales on April 12.

The delay means Gonzales won't appear publicly on Capitol Hill until April 17 - which even Republicans are calling a "make or break" performance - to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the firings.

.....

[L. Coyote]

112. WA Post: Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings

Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings
By Paul Kane - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040502374.html
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Friday, April 6, 2007; Page A04

The Justice Department is refusing to release hundreds of pages of additional documents related to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, setting up a fresh clash with Capitol Hill in a controversy that continues to threaten Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's hold on his position.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, whose investigators have been allowed to view, but not obtain copies of, the records in question, is preparing subpoenas for those papers as well as for all e-mails or documents from the Justice Department and the White House connected to the dismissals of the prosecutors.

......

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) reiterated yesterday his call for Gonzales to resign and questioned whether the controversy had made it impossible for the attorney general to handle his day-to-day duties. "He cannot talk about the funding and functioning of the Justice Department until he clears the air on U.S. attorneys," Schumer said.

......

[L. Coyote]

113. CBS News: Monica Goodling Attorney General Aide To Resign

Apr 6, 2007 5:10 pm US/Eastern
Attorney General Aide To Resign
Monica Goodling Refuses To Testify To Congress On Prosecutor Firings
CBS News Interactive: Firings Firestorm
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/topstories_story_096170110.html

(CBS) WASHINGTON The top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales abruptly quit on Friday, almost two weeks after telling Congress she would not testify about her role in the firings of federal prosecutors.

"I am hereby submitting my resignation to the office of attorney general," Monica M. Goodling said in a three-sentence letter. There was no immediate reason given, but her refusal to face Congress had intensified a controversy that threatens Gonzales' job.

.......

===============

DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x593138
napi21 - Monica Goodling to resign tomorrow!

Just BREAKING NEWS on CNN.

[L. Coyote]

115. "... not the first time an unqualified appointee has embarrassed the Bush administration."

Attorneys Scandal is Not About Firings
April 6, 2007 - http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=60923&cat=Politics+News&more=%2Fpolitics%2F
Jonathan Last -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

Goodling's background is curious. Now 33, she graduated from Messiah College, an evangelical Christian school, in 1995. After a year at the American University Washington College of Law, she enrolled at Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School in 1996 - the year it received full accreditation from the American Bar Association. She graduated from Regent in 1999. That November, Goodling went to work for the Republican National Committee as a junior research analyst in the opposition research shop. When her boss, Barbara Comstock, left the RNC to head the Office of Public Affairs in the Ashcroft Justice Department, Goodling went with her.

After spending two years in Public Affairs, Goodling was detailed to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia for a two-year stint in order to get the "field experience" typically required for the attorney general counsel's job. She served only six months. (The head of EDVA at the time was Paul McNulty, who, having since become a deputy attorney general, also played a role in the firing of the eight U.S. attorneys.)

According to my research, Goodling was the lead attorney on three felony cases while at EDVA. .... upon her return to Justice, Goodling assumed the senior counsel and White House liaison posts. So much for the best and the brightest.

Of course, that's not completely fair. There's nothing wrong with attending fourth-tier schools. The value of college is vastly overrated,....

This is not the first time an unqualified appointee has embarrassed the Bush administration. There have been embarrassing appointments at all levels.

......

[L. Coyote]

116. washingtonpost.com OPINIONS: - Justice's Holy Hires

JURISPRUDENCE - Justice's Holy Hires
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sunday, April 8, 2007; Page B02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040601799.html


Monica Goodling had a problem. As senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Justice Department liaison to the White House, she no longer seemed to know what the truth was. She also must have been increasingly unclear about who her superiors were. This didn't used to be a problem for Goodling. Everything was once very certain: Her boss's truth was always the same as God's truth. Her boss was always either God or one of His staffers.

Last week, through counsel, Goodling again refused to testify about her role in the firings of several U.S. attorneys for what appear to be partisan reasons. Asserting her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, she somehow thought she might be on the hook for criminal obstruction. Then on Friday, she resigned, giving no reason.

A 1995 graduate of Messiah College, an evangelical Christian school, ...

......

Goodling is one of 150 graduates of Regent University who have served in this administration, as Regent's Web site proudly proclaims. Pretty impressive for a 29-year-old school. The university says that "approximately one out of every six Regent alumni is employed in some form of government work." And that's precisely what its founder desired. The school's motto is "Christian Leadership to Change the World." Former attorney general John Ashcroft teaches at Regent, and graduates have obtained senior positions in the Bush administration. The express goal is not only to tear down the wall between church and state in America but also to enmesh the two.

......

In the end, Goodling and the other young foot soldiers for God may simply have run afoul of the first rule of politics, codified in Psalm 146: "Put not your trust in princes, in mere mortals in whom there is no help."

[L. Coyote]

118. Goodling resignation: "May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America,"

Gonzales Aide Resigns; No Reason Given
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FIRED_PROSECUTORS?SITE=PASUN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

A top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has abruptly resigned. The A-P's Ed Donahue reports.


WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales abruptly quit Friday, almost two weeks after telling Congress she would not testify about her role in the firings of federal prosecutors.

Monica M. Goodling, the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, gave no reason for her resignation. Since she was at the center of the firings, Goodling's refusal to testify has intensified questions about whether the U.S. attorney dismissals were proper and heightened the furor that threatens Gonzales' own job.

"It has been an honor to have served at the Justice Department for the past five years," Goodling wrote Gonzales, advising him of her resignation effective Saturday.

"May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America," Goodling added.

..........

[L. Coyote]

124. Blumenthal: The Press Discovers Pat Robertson's Real Influence

The Press Discovers Pat Robertson's Real Influence (Thanks to the Other Monica)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/the-press-discovers-pat-r_b_45322.html

When Monica Goodling's name erupted into the news last week, the mainstream press discovered suddenly that Pat Robertson's Regent University exists. Not only that, the press learned that it has made a deep footprint in George W. Bush's Washington.

Since Robertson's failed presidential campaign, coverage of him has largely focused on his mercurial and bizarre personality. He seemed only to appear in the news when one of his many entertainingly outrageous gaffes or false prophecies earned publicity.

......

But in the wake of Goodling's hotly publicized resignation, the mainstream press suddenly -- and correctly -- decided to judge Robertson by the fruits he has borne.

....

The Christian right is far more than a pantheon of charismatic backlashers with automatonic followers of "old men and women." It is also a sophicated political operation with a coherent long-term strategy. Goodling may be out of a job, but thousands of capable Christian right cadres remain, waging the culture war from inside the White House, federal agencies and Republican congressional offices. Together they will continue to inflame conflicts that were previously unimaginable.

Anyone insisting in spite of continuously mounting evidence that the Christian right is going to simply shrink into oblivion because the Democrats control Congress, or because evangelical leaders are prone to scandal, should learn from Goodling's example and take the fifth.

[L. Coyote]

125. Andrew Cohen's Rough Justice, Part IV: The "Pros" Drain Out of Justice

Special Report - Rough Justice - The Case Against Alberto Gonzales
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
The "Pros" Drain Out of Justice
Andrew Cohen washingtonpost.com > Opinions > Columns & Blogs
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/04/the_pros_drain_out_of_justice.html

The forced removal of the "professional" class from the Justice Department is a dangerous trend that has been exacerbated, but was not created, by the disastrous tenure of Alberto R. Gonzales as Attorney General .... the scandal over the dismissal of the U.S. Attorneys, and Gonzales' hapless stewardship, has cast a new spotlight on the practice; a focus that perhaps will help slow or even stop the brain drain at Justice.

In an excellent piece well worth reading, the Boston Globe on Sunday framed the issue in terms of what reporter Charlie Savage called "the administration's hiring of officials educated at smaller, conservative schools with sometimes marginal academic reputations." One of these "officials" was Monica Goodling, who helped coordinate the firings of the prosecutors, left her position on Good Friday, and signed her resignation mash note to Gonzales by asking God to "bless him richly" as he continues to swirl down the tubes in Washington. Like many of her former colleagues at Justice, Savage reports, Goodling is a graduate of Regent University School of Law, an institution founded by Pat Robertson which was ranked years ago as the 136th-best law school in the country (and there aren't many more below it on the scale)......

......

Even if you take away the religious theme here, there is a problem. The demise of the professional class at Justice is a loss to us all regardless of the intelligence or political persuasion of the hacks who are taking their jobs.

.....

[L. Coyote]

126. Pevious Three Parts: Quotes and Links

Part I: Alberto Gonzales: A Willing Accessory at Justice
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/03/alberto_gonzales_a_willing_acc.html

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is the 80th attorney general of the United States and if recent events in the law and at the Justice Department are any indication, he is rapidly staking a claim to being among the worst.

.......

Gonzales' cronyistic record in both Texas and as White House counsel did indeed presage many of the serious problems Gonzales now faces at the Justice Department. He has run true to form over the past two years and has diverted hardly at all from his long history of dogged obedience to the President,

Part II: Alberto Gonzales, Presidential Enabler
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/03/gonzo_part_iithe_presidential_1.html

Three episodes in the career of Alberto R. Gonzales before he became Attorney General of the United States tell us what kind of a job he was likely do as the nation's top attorney at the Justice Department. In each instance, history has not been kind either to Gonzales' actual substantive work or to the ethical and moral judgment he exercised on behalf of his clients at the time. In each case, the advice Gonzales offered -- legally dubious to begin with -- created not just political embarrassment and backlash for his bosses, but unfortunate, even catastrophic results.

.....

Part III: Part III: Alberto Gonzales: The "Empty Suit" AG
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/03/gonzopart_iiiheckuva_job_alber.html

Brought into the President's cabinet amid oft-stated concerns that he was a mere crony and "facilitator" for the President, and with a controversial record as White House counsel and counsel to then-Texas Governor Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales' record since he took office as Attorney General is a dismal one. In fact, whether it is the legal war on terrorism or garden-variety issues of crime and punishment, it is hard to identify a single area of unchallenged success.

......

[L. Coyote]

241. April 25: White House DOJ liason & Gonzales Aide Granted Immunity

Breaking: Gonzales Aide Goodling Granted Immunity
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/25/breaking-goodling-given-immunity

The House Judiciary Committee voted moments ago to grant immunity to Monica Goodling — former counsel to Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House — and issue a subpoena compelling her to testify. Yesterday, fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said he believes that Goodling holds the “keys to the kingdom” in terms of uncovering the roots of the U.S. Attorney purge:

I think Monica Goodling is holding the keys to the kingdom. I think if they get her to testify under oath with a transcript, and have her describe the process between the information flow between the White House counsel, White House and the Justice Department, I believe the picture becomes a lot clearer.

UPDATE: The AP notes, “The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the 2/3 majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote.”

=========================
DU Discussions:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2822189
babylonsister Wed Apr-25-07 09:34 AM
Breaking: Goodling granted immunity.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x751516
kpete Wed Apr-25-07 09:35 AM
BREAKING: Monica "Keys To The Kingdom" Goodling - Granted Immunity

[L. Coyote]

117. DUer cal04: Spanish-language papers want Gonzales to resign.

cal04 Sat Apr-07-07 06:34 PM
Spanish-language papers want Gonzales to resign.
DU Discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x600045

Opinión in Los Angeles and the Chicago weekly La Raza argue in a common editorial that Alberto Gonzales should resign. ‘The firing of the U.S. attorneys is sufficient cause for doubting his capacity for distinguishing his loyalty to President George W. Bush from his duty to citizens,’ the editorial says.

Another Spanish-language column in the Chicago paper Hoy:

.... “Latino leadership needs to join” in that demand. “Gonzales not only has let down the community — he’s let down the nation,” Muñoz…wrote.

ARTICLES:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/07/spanish-language-papers-want-gonzales-to-resign
http://editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003568527&imw=Y

[L. Coyote]

119. AP: Gonzales Urged to Consider Resigning = Newt Gingrich said Sunday

Gingrich is out front spinning this, saying the buck stops at Gonzales. This is just more good reason to wonder where the buck really stops, especially with the resignation of the White House liason, Monica Goodling, who stated she would plead the Fifth before Congress. Gingrich seems to be serving Bush on this one. Maybe he isn't running after all!

=======
Gonzales Urged to Consider Resigning
Sunday April 8, 2007 3:46 PM
By HOPE YEN
Associated Press Writer - http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6541703,00.html


WASHINGTON (AP) - Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should consider resigning as the former House speaker joined a list of Republicans who say the botched firing of U.S. attorneys has destroyed Gonzales' credibility.

``The public would be much better served to have another attorney general,'' said Gingrich, who is considering a possible 2008 presidential run. ``I cannot imagine how he's going to be effective for the rest of his administration. They're going to be involved in endless hearings.''

.....

The committee also has pledged to compel the testimony of White House officials such as Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to determine the extent of White House involvement. ...

........

Gingrich harshly criticized Gonzales' judgment in allowing the firings to escalate into such a political scandal.

Gingrich noted that a president has every right to fire U.S. attorneys for any reason. Therefore, he said, all Gonzales had to do was to say that Bush wanted new people. Instead, Gingrich said, the attorney general made a series of misstatements from which he was forced later to backtrack.

``This is the most mishandled, artificial, self-created mess I've seen in all the years in my public life,'' Gingrich said. ``The buck has to stop somewhere, probably with the attorney general.''

........

[L. Coyote]

120. Daniel Bice - No Quarter: State GOP official pushed vote fraud issue

State GOP official pushed vote fraud issue
Posted: April 7, 2007 - Daniel Bice - No Quarter
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=588156

........

Last month, Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said that, beginning in mid-2004, the White House received complaints that federal prosecutors were not vigorously pursuing complaints of voter fraud in Philadelphia, New Mexico and Milwaukee. She said the president met with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in October to discuss those concerns, among other things.

White House Counsel Dan Bartlett made it clear in a March 13 press briefing who specifically was coming under criticism.

"Over the course of several years, we have received complaints about U.S. attorneys, particularly when it comes to election fraud cases - not just New Mexico, but also Wisconsin and Pennsylvania."

......

=======
On edit DU discussion at:
babylonsister Sun Apr-08-07 03:32 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3205305

[L. Coyote]

121. DUer Hissyspit: NYTimes Editorial: Another Layer of Scandal (Wisconsin/Georgia Thompson Case)

This scandal is turning into a multi-headed cobra. To what extent has the US Dept. of Justice become a neocon political tool?

=====

Hissyspit Sun Apr-08-07 08:45 PM
NYTimes Editorial: Another Layer of Scandal (Wisconsin/Georgia Thompson Case)
Discuss at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x605398

Published: April 9, 2007 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/opinion/09mon1.html?hp
As Congress investigates the politicization of the United States attorney offices by the Bush administration, it should review the extraordinary events the other day in a federal courtroom in Wisconsin. The case involved Georgia Thompson, a state employee sent to prison on the flimsiest of corruption charges just as her boss, a Democrat, was fighting off a Republican challenger. It just might shed some light on a question that lurks behind the firing of eight top federal prosecutors: what did the surviving attorneys do to escape the axe?

.....

The Chicago-based United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit seemed shocked by the injustice of her conviction. It took the extraordinary step of releasing Ms. Thompson from prison immediately after hearing arguments, without waiting to issue a ruling. One of the judges hinted that Ms. Thompson may have been railroaded. “It strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin,” Judge Diane Wood told the lawyer from Mr. Biskupic’s office ...

....more.....

[L. Coyote]

122. DU DeepModem Mom: GOP-issued laptops now a WH headache: Dems say ... violation of federal

DeepModem Mom Mon Apr-09-07 12:07 AM
LAT: GOP-issued laptops now a WH headache: Dems say e-mail system used in violation of federal rules
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x606420


GOP-issued laptops now a White House headache
Democrats say a private e-mail system was used in violation of federal rules.
By Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writer - April 8, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-laptops9apr09,0,4563806.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Karl Rove: Laptops and paging devices were supplied to the political advisor and his aides by the GOP. (STEFAN ZAKLIN / EPA)

When Karl Rove and his top deputies arrived at the White House in 2001, the Republican National Committee provided them with laptop computers and other communication devices to be used alongside their government-issued equipment.

The back-channel e-mail and paging system, paid for and maintained by the RNC, was designed to avoid charges that had vexed the Clinton White House — that federal resources were being used inappropriately for political campaign purposes.

Now, that dual computer system is creating new embarrassment and legal headaches for the White House, the Republican Party and Rove's once-vaunted White House operation.

Democrats cite evidence that the RNC e-mail system was used for political and government policy matters in violation of federal record preservation and disclosure rules.

[L. Coyote]

123. NYT: "ALBERTO Gonzales is toast. He apparently doesn't realize this"

AFTER GONZO: W'S AG DILEMMA
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04092007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/after_gonzo__ws_ag_dilemma_opedcolumnists_benjamin_wittes.htm

By BENJAMIN WITTES

April 9, 2007 -- ALBERTO Gonzales is toast. He apparently doesn't realize this. President Bush doesn't, either. But Gonzales' tenure as attorney general - or, at least, as an effective attorney general - is already over. Every day he fails to resign he disserves Bush, the Justice Department and the public at large. Every day Bush lets loyalty to his old friend prevent him from demanding Gonzales's resignation, he mires himself deeper in an altogether unnecessary scandal.

I don't say this with any pleasure. Gonzales is a genial fellow who has been very gracious to me on more than one occasion. Yet the attorney general is guilty - at a minimum - of a massive administrative blunder that has undermined his credibility and provoked a major executive privilege fight for the White House. Under these circumstances, Gonzales will never be a credible attorney general again, and his resignation - or firing - should be a foregone conclusion.

There is, in fact, only one hard question concerning Gonzales's fate: Who should replace him?

......

[L. Coyote]

127. Charlie Savage: Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school.

UNBELIEVABLE: Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school. ASHCROFT changed hire rules.
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x607303

Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school
Grads influential in Justice Dept.

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | April 8, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/20... /

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values.

"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned.

.....

And across the political blogosphere, critics have held up Goodling, who declined to be interviewed, as a prime example of the Bush administration subordinating ability to politics in hiring decisions.

[L. Coyote]

128. DUer babylonsister: Waxman Going after Rove’s Rogue Email System

NOTEWORTHY: "the RNC purges emails from its servers after 30 days."

SOLUTION: Subpoena all personal computers known to be used in this manner.

=================================

babylonsister Mon Apr-09-07 09:09 AM
Waxman Going after Rove’s Rogue Email System
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3206028


Waxman Going after Rove’s Rogue Email System
Posted by Jon Ponder | Apr. 9, 2007, 8:40 am
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/04/09/waxman-going-after-roves-rogue-email-system

As soon as the Bushies installed themselves in the White House in 2001, the Republican Party set up a second tier of electronic communications out of the political office run by Karl Rove.
While the White House may find it more difficult to claim executive privilege in preventing Congress from reviewing emails on the RNC system, Republicans aren’t too worried: the RNC purges emails from its servers after 30 days.

On its surface, the new email domains were legal. In fact, their stated purpose was to avoid the criticism that they were doing GOP politics on the public dime — a charge Republicans had made against the Clinton White House without ever offering proof of it, of course.

Conservatives view laws as only applying to “the little people,” meaning Democrats. So Rove and his network of operatives in the federal bureaucracy began using the alternative emails to subvert the Presidential Records Act, a government sunshine law that requires all communication involving a member of the president’s staff to be preserved for scrutiny.

.......more...

[L. Coyote]

129. The Bush White House's GOP Email System = Waxman to Rice

The Bush White House's GOP Email System Waxman to Rice: The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get Measuring the Surge's Progress

Does Anybody Know Where My Policy Laptop Is?
By Paul Kiel - April 9, 2007, 10:03 AM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002970.php

The Los Angeles Times delves deep into the issue of the White House's parallel RNC communications system today. Democrats, particularly the House's chief investigator, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), have been pushing to get their hands on those emails -- based on the suspicion that the White House has been using those alternate email addresses to avoid keeping a record that might be vulnerable to subpoena.

The piece doesn't satisfy my curiosity. Maybe, Tom Hamburger reports, they're chock full of revealing, embarrassing material (says one GOP activist, "There is concern about what may be in these e-mails") or maybe they're all long gone because the RNC has a policy of purging "some emails" after 30 days -- or maybe it'll be a long, long time before Congress sees any emails, because the White House is bound to fight it out based on a stretched claim of executive privilege.

But it's humorous to watch the administration justify the problem by pointing a finger at the Clinton White House, which first instituted a parallel communications system:

...........

==========================
Waxman Seeks RNC E-Mail on Use of Federal Resources

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 5, 2007; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402404.html


House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) told the Republican National Committee yesterday to turn over copies of any electronic messages from White House officials that relate to the use of federal resources or agencies for partisan Republican purposes.

Waxman's broadly worded request came a week after he asked the RNC and the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign to retain copies of e-mails being sent by White House officials via Republican Party e-mail accounts, a practice that surfaced in the course of the Democrats' probe into the administration's decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys.

.......

He asked that the messages be turned over by April 18.

.......

[L. Coyote]

130. Waxman Reveals New Evidence Showing White House Use Of Political E-mail Accounts

Waxman Reveals New Evidence Showing White House Use Of Political E-mail Accounts
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/29/white-house-email-archives/


U.S. News reported recently that several White House aides “said that they stopped using the White House system except for purely professional correspondence. … ‘We knew E-mails could be subpoenaed,’” said one aide.

In a new letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding, House Government and Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman reveals new e-mail communications that provide further evidence that White House employees were trying to circumvent the archives system:

New Scott Jennings ... used “gwb43.com” e-mail accounts to communicate with the General Services Administration about a partisan briefing that Mr. Jennings gave to political appointees at GSA on January 26, 2007. When Mr. Jennings’s assistant emailed the PowerPoint presentation to GSA, she wrote: “It is a close hold and we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”

New Job Appointment E-Mails. Mr. Jennings also appears to have used his “gwb43.com” account to recruit applicants for official government positions through the “Kentucky Republican Voice,” an internet site ... A second posting from May 2006 sought applicants for various boards .... postings encouraged applicants to contact Mr. Jennings at his “gwb43.com” address.

New Abramoff E-Mails. Susan Ralston, who was Karl Rove’s executive assistant, invited two lobbyists working for Jack Abramoff to use her RNC e-mail account to avoid “security issues” with the White House e-mail system, writing: “I now have an RNC blackbeny which you can use to e-mail me at any time. No security issues like my WH email.” Ms. Ralston similarly wrote Mr. Abramoff: “I know have an RNC laptop at the office for political use. I can access my AOL email when necessary so if you need to send me something that I need to read, you can send to my AOL email and then call or page me to check it.”

.......

[bobthedrummer]

131. SO NOW THESE LOYAL BUSH CRIMINALS HAVE "LOST" WH E-MAILS

KEEP THIS THREAD KICKED.

[shanine]

135. kicking

.

[bobthedrummer]

136. Kick

[bobthedrummer]

138. Working lunch kick

[L. Coyote]

141. WA POST: Countless White House E-Mails Deleted. WHY we must ask.

How is this different than throwing a gun in the river after a crime??
AS PREDICTED!!
=================
Countless White House E-Mails Deleted
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, April 12, 2007; 11:24 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/04/12/BL2007041200941.html?%20hpid=topnews

Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.

The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication.

Until 2004, all e-mail on RNC accounts was routinely deleted after 30 days. Since 2004, White House staffers using those accounts have been able to save their e-mail indefinitely -- but have also been able to delete whatever they felt like deleting. By comparison, the White House e-mail system preserves absolutely everything forever, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

The White House yesterday said it has no idea how many e-mails have been lost.

[L. Coyote]

142. WA POST: White House E-Mail Lost in Private Accounts

White House E-Mail Lost in Private Accounts
Messages May Have Included Discussions About Firing of Eight Prosecutors
By Michael Abramowitz and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 12, 2007; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102167.html

The White House acknowledged yesterday that e-mails dealing with official government business may have been lost because they were improperly sent through private accounts intended to be used for political activities. Democrats have been seeking such missives as part of an investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

Administration officials said they could offer no estimate of how many e-mails were lost but indicated that some may involve messages from White House senior adviser Karl Rove, whose role in the firings has been under scrutiny by congressional Democrats.

......

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to discuss whether the political aides were driven by a desire to conduct business outside of potential review. "I can't speak to people's individual e-mail practices," he said.

Stanzel conceded that the White House had done a poor job of instructing staff members how to save politically oriented e-mail .....

........

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is investigating the use of outside accounts, issued a statement saying that the White House disclosure is "a remarkable admission that raises serious legal and security issues," adding: "The White House has an obligation to disclose all the information it has."

..... more ....

[L. Coyote]

143. WA POST: E-Mail Saga Gets Fishier = ROVE delete ability was blocked!!

E-Mail Saga Gets Fishier
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, April 13, 2007; 1:42 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html


The saga of the missing White House e-mails took a turn from the deeply suspicious to the deeply, darkly suspicious yesterday as Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman disclosed the bizarre response by the Republican National Committee to early indications that consequential White House e-mails -- particularly to and from Karl Rove -- were being deleted.

From 2001 to 2004, the RNC's highly unusual "document retention" policy was to intentionally destroy all e-mails that were more than 30 days old. In the summer of 2004, due to "unspecified legal inquiries," the RNC changed its policy by allowing -- but not mandating -- the indefinite retention of e-mails sent and received by White House staffers on their RNC accounts. That was just around the time special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's investigation of White House involvement in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was kicking into high gear.

Then, in 2005, when RNC officials discovered that all of Rove's RNC e-mails were still getting deleted, presumably by Rove himself, they blocked his ability -- and his ability alone -- to do that. Other White House staffers could still delete at will, just not Rove.

.... more...

[underpants]

144. Side note-don't forget Ashcroft giving them 24 hrs. to "clean" emails

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/underpants/91

[L. Coyote]

146. NATION: John Nichols "Conyers, Sanchez Seek Rove's RNC Emails"

ON edit: DU Discussion here: marmar Fri Apr-13-07 03:19 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3214710

===============

BLOG | Posted 04/13/2007 @ 11:52am
Conyers, Sanchez Seek Rove's RNC Emails
John Nichols
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=185976


The burgeoning congressional focus on the supposedly "missing" emails of White House political czar Karl Rove and almost two dozen other presidential aides who were doing political work on the taxpayers' dime is not limited to questions about the eight U.S. Attorneys who were fired after at least some of them reportedly failed to politicize their prosecutions.

A new letter issued by key members of the House Judiciary Committee specifically expresses concerns that push the inquiry beyond the eight to look at the potential that some of the 85 U.S. Attorneys who were not fired may have been kept on because they used their powers in a manner that pleased Rove and his minions.

While working in the White House, Rove and at least 21 other aides used computer accounts set up by the Republican National Committee to allow them to do political work from their federal offices.

House Judiciary Committee chair Chairman Rep. John Conyers ☼ Jr., D-Michigan, and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, D-California, who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee that is leading the investigation into wrongdoing by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others linked to the U.S. Attorneys scandal, have asked Republican National Committee Chairman Robert Duncan for e-mails and other documents. Of course, following what has become standard operating procedure for the White House and its allies at the U.S. Attorneys scandal has developed, the RNC claims that key emails have gone missing.

......more

[L. Coyote]

147. Lawyer: Rove Assumed E-Mails Were Stored. ASSUMED?? NOT!!

What happened to the safeguard put in place so Rove could not delete e-mails by himself?

Why, suddenly, does Rove delete e-mails again? OR, who helped with this assumption?

Given the history here, how could Rove be assuming something like this? NOT!

========================================
Lawyer: Rove Assumed E-Mails Were Stored
Friday April 13, 2007 8:31 PM
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6555664,00.html


WASHINGTON (AP) - Karl Rove's lawyer on Friday dismissed the notion that President Bush's chief political adviser intentionally deleted his own e-mails from a Republican-sponsored computer system.

The attorney said Rove believed the communications were being preserved in accordance with the law.

The issue arose because the White House and Republican National Committee have said they may have lost e-mails from Rove and other administration officials. Democratically chaired congressional committees want those e-mails for their probe of the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

``His understanding starting very, very early in the administration was that those e-mails were being archived,'' Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said.

........

Any e-mails Rove deleted were the type of routine deletions people make to keep their inboxes orderly, Luskin said. He said Rove had no idea the e-mails were being deleted from the server, a central computer that managed the e-mail.

On Thursday, one Democratic committee chairman said his understanding was that the RNC believed Rove might have been deleting his e-mails and in 2005 took action to preserve them in accordance with the law and pending legal action.

........

The RNC lawyer, Rob Kelner, also said that the Republican committee has none of Rove's e-mails on its server prior to 2005, possibly because Rove deleted them, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Sometime in 2005, the RNC took action solely to prevent Rove from deleting his e-mails on that server. One reason for specifying Rove, Waxman said, appears to have been pending legal action against him.

Some 50 past and current White House aides had the RNC accounts, according to the administration, to conduct political business.

....... more ....

[L. Coyote]

148. FIVE MILLION PLUS e-mail missing from OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE system

Can this be true? This is like all the lost money in Iraq? I must say to these people, "Staple your nose to your face!"

Conveniently, the immense gap includes the 2004 election period.
Dang, I'll have to resend those e-mails about evidence of election fraud I have not deleted.

========================================
White House Says Emails Lost Due to Tech Glitch
By Paul Kiel - April 13, 2007, 1:08 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003010.php


Yesterday, I posted on CREW's revelation that there were as many as five million emails missing from the White House's system. These were emails totally separate from the emails on RNC-issued email accounts. They were in the White House system.

......more....

[L. Coyote]

155. DU L. Coyote: Years of OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE E-MAILS go missing. Five Million E-Mails Lost??

New Thread focused on the Official White House E-mails: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x649088

[L. Coyote]

149. DU babylonsister: NYT: Missing E-Mail May Be Related to Prosecutors

babylonsister Fri Apr-13-07 08:07 AM
NYT: Missing E-Mail May Be Related to Prosecutors
Discuss at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3213962


Missing E-Mail May Be Related to Prosecutors
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: April 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/washington/13emails.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1176473088-xEfxTC4BSgH0BOWXp0hL1w

WASHINGTON, April 12—The White House said Thursday that missing e-mail messages sent on Republican Party accounts may include some relating to the firing of eight United States attorneys.

The disclosure became a fresh political problem for the White House, as Democrats stepped up their inquiry into whether Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush used the e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee to circumvent record-keeping requirements.

It also exposed the dual electronic lives led by Mr. Rove and 21 other White House officials who maintain separate e-mail accounts for government business and work on political campaigns — and raised serious questions, in the eyes of Democrats, about whether political accounts were used to conduct official work without leaving a paper trail.

The clash also seemed to push the White House and Democrats closer to a serious confrontation over executive privilege,.......

..............more.........

[L. Coyote]

150. DU babylonsister: Justice Department Tracked Federalist Society Influence On U.S. Attorneys

babylonsister Fri Apr-13-07 11:28 AM
Justice Department Tracked Federalist Society Influence On U.S. Attorneys
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3214436



Justice Department Tracked Federalist Society Influence On U.S. Attorneys

Today, the House Judiciary Committee released a new set of documents from the Department of Justice relating to the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys.

.......

spreadsheet appears to assess a list of U.S. Attorneys based on a variety of different qualifications ... one column dedicated solely to an assessment of whether the attorneys are members of the Federalist Society ....

.............

[L. Coyote]

167. AP: Agency weighed prosecutors' political activism and membership in a conservative law group

Agency weighed prosecutors' politics
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 14, 6:02 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070414/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors_129


WASHINGTON - The Justice Department weighed political activism and membership in a conservative law group in evaluating the nation's federal prosecutors, documents released in the probe of fired U.S. attorneys show.

The political credentials were listed on a chart of 124 U.S. attorneys nominated since 2001, a document that could bolster Democrats' claims that the traditionally independent Justice Department has become more partisan during the Bush administration.

The chart was included in documents released Friday by the department to congressional panels investigating whether the firings last year of the U.S. attorneys were politically motivated — an inquiry that has Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fighting for his own job.

"This is the chart that the AG requested," Monica Goodling, Justice's former liaison to the White House, wrote in a Feb. 12 e-mail to two other senior department officials. "I'll show it to him on the plane tomorrow, if he's interested."

................

[L. Coyote]

151. DU kpete: (CREW) asked Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to reopen his investigation of Karl Rove'

kpete Fri Apr-13-07 02:52 PM
CREW WRITES PATRICK FITZGERALD ASKING TO RE-OPEN ROVE CASE IN LIGHT OF MISSING EMAILS
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x649142



13 Apr 2007 // Washington, DC - Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to reopen his investigation of Karl Rove's role in disclosing Valerie Plame Wilson's status as a covert CIA operative in light of recent revelations about missing White House email. ...

........

CREW serves as legal counsel to Joe and Valerie Wilson in their civil suit against Karl Rove, Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Richard Armitage.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27630

[L. Coyote]

152. Bennett Kelley: "what does the administration have to hide?"

Attorney-gate, Democracy & Closed Doors
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bennet-kelley/attorneygate-democracy-_b_45580.html


As the blossoming scandal over the U.S. Attorney firings upstages Washington's annual Cherry Blossom Festival, it is important to view the scandal in its proper context. Attorney-gate, whose genesis can be traced to the administration's first weeks, is a microcosm of all the tensions and contradictions that define the Bush presidency. Ultimately what is truly at issue in Attorney-gate is not the merits of firing any single U.S. Attorney, but rather three key questions that go to the core of the Bush presidency - (i) whether the Bush administration is accountable to anyone (today or decades from now); (ii) does the public or its representatives have a right to truthful information from their government; and (iii) what does the administration have to hide?

Prologue to a Farce or Tragedy

The seeds for the scandal can be traced to the 60th day of the Bush administration when President Bush blocked the scheduled release of President Reagan's papers (presumably to prevent the release of documents contradicting his father's testimony in the Iran-Contra investigation)......

... long excellent op-ed......

[L. Coyote]

153. Mark Silva: White House emails gone missing

White House emails gone missing
Posted by Mark Silva at 10:53 am, updated 3:20 pm CDT
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/04/white_house_ema.html

In the congressional investigation of the White House's role in the firing of several federal prosecutors last year, the Justice Department has turned over reams of emails and memos to Congress.

But there may be many more missing emails, it turns out, because many people within the White House have been exchanging emails on a Republican National Committee account using private laptop computers provided by the party for nearly two dozen employees of the president.

The White House maintains that the idea was to keep political business off of government computers. But the record of some public business may have gone missing, the White House acknowledges today. "We screwed up,'' Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said today, "and we're trying to fix it.''

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, for one, isn't buying it. "That's like saying the dog ate my homework,'' Leahy (D-Vt.) said on the Senate floor today, pledging to subpeona records the White House won't produce. ...........

...............

Since 2004, he says, the RNC has excluded White House staff from its automatic deletion of emails – which occurs every 30 days. Since 2004, White House staff with party email accounts have been excluded from that. Still, however, email users often delete files "cluttering up'' the inbox, he allows. Until a few weeks ago, they could drag files from their inbox to the deleted items folder, right-click it and clear the folder.

.....................more............

[L. Coyote]

154. DU WilliamPitt: HEADS UP: Conyers/Sánchez expand US Attorney investigation to RNC (E-MAILS!!!)

WilliamPitt Thu Apr-12-07 03:08 PM
HEADS UP: Conyers/Sánchez expand US Attorney investigation to RNC (E-MAILS!!!)
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x639445


I have a letter from Chairman Conyers and Chairwoman Sanchez which arrived as a .pdf via email. It won't let me copy the text, but this was the body of the email that carried it:

"Chairman Conyers and Subcommittee Chairwoman Sánchez will not sit idly by while the truth about the U.S. Attorney matter disappears into cyberspace." - Judiciary Committee Spokesperson.

Attached you'll find a letter Chairman Conyers and Subcommittee Chairwoman Sánchez sent to the Republican National Committee (RNC) requesting they deliver, by next week, emails and any other documents relating to the U.S. Attorney matter. They further directed the RNC to do so separately from a broader delivery to the White House, to avoid delay. Let us know if you have questions.

The first paragraph of the attached letter reads, "We are writing to request prompt delivery to the House Judiciary Committee of all email communications and all meta-data underlying them, stored on Republican National Committee ("RNC") servers or otherwise in the posession, custody, or control of the RNC, that are related in any way to the recent firings by the Department of Justice of United States Attorneys, or to communications to the Congress about those terminations and related matters as set forth in this letter."

......more........

[L. Coyote]

157. DU BuyingThyme: NYT: Gonzales Aide Made Picks to Replace Attorneys (Translation: SAMPSON LIED UNDER

BuyingThyme Fri Apr-13-07 01:10 PM
NYT: Gonzales Aide Made Picks to Replace Attorneys (Translation: SAMPSON LIED UNDER OATH!)
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x648327


Gonzales Aide Made Picks to Replace Attorneys
By DAVID JOHNSTON - Published: April 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/washington/13cnd-Attorneys.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1176491325-1ZV74YGjDO+NZD7htr1Llg&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, April 13 — A Justice Department e-mail released on Friday shows that the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales proposed replacement candidates for seven United States attorneys nearly a year before those prosecutors were fired, in contrast to testimony last month in which the aide said that no successors were considered before the firings.

The e-mail written by D. Kyle Sampson, who resigned last month as the top aide to Mr. Gonzales, provides the first evidence that the Justice Department wanted to appointed its own candidates, despite the insistence of Justice Department officials in recent weeks that the eight prosecutors, with one exception, were removed in December 2006 for performance reasons, without regard to who might succeed them.

.........more..........

[L. Coyote]

158. DU kpete: WHITE HOUSE Tells Conyers: IT WILL - NOT - TURN OVER RNC E-MAILS

kpete Thu Apr-12-07 08:37 PM
WHITE HOUSE Tells Conyers: IT WILL - NOT - TURN OVER RNC E-MAILS
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x642677


White House says it will not turn over RNC emails
April 12, 2007
White House Tells Democrats No Deal on Rove Testimony or E-mails
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0407/White_House_Tells_Democrats_No_Deal_on_Rove_Testimony_or_Emails.html


White House Counsel Fred Fielding, in a letter today, told Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, that the White House has not budged in its refusal to allow the panels to question several White House aides, including Karl Rove, about what they know regarding the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, moving the two sides closer to a constitutional battle over the scandal.

Fielding also appears to be trying to head off an attempt by Conyers to obtain e-mails and documents from the Republican National Committee regarding the firings. Roughly 50 White House officials, including 22 curent aides, used e-mail accounts controlled by the RNC to send messages, including some related to the prosecutor firings, and Conyers asked RNC Chairman Mike Duncan to turn over those records today.

..............

[L. Coyote]

160. Four years of missing e-mails; how convenient

Today, 08:45 AM
http://forums.macnn.com/95/political-war-lounge/333280/four-years-missing-e-mails-how/

Just when you think this administration can't find another way to lie their way through scandal and corruption, they just keep on going. Of course, the missing e-mails just happen to conveniently be from Karl Rove. Have these people no shame?

Rove E-Mail Sought by Congress May Be Missing
RNC Took Away His Access to Delete Files in 2005
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 13, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202408_pf.html


A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

GOP officials took issue with Rep. Henry Waxman's account of the briefing and said they still hope to find the e-mail ............

[L. Coyote]

161. DU BobcatJH: The hidden scandal within the prosecutor purge = RECOMMENDED

BobcatJH Wed Mar-21-07 08:01 AM
The hidden scandal within the prosecutor purge
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3173846


Written and researched by Joseph Hughes of Hughes for America and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister

Between the thousand-page document dumps, somewhat rejuvenated press corps and always up-to-the-second reporting from the progressive blogosphere, the prosecutor purge scandal is exploding at a seemingly exponential rate. Every hour, the story grows in new and different directions, and now clearly threatens the job security of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others in the Department of Justice. Further, it now appears as though the scandal's tentacles reach into the uppermost echelons of the Bush White House, including, as recent administration controversies almost always do, Karl Rove. While the endgame of this saga is far from decided, what is already apparent is that a vital facet of the story - the administration's seeming unwillingness to comply with both the law and a fundamental cornerstone of our American system - is in danger of being lost in the shuffle of the overarching stampede. And, if we can no longer expect our government's top officials - including the top official, the president - to obey the law and adhere to the bedrock standard of open government, then the questions about whether or not we still live in a democracy are no longer so far-fetched.

Here, in concise a listing as possible, is what we now know:

..............

[L. Coyote]

162. DU kpete: The secrets hidden in the redacted portions of the U.S. Attorneygate docs

kpete Fri Apr-13-07 09:58 PM
The secrets hidden in the redacted portions of the U.S. Attorneygate docs .
by Lawyer to Capitalists
Fri Apr 13, 2007 at 08:45:33 PM PDT
Discuss: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x651865

I have been closely following the plodding progress of the Congressional committee investigations into the Attorney General's firing of "underperforming" U.S. Attorneys. While there are so many questions one can wonder about in this scandal, here is the one that is bothering me the most tonight: why is the Department of Justice (the name suddenly strikes me as utterly ironic) allowed to redact information about all U.S. Attorneys and USA offices other than those pertaining to the fired individuals?

......

Yet, in the newest sets of documents among the 2,000 pages released by the DOJ today (bury the trash in the Friday news cycle, do 'ya?), all information pertaining to U.S. Attorneys other than "The Eight" is redacted. Which means we are looking at this in a vacuum, unable to see how the fired Eight compared to those who were not fired, as it isn't just the names that are redacted--it is all information pertaining to people or offices other than those of the Eight.

Why is the DOJ able to get away with that?

..........

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/13/23406/5301

[L. Coyote]

166. The Hill: New DoJ documents do not answer Dems' questions

New DoJ documents do not answer Dems' questions
By Elana Schor - April 13, 2007
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/new-doj-documents-do-not-answer-dems-questions-2007-04-13.html


The Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday released thousands of pages of new documents to Democratic lawmakers and aides investigating the planned ouster of eight U.S. attorneys, raising the stakes for next Tuesday’s Senate appearance by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and adding new names to the mix.

The document release comes a day after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a new round of subpoenas for documents and testimony from DoJ and White House officials. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the subcommittee chairman spearheading the prosecutor firings probe, told reporters that the documents hardly resolve Democrats’ lingering questions.

..................

Missouri’s Todd Graves left office March 10, 2006, facing criticism from the state Democrats after his family members accepted more than $3 million in no-bid contracts from Gov. Matt Blunt (R). Minnesota’s Tom Heffelfinger resigned Feb. 15, 2006, and was replaced two days later by Rachel Paulose.

..............

[L. Coyote]

163. "the government of the United States is at a very fundamental crossroads"

DivisionByZero - Email coverups, Karl Rove, and the looming technocracy: An essay
http://mdsteele47.livejournal.com/153302.html

I sense that the government of the United States is at a very fundamental crossroads. I also suspect that there are very few, even within the government, that realize exactly how high the stakes are with respect to how a current crisis is handled and resolved for future generations. Sadly, I speak not of global climate change or stem cell research.

I speak instead of missing email.

.......those in charge of such servers are claiming that emails have been lost or otherwise permanently deleted from the servers, denying Sen. Leahy and his colleagues the evidence they would need to continue their investigation.

..............

Two conditions distinguish Rove-as-tasteless-emailer from Rove-as-attorney-purge-architect. First, Rove works in a publicly funded office, with very specific rules for the preservation of records. Second, there is an entire publicly elected body called Congress, whose role in part is to maintain oversight over the activities of the Executive Branch.

Here is where I fear this story could go. Regardless of whether the emails are indeed recovered or if the gwb43.com sysadmin did a fine job and they are gone, there will inevitably be a conversation, at some level, about the preservation and security of information consistent with the unique demands of the White House and the Presidential Records Act. Clearly, those in Congress do not have the technical expertise to engage in a meaningful dialogue that finds a solution to this problem. (I'm looking at you, Sen. Ted "Tubes" Stevens.)

So some to-be-named Congressional committee will have to bring in experts. Enter the geeks .................

[L. Coyote]

164. AP: Dodd calls White House's missing e-mails part of a pattern

Dodd calls White House's missing e-mails part of a pattern
By Kathleen Hennessey, Associated Press Writer | April 13, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2007/04/13/dodd_calls_white_houses_missing_e_mails_part_of_a_pattern/


NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. --News that the White House may have lost e-mails relating to the firing of federal prosecutors is part of its pattern of stonewalling Congress, Sen. Chris Dodd said Friday.

"I can't even feign being shocked. They would have shocked me if they produced them," the Connecticut Democrat said of e-mails requested by the Senate judiciary committee, .....

..........

The missing e-mails are reminiscent of the White House's resistance to releasing information about its domestic spying program and Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, Dodd said.

"There's such a pattern of behavior, this is one example after another of this administration's refusal to support basic law and to respond to legitimate inquires for information," he said.

..............

[L. Coyote]

165. rawstory.com: Waxman directs government agencies to preserve emails from RNC

Waxman directs government agencies to preserve emails from RNC
Mike Sheehan
Published: Thursday April 12, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Waxman_asks_government_agencies_to_preserve_0412.html


Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has issued a letter directing government agencies to retain communications sent as email by White House staffers who used non-governmental mail addresses, many of which were issued by the Republican National Committee.

"Following briefings from the White House and Republican National Committee that revealed an extensive volume of e-mails regarding official government business may have been destroyed by the RNC," a statement accompanying the letter, obtained by RAW STORY, says. "Chairman Waxman directs government agencies to preserve e-mails received from or sent to non-governmental e-mail accounts used by White House staffers."

The House committee is also asking the agencies to provide "an inventory of all e-mails involving these accounts."

..................

A PDF file of Rep. Waxman's letter is viewable ...

[L. Coyote]

168. NY TIMES: E-Mail Listed Possible G.O.P. Replacements for Attorneys

E-Mail Listed Possible G.O.P. Replacements for Attorneys
By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LIPTON
Published: April 14, 2007
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x652663

WASHINGTON, April 13 — A Justice Department e-mail message released on Friday shows that the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales proposed replacement candidates for United States attorneys nearly a year before they were dismissed in December 2006. The department has repeatedly stated that no successors were selected before the dismissals.

The Jan. 9, 2006, e-mail message, written by D. Kyle Sampson, who resigned last month as the top aide to Mr. Gonzales, identified five Bush administration officials, most of them Justice Department employees, whose names were sent to the White House for consideration as possible replacements for prosecutors slated for dismissal.

The e-mail message and several related documents provide the first evidence that Mr. Sampson, the Justice Department official in charge of the dismissals, had focused on who would succeed the ousted prosecutors. Justice officials have repeatedly said that seven of the eight prosecutors were removed without regard to who might succeed them.

Some of the new documents show the department’s acute awareness of individual United States attorneys’ political and ideological views. ....

.........

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/us/14attorneys.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[L. Coyote]

169. arkansasnews.com: E-mails show effort to defend Griffin appointment

E-mails show effort to defend Griffin appointment
Saturday, Apr 14, 2007
By Aaron Sadler - Stephens Washington Bureau
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/04/14/WashingtonDCBureau/341733.html


WASHINGTON - Under relentless scrutiny from Democrats, interim U.S. attorney Tim Griffin joined a behind-the-scenes move to justify his appointment, an effort that included a White House request for one senator to ask "friendly questions" about Griffin's qualifications at a hearing.

New e-mails released Friday show Griffin asked top Justice Department officials to emphasize it was not unusual for the White House counsel's office to be involved in the selection of federal prosecutors.

The 2,394-page Justice Department release also included a document highlighting Griffin's education and experience, which he composed most of himself.

Attached was an eight-point list of qualifications referred to as "Griffin Talkers."

The e-mails indicate that the White House political office contacted Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on Jan. 17 to request he ask favorable questions regarding Griffin at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing a day later.

..................

[L. Coyote]

170. New Mexico: U.S. Attorney firings: Documents reveal senator's quick-fix strategy

U.S. Attorney firings: Documents reveal senator's quick-fix strategy
By TIM KORTE | Associated Press
April 14, 2007
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/60170.html


Domenici pushed to make scandal 'one-day' story

ALBUQUERQUE -- When former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias initially claimed he had been forced from his job for political reasons, Sen. Pete Domenici's strategy for handling the issue was to "hopefully make this a one-day story."

According to documents released Friday by the Department of Justice, concerns that Iglesias was holding a Feb. 28 news conference in Albuquerque prompted a deputy to White House political adviser Karl Rove to alert top Republicans in Washington.

The deputy, Scott Jennings, sent an e-mail to Rove and other GOP and White House officials about an hour before Iglesias was to speak to reporters in New Mexico. The subject line is labeled, "NM USATTY -- urgent issue."

Jennings wrote that Steve Bell, Domenici's chief of staff, had just called and "urgently reported" Iglesias was ready to identify two members of Congress as having pressured him to rush indictments in a federal corruption probe shortly before the November elections.

...................

[L. Coyote]

187. Albuquerque Journal: Domenici Sought Iglesias Ouster = "only on orders from the president..."

Sunday, April 15, 2007
Domenici Sought Iglesias Ouster
By Mike Gallagher
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Investigative Reporter
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/special/554986nm04-15-07.htm


Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired after Sen. Pete Domenici, who had been unhappy with Iglesias for some time, made a personal appeal to the White House, the Journal has learned.

In the spring of 2006, Domenici told Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out. Gonzales refused. He told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only on orders from the president. At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president. Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue. The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7. Iglesias' name first showed up on a Nov. 15 list of federal prosecutors who would be asked to resign. It was not on a similar list prepared in October.

.......

Documentation that has been turned over to Congress doesn't indicate problems with Iglesias' performance from the Department Justice point of view.

The documents reveal Domenici called Gonzales and his deputies on several occasions in 2005 and 2006.

In one undated memo, a Gonzales aide wrote, "Domenici says he doesn't move cases," in reference to Iglesias.

.....

At least one memo shows Iglesias was offered a job heading the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys in Washington, D.C. Iglesias turned the job down.

===============
DU Discussion at: Sun Apr-15-07 09:20 AM
BUSH INVOLVED IN ATTORNEY FIRING: Timeline/Details Of Phone Conversation -Albuquerque Journal
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x659355

[L. Coyote]

194. CQ TODAY: Salazar Bows Out of Ethics Inquiry on Domenici Because of N.M. Connection

CQ TODAY
April 17, 2007 – 10:05 p.m.
Salazar Bows Out of Ethics Inquiry on Domenici Because of N.M. Connection
By Daphne Retter, CQ Staff
http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002491570.html


The newest member of the Senate Ethics Committee recused himself Tuesday from an inquiry into whether Pete V. Domenici violated Senate rules by contacting a former federal prosecutor about a pending case.

Ken Salazar, D-Colo., will step aside during the committee’s inquiry into contacts between Domenici, R-N.M., and former U.S. attorney David Iglesias.

Salazar’s spokesman, Cody Wertz, said the senator decided to recuse himself because he is a friend of New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid. “As a result of that relationship, he may have knowledge of matters that may be investigated by the committee,” Wertz said. Wertz said he did not know whether recusal was Salazar’s idea or someone else’s suggestion.

Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, will take Salazar’s place for any matters involving Iglesias. The arrangement was settled with the voice-vote adoption of a temporary committee membership change resolution (S Res 153).

..........more.......

[L. Coyote]

171. WA POST: BURDEN OF PROOF - It's Up to Gonzales Now

BURDEN OF PROOF - It's Up to Gonzales Now
By Scott Turow
Sunday, April 15, 2007; Page B01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041302091.html


Is political loyalty more important to the Bush Justice Department than prosecutorial independence?

To those of us who have been federal prosecutors, that's the critical question facing Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales as he testifies before Congress this week on the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. We know what's at stake: a balance of power between the Justice Department and those who handle day-to-day prosecutions that is the bedrock of federal law enforcement.

..............

.... a tradition of political independence in the day-to-day conduct of the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, a let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may attitude in the pursuit of evidence and investigations that persists under current U.S. attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who, like Skinner and Sullivan, has indicted and investigated both Republicans and Democrats.

Has that tradition been violated? In defending the administration in the current firing scandal, its supporters have relied on the established law that allows the president to place loyalists in policymaking positions in the Justice Department and in U.S. attorney's offices nationwide, where they can attend to the department's priorities. But that principle is only half of the legal yin and yang that governs the conduct of U.S. attorneys.

The U.S. attorney, in all 93 federal districts, has been a figure of unique autonomy, whose right to pursue individual cases as she or he sees fit, within the broad framework of Washington's policy directives, has been largely unquestioned for generations and is rooted in the office's local responsibilities.

................

... the firings surely represent a newly intrusive attitude in which the administration seems convinced of its right to demand true-believer adherence to policy, as opposed to granting U.S. attorneys their traditional discretion to handle individual cases with an eye to all the attendant facts and circumstances.

..........

[L. Coyote]

172. ZNet: U.S. Attorneys and Voting Rights: The New Watergate

U.S. Attorneys and Voting Rights: The New Watergate
by Marjorie Cohn - April 13, 2007
MWC News - http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=12564

The Bush administration is shocked, shocked, that the firing of a few U.S. attorneys has caused such a stir in Washington. After all, the Oval Office says, the President can choose whomever he wants to prosecute federal cases. But the Supreme Court declared in Berger v. United States that a prosecutor's job is to see that justice is done, not to politicize justice. The mass ouster of the top prosecutors had more to do with keeping a grip on power - by manipulating voting rights - than with doing justice. And like the Watergate scandal, the evidence points to a cover-up.

This cover-up revolves around efforts by the Bush administration to disenfranchise African-American voters in communities where the vote would likely be close. ....

This cover-up revolves around efforts by the Bush administration to disenfranchise African-American voters in communities where the vote would likely be close. George W. Bush came to power in 2000 by a razor-thin margin awarded him by the Supreme Court. During the 2004 election, there were allegations of attempts to disenfranchise African-American voters, especially in Ohio. Yet no voting discrimination cases were brought on behalf of African-American or Native American voters from 2001 to 2006.

Instead, the administration instigated efforts that would further disenfranchise these voters. U.S. attorneys were instructed to prosecute "voter fraud" cases. "Voter fraud" has "become almost synonymous with 'voting while black,'" the New York Times' Paul Krugman observed. Also, Republican lawmakers enacted voter ID laws which established new hurdles for voters to jump.

Former staffers in the Justice Department's civil rights division said they were "repeatedly overruled when they objected to Republican actions, ranging from Georgia's voter ID law to Tom DeLay's Texas redistricting, that they believed would effectively disenfranchise African-American voters," Krugman added.

................

[L. Coyote]

182. DU Hisyspit: Marjorie Cohn: U.S. Attorneys and Voting Rights - The New Watergate

Hissyspit Mon Apr-16-07 06:28 AM
Marjorie Cohn: U.S. Attorneys and Voting Rights - The New Watergate
Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x275298


U.S. Attorneys and Voting Rights: The New Watergate
By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet. Posted April 16, 2007.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/50598
.......

Former staffers in the Justice Department's civil rights division said they were "repeatedly overruled when they objected to Republican actions, ranging from Georgia's voter ID law to Tom DeLay's Texas redistricting, that they believed would effectively disenfranchise African-American voters," Krugman added.

- snip -

Shortly after the Watergate break-in, President Richard Nixon and his loyal chief of staff H.R. Haldeman spoke in the old Executive Office Building. Their conversation was taped, but 18.5 minutes were erased. This gap incriminated Nixon in the cover-up which eventually led to his impeachment and resignation.

MORE

[L. Coyote]

173. John Nichols: E-mails lost? Not likely. = "Rose Mary Woods" of scandal

E-mails lost? Not likely
By John Nichols
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=129372&ntpid=2


The U.S. attorneys scandal entered its "Rose Mary Woods" phase last week.

Woods was the longtime secretary to Richard Nixon who as a fiercely loyal employee in the waning days of the Watergate crisis claimed in grand jury testimony that she had inadvertently created at least part of an 18-minute gap on a White House audiotape that had become central to the investigation of presidential wrongdoing.

"The Rose Mary Woods Defense" proved to be a tough sell in 1974, failing to close off congressional inquiries that would eventually lead to votes by the House Judiciary Committee in favor of articles of impeachment against Nixon.

But that has not stopped the Bush White House from mounting a "Rose Mary Woods Defense" in its attempt to prevent the House and Senate judiciary committees from examining the full scope of the scandal .....

..............................

It looks like the "Rose Mary Woods Defense" is not going over any better in 2007 than it did in 1974. To his credit, the usually cautious Leahy says he is prepared to subpoena the e-mails and related documents. He won't be satisfied with dog-ate-my-homework excuses. And rightly so.

These e-mails are definitely not missing, but they may well be incriminating.

John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times, Wisconsin's progressive daily newspaper, where his column regularly appears.
Published: April 14, 2007

[L. Coyote]

174. Wisconsin: Atty Targeted for Replacement, Prosecuted Dem and Kept Job

Rose Siding Sat Apr-14-07 08:57 AM
WI Atty Targeted for Replacement, Prosecuted Dem and Kept Job
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x653248

WASHINGTON - A U.S. attorney in Wisconsin who prosecuted a state Democratic official on corruption charges during last year's heated governor's race was once targeted for firing by the Department of Justice, but given a reprieve for reasons that remain unclear. A federal appeals court last week threw out the conviction of Wisconsin state worker Georgia Thompson, saying the evidence was "beyond thin."

Congressional investigators looking into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys saw Wisconsin prosecutor Steven M. Biskupic's name on a list of lawyers targeted for removal when they were inspecting a Justice Department document not yet made public, according to an attorney for a lawmaker involved in the investigation. The attorney asked for anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the investigation.

It wasn't clear when Biskupic was added to a Justice Department hit list of prosecutors, or when he was taken off, or whether those developments were connected to the just-overturned corruption case.

Nevertheless, the disclosure aroused investigators' suspicion that Biskupic might have been retained in his job because he agreed to prosecute Democrats,...

...............

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington//17075348.htm

[bobthedrummer]

177. Various WI media reporting Biskupic as stating that Gonzales questioned

his LOYALTY to BUSH and that was the numero uno criteria above "performance", Biskupic did prosecute Georgia Thompson yet her case was overturned and she was freed last week.

"Georgia Thompson's conviction reversed" 4-5-2007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x20048

"Doyle kills travel contract" 1-31-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x13077

OTOH, contradictory "decisions" regarding the corruption and the massive illegal (out of State) PAC campaign contributions to former Rep. US Cong. Mark Green (who ran and lost against incumbent Dem. Gov. Jim Doyle) disappeared.

"Justice Dept. rules entire $1.3M of Green's PAC transfer illegal" 9-21-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x16863

One deadly plane crash always bothered me because it was a prominent WI Republican Michael Wille who was killed in this time frame.

"Michael F. Wille has died in a plane crash" 9-23-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x16949

Some of the State Elections Board members had no problems playing partisan.

"Regulators contribute to candidates..." 10-18-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x17477

That is a legacy of Tommy Thompson, who also helped Green's campaign

"Green turns to Tommy Thompson for campaign help" 10-27-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x17732

Tommy Thompson's regional mob background

"Connecting the networks of criminal conspiracies project" 10-7-2006
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=150x13493

Mark Green simply kept the illegal PAC money and became a Republican lawyer.

[L. Coyote]

179. Thanks. Seems this deserves it's own summary thread! n/t

[L. Coyote]

184. DU DeepModem Mom: NYT op-ed: A Woman Wrongly Convicted and a U.S. Attorney Who Kept His Job

DeepModem Mom Mon Apr-16-07 01:28 AM
NYT op-ed: A Woman Wrongly Convicted and a U.S. Attorney Who Kept His Job
A Woman Wrongly Convicted and a U.S. Attorney Who Kept His Job
By ADAM COHEN - Published: April 16, 2007 - Madison, Wis.
DU Discusion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x663884

Opponents of Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin spent $4 million on ads last year trying to link the Democratic incumbent to a state employee who was sent to jail on corruption charges. The effort failed, and Mr. Doyle was re-elected — and now the state employee has been found to have been wrongly convicted. The entire affair is raising serious questions about why a United States attorney put an innocent woman in jail.

The conviction of Georgia Thompson has become part of the furor over the firing of eight United States attorneys in what seems like a political purge. ....

.................

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/opinion/16mon4.html?hp

[L. Coyote]

175. Cannonfire: Computergate: Who's running the show?

Computergate: Who's running the show?
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/index.html


"Computergate." Until someone else comes up with a name that catches on, that's my nomenclature and I'm stickin' to it. (Hey, check out the latest results on that Kos poll!)

Today's L.A. Times (subscription required) emphasizes that Rove, upon assuming his duties, was officially cautioned not to misplace any emails, which is sort of like cautioning Charles Ng not to kill people. So where did the missing missives go? How do the White House email systems (official and non-official) actually work?

.....................

The RNC servers are in Chattanooga. But where are the official .gov servers?

Now that is an intriguing question.

................

[bobthedrummer]

176. kick-thanks to your efforts a lot of people are checking that question out. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

178. Remember "Dragnet's" cliche:"...just the facts..."-KICK

Thanks so much for your outstanding work in this thread, Laughing Coyote.

:patriot:

[L. Coyote]

180. TIME: Conservatives to Bush: Fire Gonzales

Conservatives to Bush: Fire Gonzales
Monday, Apr. 16, 2007 By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1610738,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner


Stephan Savoia / AP

In what could prove an embarrassing new setback for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the eve of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a group of influential conservatives and longtime Bush supporters has written a letter to the White House to call for his resignation.
Related
The Letter: "An Unsuitable Steward of the Law"

The two-page letter, written on stationery of the American Freedom Agenda, a recently formed body designed to promote conservative legal principles, is blunt. Addressed to both Bush and Gonzales, it goes well beyond the U.S. attorneys controversy and details other alleged failings by Gonzales. "Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of the Constitution's time-honored checks and balances," it declares. "He has brought rule of law into disrepute, and debased honesty as the coin of the realm." Alluding to ongoing scandal, it notes: "He has engendered the suspicion that partisan politics trumps evenhanded law enforcement in the Department of Justice."

The letter concludes by saying, "Attorney General Gonzales has proven an unsuitable steward of the law and should resign for the good of the country...

...................

====================

DU Discussions:

DeepModem Mom Mon Apr-16-07 10:21 AM
Conservative group in letter to Bush: Fire Gonzales; "He has brought rule of law into disrepute."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x664978

habitual Mon Apr-16-07 10:13 AM
Conservatives to Bush: Fire Gonzales
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2808739

babylonsister Mon Apr-16-07 10:57 AM
TIME: Conservatives to Bush: Fire Gonzales
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3218695

[L. Coyote]

186. DU kpete: Conservatives to Bush-FIRE GONZALES-

On DU, one can count on a series of duplicate threads. Here is one more:

==============================
kpete Mon Apr-16-07 10:24 AM
Conservatives to Bush-FIRE GONZALES-He Has Presided Over "UNPRECEDENTED CRIPPLING OF CONSTITUTION"

Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x665863

[L. Coyote]

181. WA POST: Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings

Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings
By Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 16, 2007; 9:42 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600422.html?hpid=topnews


Two thirds of Americans, including a narrow majority of Republicans, see political motivations behind last year's firings of eight chief federal prosecutors. But the nation is deeply divided along partisan lines about whether Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales should lose his job over the scandal.

The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that Gonzales faces a broadly critical public as well as congressional scrutiny about the firings of the U.S. attorneys.

.........

In the poll, 67 percent said they believed the prosecutors were fired by the Justice Department for political reasons, not on the basis of their performance. About eight in 10 Democrats and two-thirds of independents said they saw political motivations behind the firings of the U.S. attorneys, an attitude shared by 53 percent of all Republicans surveyed.

Overall, nearly six in 10 Americans disapproved of the way Gonzales has handled the issue. Among Republicans, 47 percent expressed disapproval of how the Republican attorney general has handled the matter, with 35 percent approving and 18 percent having no opinion.

................

=======================

DU Discussions:

cal04 Mon Apr-16-07 09:33 AM
Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x664742

LiberalFighter Mon Apr-16-07 09:34 AM
Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2808706

[L. Coyote]

183. DU radfringe: Justice Department: Independent branch or Political Hit Squad?

radfringe Mon Apr-16-07 03:18 AM
Justice Department: Independent branch or Political Hit Squad?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x664192


One issue of note has emerged from the US Attorney Firing.

It's something which has taken a back seat in the discussion - and that is the role of the Justice Department.

According to the constitution - the Justice Department is suppose to be an independent branch of government, and this implies a level of Political Neutrality. .......

........................

[L. Coyote]

185. WA POST: Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings

Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings
By Dan Eggen and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, April 16, 2007; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041500548.html?hpid=topnews

The former Justice Department official who carried out the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that several of the prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

The statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle, former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has said that he never saw any documents about the firings and that he had "lost confidence" in the prosecutors because of performance problems.

......................

==============================

DU Discussion at:
sabra Sun Apr-15-07 11:25 PM
Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2808418

[L. Coyote]

188. The Two Most Serious Criminal Charges Against Alberto Gonzales

The Two Most Serious Charges Against Alberto Gonzales
EMAILWIRE.COM, April 16, 2007 ) Alexandria, VA -
http://business.press-world.com/v/78539/the-two-most-serious-charges-against-alberto-gonzales.html


When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee later this week , there are two very serious charges that can be brought against him: First, that he deliberately lied to the Committee when he said that he was not involved in any discussions about the firings of the United States Attorneys; and second, that he is guilty of violating Title 18, Section 595 of the United States Code, which prohibits him from using his official authority to affect Congressional elections.

This law says, "Whoever, being a person employed in any administrative position by the United States, or by any department or agency thereof . . . uses his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives . . . shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both."

This is a criminal offense which would subject him to a fine or imprisonment. ....

...................

The Law is very clear in this matter: He is not allowed to use his official authority to affect a Congressional election. And therefore if he fired even one of these attorneys in order to weaken even one Democratic candidate or strengthen even one Republican candidate, he violated the law. ...........

.........................

[L. Coyote]

189. DU babylonsister: Justice Dept. fails to comply with subpoena. Conyers replies.

babylonsister Mon Apr-16-07 03:08 PM
Justice Dept. fails to comply with subpoena.
DU discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x669633


Justice Dept. fails to comply with subpoena.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x669633

The Justice Department has missed the 2pm deadline to turn over documents on the U.S. Attorney firings subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee. Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said he was “disappointed” and pledged to “review all available legal options to secure compliance with the subpoena.”

............

[bobthedrummer]

191. kick

[L. Coyote]

195. WA POST Dan Froomkin: White House Blocks E-Mail Delivery

White House Blocks E-Mail Delivery
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, April 18, 2007; 1:28 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/04/18/BL2007041801356.html


The White House yesterday hinted that it may try to assert executive privilege in denying Congressional investigators access to e-mails sent and received by White House aides on their Republican National Committee e-mail accounts.

It would be an unconventional exercise of a privilege that is controversial even in its traditional application: to protect the White House itself from subpoenas. And it would be another twist in an already peculiarly convoluted story.

..........

The White House sent the RNC a letter yesterday making it clear the RNC was not to comply: "We understand that once has reached an agreement on the appropriate search terms with the Judiciary Committee and has gathered information it believes responsive to the Letter's requests, you will provide the Office of the Counsel to the President with an opportunity to review such material before communicating it to any other person. Such review is necessary to determine, among other things, (1) whether any materials implicating the Presidential Records Act are, in fact, involved, and (2) whether, the Executive Branch may need to take measures necessary to protect its other legal interests in communications responsive to the Letter's requests."

.............

[L. Coyote]

196. WA POST Editorial: Who really needs to 'lay out on the record' what led to the firings of U.S. atto

"The story unfolded inside the White House, too, and White House officials also need to "lay out on the record the specifics of what transpired." "

Beyond Mr. Gonzales
Who really needs to 'lay out on the record' what led to the firings of U.S. attorneys
Tuesday, April 17, 2007; Page A20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601442.html?referrer=email


IN THE UPROAR over the firing of U.S. attorneys, most of the attention has been focused on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, and it will be again later this week when he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But it's increasingly clear that important questions about the firings must be directed to the White House, which inspired the plan, prodded it along and may well have selected at least one target more because of partisan politics than performance.

Certainly, there are useful avenues of inquiry with Mr. Gonzales, whose scheduled appearance today was postponed after the shootings at Virginia Tech. He will be challenged to reconcile his conflicting statements about his role; to balance competing desires to distance himself from the firings without coming across as an absentee manager; and to provide more facts than he did in his pre-released opening statement.

Specifically: How does Mr. Gonzales reconcile his assertion, in a USA Today op-ed on March 7, that the prosecutors were fired "for reasons related to policy, priorities and management -- what have been referred to broadly as 'performance-related' reasons" with the reported testimony by Michael A. Battle.......

How and why was New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias's name added to the hit list at the last minute? What was the nature of the attorney general's conversations on this topic with Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), White House aide Karl Rove and President Bush? Did Mr. Gonzales, as the Albuquerque Journal reported Sunday, tell Mr. Domenici that he would fire Mr. Iglesias only on the orders of the president?

.....................

[L. Coyote]

197. WA POST Editorial: White House needs to 'lay out on the record' what led to the firings of USATTY's

WA POST Editorial:
"The story unfolded inside the White House, too, and White House officials also need to "lay out on the record the specifics of what transpired." "

Beyond Mr. Gonzales
Who really needs to 'lay out on the record' what led to the firings of U.S. attorneys
Tuesday, April 17, 2007; Page A20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601442.html?referrer=email


IN THE UPROAR over the firing of U.S. attorneys, most of the attention has been focused on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, and it will be again later this week when he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But it's increasingly clear that important questions about the firings must be directed to the White House, which inspired the plan, prodded it along and may well have selected at least one target more because of partisan politics than performance.

Certainly, there are useful avenues of inquiry with Mr. Gonzales, whose scheduled appearance today was postponed after the shootings at Virginia Tech. He will be challenged to reconcile his conflicting statements about his role; to balance competing desires to distance himself from the firings without coming across as an absentee manager; and to provide more facts than he did in his pre-released opening statement.

Specifically: How does Mr. Gonzales reconcile his assertion, in a USA Today op-ed on March 7, that the prosecutors were fired "for reasons related to policy, priorities and management -- what have been referred to broadly as 'performance-related' reasons" with the reported testimony by Michael A. Battle.......

How and why was New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias's name added to the hit list at the last minute? What was the nature of the attorney general's conversations on this topic with Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), White House aide Karl Rove and President Bush? Did Mr. Gonzales, as the Albuquerque Journal reported Sunday, tell Mr. Domenici that he would fire Mr. Iglesias only on the orders of the president?

.....................

[L. Coyote]

198. Blog THE NEXT HURRAH: The Case of Patrick Fitzgerald and the Missing Emails

April 13, 2007
The Case of Patrick Fitzgerald and the Missing Emails
by emptywheel
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/04/the_case_of_pat.html


Going on weeks now, I've been inundated with questions about whether Fitzgerald knew about the GWB43.com server. If so, what can he teach Waxman, Conyers, and Leahy about its use? If not, does that mean Fitzgerald has received enough new information that the CIA Leak case will re-enter an active phase? Over two weeks ago, I wrote Fitzgerald's spokesperson to see if he could offer any enlightenment--and I got a classic non-answer in return, "there's no public record basis for me to comment so I have to decline." So what follows is my best understanding of the recent evidence that has come to light--as well as the evidence already available. Much of this is speculative--but it ought to lay out at least the overall chronology involved.

Looking back, it seems like from day one, at least one journalist covering this story suspected something was up. On October 7--the day the WH was first told to turn over materials--the reporter asked whether employees were obliged to turn over emails they had already deleted. Watch how McClellan immediately emphasizes that employees are only obliged to turn over materials "in the posession" of the White House.

Q No, I understand that. I'm just saying how would this work? Let's say I remember -- I'm an official, I remember sending some email about this, but I've long since deleted it. How --



Q I just want to be clear, though, the White House is obligated to provide emails that may have been deleted by the individual but are still archived by the White House --

MR. McCLELLAN: Look back -- it said what is in the possession of, I believe, in the White House, the employees and staff.

That sure sounds like the dodge of a spokesperson who is well aware of the way the RNC server is used, not to mention aware that a lot of sensitive emails reside on it. And not only did that first document request limit itself to items in the possession of the White House, but it was a request, not a subpoena. It wasn't until 2004 when those documents were formally subpoenaed. Keep in mind, by the time that formal subpoena went out in January 2004, BushCo had had the initial 11-hour gap between the time when Ashcroft informed Alberto Gonzales and the time Gonzales informed the White House to retain all relevant records, and then three more months before actually being legally subpoenaed. Abundant time to do a great deal of deleting.

.................more analysis.........

[rumpel]

199. great compilation, L. Coyote

:applause:

kick

[L. Coyote]

200. CONGRESS: Rep. Waxman Renews Request After RNC Fails to Provide Information on White House Official

WHOA. Post number 200 on this thread, plus a spin off issue at:
Years of OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE E-MAILS go missing. Five Million E-Mails Lost??
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x649088

I wish I could be this polite!!!!! "Subpoena time," I'd say.

=============================================
Rep. Waxman Renews Request After RNC Fails to Provide Information on White House Officials’ E-mails
White House Use of Private E-mail Accounts - Wednesday, April 18, 2007
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1256

In a letter to the Republican National Committee, Chairman Waxman states that it is unacceptable that - after three letters from the Committee - the RNC has provided only minimal information regarding White House officials' use of RNC e-mail accounts. In response to the RNC's proposal to limit the Committee's request for e-mail, Chairman Waxman requests basic facts about the scope and nature of the emails sent using these accounts before he assesses whether such limitations are required.

Letter to RNC Chairman Duncan (pdf): http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070418161112.pdf

===================
Applaud, vent, rage, cheer, bemoan, encourage, assail, avail, bespeak, charm, or just rant:
DU discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3223266

babylonsister Wed Apr-18-07 03:12 PM
Waxman Sends More Requests to Unitary Executive


ARTICLE:
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-04-18 20:57.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/21465

[L. Coyote]

201. thinkprogress: RNC To Waxman: We’ll Only Show You The Emails We Want You To See

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/18/waxman-rnc-search-terms/

MORE DETAILS:

In the new letter, Waxman reveals that the RNC’s response thus far has been to propose that any Congressional requests for emails be filtered through “eight search terms, such as ‘political briefing,’ ‘Hatch Act,’ and ‘2008.’” Waxman notes that these proposed search terms would not have produced the RNC email that transmitted a copy of Karl Rove’s Powerpoint slides that were presented at a General Services Administration meeting. That e-mail read: “Please do not email this out or let people see it. It is a close hold and we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”

.............

Waxman says that before Congress can agree to the RNC’s proposed “search terms,” the RNC must provide basic information about the extent their email accounts have been used to transact government business:

he Committee needs basic facts about the scope and nature of the e-mails preserved on RNC servers. The Committee staff reasonably requested a meeting tomorrow to discuss these issues, but this request was unreasonably rejected. In fact, the RNC counsel stated that no meeting would occur until the Committee agreed to limiting search terms. This is not an acceptable proposal.

For the reasons outlined above, the Committee requests the following information by noon on Friday, April 20, 2007:

1. The identity of all White House officials who have held RNC e-mail accounts;

2. The total number of e-mails sent by each White House official through an RNC email account during each calendar year;

3. The total number of e-mails received by each White House official through an RNC e-mail account during each calendar year;

4. The total number of e-mails sent by each White House official through an RNC email account to a “.gov” e-mail account during each calendar year; and

5. The total number of e-mails received by each White House official through an RNC e-mail account from a “.gov” e-mail account during each calendar year.

.......................

[L. Coyote]

225. April 20 UPDATE: Investigation of White House Use of Private E-mail Accounts

http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp?ID=251

Investigations
White House Use of Private E-mail Accounts

After three congressional investigations – the investigation into Jack Abramoff’s contacts with the White House, the examination of politicization of the General Services Administration, and the investigation of the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys – brought to light the White House’s extensive use of nongovernmental e-mail accounts to conduct official business, the Committee directed the RNC and the Bush Cheney ’04 campaign to preserve e-mails to or from accounts held by White House officials.

In order to ensure compliance with both the Presidential Records Act and the Hatch Act, the Committee asked the RNC to produce e-mails that related to the use of federal agencies and federal resources for partisan political purposes.

Following staff briefings with the White House and the RNC, the Committee has reason to believe that many e-mails related to official government business may have been deleted from the RNC’s servers. As a secondary measure to obtain these e-mails, the Committee asked federal agencies to preserve any e-mails they received from or sent to these political accounts.


Chronology (NOTE: Seven Pages, one entry here linked)

Friday, April 20, 2007
Committee to Consider Subpoena for RNC Documents Related to White House E-mails (http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1259)

Chairman Waxman informs the RNC that the Oversight Committee will meet on April 25 to consider a subpoena for documents relating to possible violation of the Presidential Records Act and the Hatch Act by White House officials.

=================
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x714455
Hissyspit Fri Apr-20-07 12:04 PM
Oversight Committee To Consider Four Subpoenas To Further Investigations...

[bobthedrummer]

202. A kick for the AGAG's memory

[bobthedrummer]

203. kick

[L. Coyote]

204. Greg Gordon: Administration pursued aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout

REcommended long article summarizing the issue.

============================
Administration pursued aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout
By Greg Gordon - McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/17102319.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation


WASHINGTON - For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

The administration intensified its efforts last year as President Bush's popularity and Republican support eroded heading into a midterm battle for control of Congress, which the Democrats won.

Facing nationwide voter registration drives by Democratic-leaning groups, the administration alleged widespread election fraud and endorsed proposals for tougher state and federal voter identification laws. Presidential political adviser Karl Rove alluded to the strategy in April 2006 when he railed about voter fraud in a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association.

..............

Instead of forcing lax agencies to increase registrations, the Justice Department sued at least six states and sent threatening enforcement letters to others requiring them to scour their election rolls for potentially ineligible voters.

.............more..............

=================
DU: grytpype Thu Apr-19-07 09:12 AM
Administration pursued aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2813370

[L. Coyote]

205. John Nichols BLOG: Ten Questions for Alberto Gonzales = GRRREAT!!

BLOG | Posted 04/19/2007 @ 03:59am
Ten Questions for Alberto Gonzales
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=187607

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales goes in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today as the most embattled high-ranking member of a presidential administration to appear before an oversight panel in decades. That Gonzales has clung to his position in the face of an overwhelming tide of revelations about his own misdeeds and the "take-the-fifth" actions of his lieutenants is a testament not to tenacity but to the closeness of his relationship with his enabling protector, President Bush, and the refusal of the current administration to entertain even baseline standards of accountability.

..............

....what transpires on Capitol Hill today could go a long way toward defining the future not just of the inquiry into the firings of U.S. Attorneys but of the Bush administration.

To that end, here are ten sets of questions .....

2. ... do you ... consider yourself to serve the president or the republic?

4. Did you and the president discuss so-called "voter fraud" investigations and prosecutions in the month before the 2OO6 congressional and state elections? .....

6. Were you ever involved in conversations, verbal or digital, in which White House political czar Karl Rove outlined a desire to politicize prosecutions ....

7. Why is it that so many of the U.S. Attorneys who were fired appear to have been those who faced criticism from state and local Republican officials for failing to advance political prosecutions of Democrats in an election year? ....

8. Were any of the 85 U.S. Attorneys who were not fired subjected to political pressures. How many of them announced investigations of so-called "voter fraud" cases on a time line that paralleled efforts by Republicans to advance legislation to establish new voter registration and Voter ID laws? ....

9. Were you aware that the Republican Party of Wisconsin prepared packages of documents, including a lengthy memo outlining proposals for mounting "voter fraud" cases in Milwaukee that were forwarded to Rove's office in 2OO5 and that Steven Biskupic, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Wisconsin ....

1O. Were you aware that, on a time line paralleling the 2OO6 U.S. Senate campaign in New Jersey, a U.S. Attorney in that state, Chris Christie, began issuing subpoenas aimed at raising questions about the ethics of Bob Menendez, the incumbent senator who was seeking reelection that fall? ....

===============
DU discussion at:
marmar Thu Apr-19-07 08:43 AM
Ten Questions for Alberto Gonzales (by John Nichols for The Nation)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x275914

[L. Coyote]

206. WALL ST J: Justice Probes Abramoff Ties To White House

Justice Probes Abramoff Ties To White House
By SCOT J. PALTROW - April 16, 2007; Page A7
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117668592739670828-NtqMNcTNQjBgap7BI5jhmnL_xXM_20070423.html


The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section is investigating connections between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House, a probe that may be affected by missing White House emails.

Lawyers involved in the case said that beginning more than a year ago, federal prosecutors and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents interviewed Mr. Abramoff and other cooperating witnesses at length about numerous contacts between Mr. Abramoff and White House officials, including presidential adviser Karl Rove.

.............

Disclosures last week that large numbers of Mr. Rove's White House email messages and those of other White House officials were erased and possibly permanently lost raised concern on Capitol Hill about possible destruction of evidence relevant to the Abramoff-White House inquiry.

People with direct knowledge of the investigation say that all of Mr. Abramoff's email correspondence was preserved and turned over to prosecutors, including those with the White House. But it isn't clear to what extent Mr. Rove and others in the White House may have exchanged messages among themselves, or with others outside, pertaining to Mr. Abramoff, and whether any of these may have been erased. ........

....more........

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DU discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x664559

kpete Mon Apr-16-07 06:49 AM
Justice Probes ABRAMOFF TIES TO WHITE HOUSE-Including Rove

[bobthedrummer]

207. kick and indict them all

[L. Coyote]

208. The New Republic: Bush Compares Congressional Hearings To Soviet Show Trials

Oversight Is Torture For Bush
The New Republic: Bush Compares Congressional Hearings To Soviet Show Trials
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/16/opinion/main2687034.shtml

Save perhaps, for his mustache, there's nothing about Henry Waxman that would lead anyone to mistake him for Joseph Stalin. Stalin's rise to general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party included stints as a Bolshevik bank robber and a commissar in the Red Army; Waxman was elected to Congress after representing an affluent West Los Angeles district in the California State Assembly......

..... to hear Republicans tell it, Waxman might as well be nicknamed Henry the Dread. The reason for the Stalin analogies is that Democratic committee chairs have authorized subpoenas for top White House and Justice Department officials to testify at hearings about the U.S. attorney purge and other myriad Bush administration scandals — hearings that President Bush himself has disparaged as "show trials."

Now, it's possible that Bush slept through his Soviet history lessons, but show trials, of course, are not really trials at all — their verdicts having been predetermined with the defendants' "confessions" extracted through torture. Contrast that with what Democrats hope to achieve by subpoenaing administration officials. Democrats don't know whether Karl Rove had a hand in the firings of U.S. attorneys, although there's enough circumstantial evidence to suspect that he did. The fact that Democrats want him to testify about the matter in public — as opposed to being "interviewed" behind closed doors, not under oath, and with no transcript, as the Bush administration has offered — does not mean that Democrats want to conduct a show trial. Far from it. They simply want to know what Rove did or did not do ..........

[L. Coyote]

209. WA TIMES: Leahy vows to subpoena Rove, Miers

Leahy vows to subpoena Rove, Miers
By Eric Pfeiffer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 19, 2007 - http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070318-113634-6537r.htm

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy yesterday promised to subpoena the White House's top political adviser and its former counsel in connection to the congressional investigation of the firing of several U.S. attorneys last year.

"On Thursday this week, among the subpoenas that will be voted on will be one for Karl Rove and one for Harriet Miers, another one for her deputy," the Vermont Democrat said. Mr. Leahy said he intended to subpoena Mr. Rove because of e-mails released last week that critics think show Mr. Rove was involved in discussions of whether to fire some U.S. attorneys.

The White House and Justice Department have denied basing the decisions on politics. .

...............

=============
Schumer Office: Subpoenas Ready for Rove, Miers
Paperwork authorized; Chuck ‘Can’t believe’ Gonzales will make it. First up: D. Kyle Sampson.
By Jason Horowitz - http://www.observer.com/20070402/20070402_Jason_Horowitz_pageone_newsstory1.asp

Senator Charles Schumer finds it “hard to believe” that embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can continue in office for much longer.

At the same time, Mr. Schumer believes that the practical consequences for the Republican Party resulting from Mr. Gonzales’ actions—the culling of eight U.S. Attorneys—will be lasting.

“Clearly, it will affect 2008, because the credibility of the President and the people close to him is lower now today than it was a month ago, and that’s going to hurt,” he said.

Certainly, Mr. Schumer—now finally in the majority, and with a gift of a scandal brought before his Senate committee—has no intention of doing anything to ease the pain. He intends to lead an investigation into whether the White House and the Justice Department plotted to fire eight U.S. attorneys for purely political reasons, and whether they lied to cover it up.

..................

============================

FULL OF LINKS:

PAPER CHASE NEWSBURST Digest
Serious law. Primary sources. Global perspective.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/03/house-judiciary-panel-votes-to-subpoena.php
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

House judiciary panel votes to subpoena Rove, Miers in US Attorney firing scandal
Joshua Pantesco at 11:12 AM ET

A House Judiciary Committee panel on Wednesday authorized the committee chairman to subpoena former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, former DOJ Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson , who resigned two weeks ago , and two DOJ aides to testify and provide documents to the committee regarding the recent US Attorney firing scandal . In a concurrent investigation, the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday subpoenaed five DOJ aides , including Sampson, to testify. The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law rejected President Bush's offer to allow the committees to question Miers, Rove, and Sampson during a private questioning session, not under oath. AP has more.

Both committees want Miers and Rove to testify on allegations that the firings of several US Attorneys by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were politically motivated . The accusations have led Congress to consider restricting the Attorney General's power to appoint interim US Attorneys. Despite Bush's assertions that Gonzales has "got support with me," reports have surfaced that the White House is considering potential replacements for Gonzales .

Last week, reports emerged that Rove originally suggested firing all 93 US Attorneys in January 2005, according to an e-mail conversation released by the DOJ. The e-mails appear to contradict the White House's prior assertion that the idea to comprehensively dismiss US Attorneys first came from Miers .

[L. Coyote]

210. Republican senator urges Alberto Gonzales to resign

Republican senator urges Alberto Gonzales to resign
April 19, 2007 15:56 EDT
http://www.kgan.com/template/inews_wire/wires.national/2b2706fc-www.kgan.com.shtml


CAPITOL HILL (AP) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has gotten what may be some unwelcome advice, from one G-O-P conservative to another.

Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma bluntly called for Gonzales to resign, saying it's "the best way to put this behind us."

.................

[L. Coyote]

212. What Next in the U.S. Attorneys Scandal? What to look for after Gonzales testifies.

April 16, 2007 7:25 AM
What Next in the U.S. Attorneys Scandal? What to look for after Gonzales testifies.
By Byron York
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Yzg1MmY1ZjQ2N2UzZmZjZDIwOWZmYWZjNzQ5Y2FiNTY=


The U.S. attorneys affair will reach a turning point Tuesday when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But in what direction will it turn? Democrats appear to believe — hope? — that the matter will become the kind of all-encompassing scandal that can engulf an administration in allegations of wrongdoing. But whether the U.S. attorneys mess is that kind of scandal depends on the facts of the case; whatever their hopes, Democrats might find that the evidence just doesn’t support their allegations.......

...............

... it seems likely that the pressure for Gonzales to resign will grow, not diminish, after his Senate testimony. Some Republicans might be tempted to think his departure might put an end to the controversy. But even if Gonzales decides to leave, there is still: ....

... broadening the investigation beyond the eight U.S. attorneys who were fired. If the ones who got the axe were the ones who resisted the administration’s corrupt demands, what about the ones who kept their jobs? Maybe they were ones who were corrupt. “What happened here has raised a question about those others who are serving as U.S. attorneys today who were not dismissed,” Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin said on “Meet the Press” in late March. “If they dropped eight people from the team because they didn’t play ball, how many others did play ball? We have to ask those questions now.”

That could lead to a lot of investigation; after all, there were 85 U.S. attorneys who weren’t fired, .........

[L. Coyote]

213. AP: DNC sues Justice Department over e-mails

DNC sues Justice Department over e-mails
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Last updated April 19, 2007 1:38 p.m. PT
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_White_House_E_mails.html



WASHINGTON -- The Democratic National Committee sued the Justice Department on Thursday, demanding it turn over any e-mail traffic with the Republican Party on the U.S. attorneys controversy and criminal investigations.

Problems involving missing e-mail surfaced in recent weeks at the Republican National Committee and the White House as congressional investigators looked into the department's firing of federal prosecutors.

The Democratic Party's suit in federal court followed the RNC's refusal for now to turn over e-mails to Congress. White House lawyers first will have an opportunity to review them to determine whether some should be kept secret. ....

....................

[L. Coyote]

214. dnc.org: DNC Lawsuit to Obtain RNC-Justice Department Communications

DNC Lawsuit to Obtain RNC-Justice Department Communications
Posted by Michael Link on April 19, 2007 at 03:02 PM
http://dnc.org/a/2007/04/dnc_lawsuit_to.php


One month ago, I hand-delivered a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request (http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/pdfs/DNC%20FOIA%20GOP%20contacts%20re%20USA%27s%20d2.pdf) to the Department of Justice on behalf of Governor Dean and the tens of thousands of you who added your names to it. The FOIA attempted to get beyond the stonewalling, contradictions and misleading statements given surrounding the firing of the U.S. Attorneys by requesting:

all documents in the possession, custody or control of the Office of Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General and Office of the Associate Attorney General, prepared on or after November 1, 2004, constituting, reflecting or referring to communications to or from or to any officer or employee of the Republican National Committee or any state or local Republican Party committee, referring, relating to or discussing (1) any prospective or ongoing investigation or prosecution; (2) initiating any investigation or prosecution; or (3) the appointment or termination of any United States Attorney; or (4) the performance, work or activity of any United States Attorney or Office of United States Attorney;

Since then, the Republican National Committee claims they have lost emails from Karl Rove's email RNC account during an 18-week gap. In addition, some of the White House staffers using RNC email addresses may have been used to communicate with the Justice Department about the firings.

Now it's 30 days since the FOIA request and we've filed a lawsuit in an effort to obtain the RNC-Justice Department communications. The stonewalling continues, but this time it's affecting a request by tens of thousands of you.

You can read our complaint against the Justice Department here (http://www.democrats.org/DNCvUSDOJ).
Also, you can read the original FOIA letter here (http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/pdfs/DNC%20FOIA%20GOP%20contacts%20re%20USA%27s%20d2.pdf), which was signed by Governor Dean.

[L. Coyote]

226. allspinzone.com: Today’s Lost News - DNC -v- DOJ Re: FOIA

Today’s Lost News - DNC -v- DOJ Re: FOIA
http://allspinzone.com/wp/2007/04/19/todays-lost-news /

With Abu Al and the hyper-extended coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy sucking all of the oxygen out of the mediasphere this week, you can be excused if you missed some important stories because they were buried. Here are two of them:

DNC -v- DOJ Re: FOIA

Today, the Democratic National Committee sued the Department of Justice for not complying with a FOIA request. What was the DNC asking for? Any emails that flowed between RNC-based internet domains (gwb43.com, etc.) and the Department of Justice, specifically on the topic of the U.S. attorney firings. This might not seem like a big deal, but it’s significant, in as much as the request is an end around the White House being the gatekeeper for similar emails that House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers has requested.

Conyers has not yet subpoenaed the emails, though that may yet come. More importantly, the DNC suit opens up a can of worms for DOJ on several fronts. Any claims of privilage by the White House pretty much go out the window for these particular emails, given the source and/or recipient. The DNC had requested FOIA disclosure of the documents back in March, and the DOJ had, by law, 20 days to acknowlege receipt of the request. They didn’t. And now, the DNC is suing to expedite release of the emails because of the failure to comply with FOIA regulations by the DOJ.

This story might seem inconsequential, but it’s not, because it’s a nice little play to ultimately force the White House’s hand and to force the RNC (and White House) out of the legal delaying tactics currently being employed by the RNC.

.........links like above........

[L. Coyote]

215. Bloomberg: Gonzales's Candor, Judgment Questioned by Senators (Update6)

Gonzales's Candor, Judgment Questioned by Senators (Update6)
By James Rowley and Robert Schmidt
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPYpbe05SXIc&refer=home

April 19 (Bloomberg) -- Senators of both parties challenged U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's candor about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and questioned his fitness to remain in office.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee subjected Gonzales to a rapid-fire barrage of questions that demanded detailed explanations of the firings and his role in them. The controversy has triggered calls from lawmakers in both parties for his removal. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the attorney general ``has the full confidence'' of President George W. Bush.

..............

Gonzales said he couldn't remember when he approved the firings and conceded that he relied almost solely on the advice of top Justice Department officials who reviewed the performance of U.S. attorneys. Nor could he recall a Nov. 27 meeting where other Justice Department officials say the plan was approved, the attorney general said.

``How can you be sure you made the decision?'' said Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the panel.

...................

[L. Coyote]

216. Excerpts from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday at which Attorney General Alberto Gon

Excerpts From Gonzales Hearing By The Associated Press
April 19, 2007, 5:32 PM EDT
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-gonzales-prosecutors-excerpts,0,3868343.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


Excerpts from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday at which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified:

"The truth is that these firings haven't been explained and there is mounting evidence of improper considerations and actions resulting in the dismissals. The dismissed U.S. attorneys have testified under oath they believe political influence resulted in their being replaced If they're right, the mixing of partisan political goals into federal law enforcement is highly improper." -- Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee chairman.

.............

"Once the administration started to make representations to Congress and the American people about how or why the firings came about, those representations had to be accurate and complete. Yet documents produced by your department are inconsistent with public statements and congressional testimony of other officials, and we just don't have a straight story on what transpired and whether the motivations for what happened were pure." -- Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

[L. Coyote]

217. NPR Politics: Gonzales Apologizes, But Senators Not Appeased

NPR Politics: Gonzales Apologizes, But Senators Not Appeased
(You can listen to this story) by Ari Shapiro
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9692292

All Things Considered, April 19, 2007 ·

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says he played a minor role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, but he also offered an apology to the prosecutors and their families.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales today said he "never sought to mislead or deceive the Congress or the American people" on that or any other matter.

.................

....He noted that he never looked at the prosecutors' performance evaluations before signing off on their dismissals.

......

During the entire hearing, Republicans who usually come to the attorney general's defense went on the attack. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas called the dismissals "deplorable."

[L. Coyote]

223. NPR Politics: Senators Renew Bipartisan Call for Gonzales to Go

Excellent web page with links to the audio of the hearings, NPR's Special Coverage, MP3 Download, links to in-depth articles, and more.

==============================
NPR Politics: Senators Renew Bipartisan Call for Gonzales to Go
by Pam Fessler
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9515295

* Hear Nina Totenberg's Report for 'Morning Edition'

NPR.org, April 19, 2007 · Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced renewed calls for his resignation Thursday during a contentious daylong hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. After lengthy questioning about what led to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year, both Democrats and Republicans said they had lost confidence in the attorney general and his handling of the department.

.............

[L. Coyote]

218. McClatchy: Hearing generates more pressure for Gonzales to resign

Posted on Thu, Apr. 19, 2007
Hearing generates more pressure for Gonzales to resign
By Ron Hutcheson, Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/17104713.htm


WASHINGTON - Republican support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales evaporated before his eyes Thursday as a Senate hearing into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys generated more pressure for his resignation.

Struggling to keep his job, Gonzales sat stoically as former allies on the Senate Judiciary Committee turned against him. Two of the panel's Republicans joined Democrats in urging the attorney general to step down. Others sharply criticized his management skills or questioned his credibility.

"I believe that you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered. I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told Gonzales.

......................

....former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins, who Gonzales said lost his job in Arkansas because "there was another well-qualified individual that the White House wanted to get in place there."

...........

"You have answered `I don't know' or `I can't recall' to close to 100 questions. You are unfamiliar with inner workings of your department," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., scolded. "I urge you to re-examine your performance, and for the good of the department and the good of the country, step down."

..................

[L. Coyote]

220. SALON Opinion by Joe Conason: A Gonzales resignation is not enough = WHEW!!

A Gonzales resignation is not enough
Congress should demand that a special prosecutor get to the bottom of why the U.S. attorneys were fired.
By Joe Conason
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/04/20/gonzales/index_np.html

After his disastrous appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning, Attorney General Alberto Gonazles -- the clueless, hapless, figurehead aptly nicknamed "Fredo" by President Bush -- may soon be gone. Or the President may stubbornly cling to Gonzales, despite his manifest incompetence and dishonesty, which are plainly no obstacle to service in the Bush administration.

Whether the Decider turns thumbs up or down on his pal, however, this must become an accountability moment not only for the Attorney General but for all of the ranking Justice Department officials who apparently lied to Congress about the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. For Senators of both parties, many of whom have already expressed their disgust with the misconduct of Gonzales and his aides, there could be no greater insult to the integrity of their institution.

=====================

DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x711250
Hissyspit Fri Apr-20-07 06:55 AM
Joe Conason: "A Gonzales Resignation Is Not Enough" (call for special prosecutor)

[L. Coyote]

228. Apr. 21, 2007: Focus of inquiry may shift to White House

Focus of inquiry may shift to White House
By MARGARET TALEV and RON HUTCHESON
McClatchy Newspapers - Posted on Sat, Apr. 21, 2007
http://www.star-telegram.com/238/story/76256.html


WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee's grilling of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday failed to resolve the central questions: Who in the Bush administration conceived the plan to fire eight U.S. attorneys and why?

Gonzales' testimony Thursday left senators convinced that he wasn't behind the plan or its execution and knew far less than a department head should have ....

.............

Some see signs pointing to the White House and the president's political adviser, Karl Rove.

"If I were Congress, I would say, 'If the attorney general doesn't have answers, then who would?' There's enough evidence to indicate that Karl Rove was involved up to his eyeballs," said David Iglesias, the former New Mexico U.S. attorney and one of the eight fired last year.

......

"The arrow points more and more to the White House," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The one thing I can assure you of: This is not over, far from it."

That's why some Republicans think Gonzales should stay on the job.

................

=====================

DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2816488
maddezmom Sat Apr-21-07 09:24 AM
Focus of inquiry may shift to White House

[L. Coyote]

219. washingtonpost.com > politics: Transcript Gonzales Testifies Before Senate Panel

Transcript
Gonzales Testifies Before Senate Panel
CQ Transcripts Wire
Thursday, April 19, 2007; 6:31 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902035.html?hpid=topnews


SEN. PATRICK J. LEAHY, D-VT. CHAIRMAN: Good morning.

...............

Today, the Department of Justice is experiencing a crisis of leadership perhaps unrivalled during its 137-year history. There's a growing scandal swirling around the dismissal and replacement of several prosecutors and persistent efforts to undermine and marginalize career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division and elsewhere in the department.

We hear disturbing reports that politics played a role in a growing number of cases. And I've warned for years against the lack of prosecutorial experience and judgment throughout the leadership ranks of the department.

.................

===================

DU Discussion at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x708764

WillyT Thu Apr-19-07 07:11 PM
Gonzales Hearing Transcript Is Up !!! (Three Parts, Five Long Pages Each) - WaPo

Enjoy!!!

[L. Coyote]

221. NY TIMES Editorial: Gonzales v. Gonzales = "a dull-witted apparatchik incapable..."

Editorial
Gonzales v. Gonzales
Published: April 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/opinion/20fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin


If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had gone to the Senate yesterday to convince the world that he ought to be fired, it’s hard to imagine how he could have done a better job, short of simply admitting the obvious: that the firing of eight United States attorneys was a partisan purge.

Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.

He had no trouble remembering complaints from his bosses and Republican lawmakers about federal prosecutors who were not playing ball with the Republican Party’s efforts to drum up election fraud charges against Democratic politicians and Democratic voters. But he had no idea whether any of the 93 United States attorneys working for him — let alone the ones he fired — were doing a good job prosecuting real crimes.

................more..........

================

DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x709622
Hissyspit Thu Apr-19-07 09:07 PM
NY Times Editorial: Gonzales v. Gonzales ("...dull-witted apparatchik")

[L. Coyote]

222. Think Progress: Purged U.S. Attorneys Slam Gonzales Testimony = "He’s obviously so disconnected..."

Purged U.S. Attorneys Slam Gonzales Testimony
Posted by Think Progress at 11:10 am
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/20/attorneys-react


Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified yesterday that the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys was “justified and should stand.” Now those attorneys are reacting.

......

Asked to elaborate, McKay declined, saying, “The senators savaged him enough. I certainly don’t want to talk about his absurd allegations. He’s obviously so disconnected he has no idea what my performance was like and what my judgment was like, and I’ll just leave it at that.”

Former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias:

Iglesias watched the hearings from a naval base at Newport, R.I. He’s finishing a naval reserve deployment and called the hearings “painful to watch.”

“I can only liken Mr. Gonzales’ testimony to a bloodied swimmer in a shark tank. He’s really getting beat up,” Iglesias said. ....

..................

==================

DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3226222

babylonsister Fri Apr-20-07 11:22 AM
Purged U.S. Attorneys Slam Gonzales Testimony

[L. Coyote]

224. CBS Andrew Cohen: The Gonzales Testimony: "A Performance Among The Worst I've Seen By A Public Offic

The Gonzales Testimony: "A Performance Among The Worst I've Seen By A Public Official"
Posted by Andrew Cohen
(CBS) Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News and CBSNews.com.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/04/20/couricandco/entry2709554.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=Couric&Co._2709554


It is hard to know which is more disappointing. Alberto R. Gonzales’ miserable performance yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee or President Bush’s announcement yesterday afternoon that he was “pleased” with the testimony of his Attorney General.

................

Certainly, the President could not have been “pleased” when Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma called upon Gonzales to resign as Attorney General. Mr. Bush could not have been pleased when Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina called the Attorney General’s explanations for firing eight U.S. Attorneys last year “a stretch.” The President surely was not pleased when Republican Senator Arlen Specter, the ranking member of the Committee, told Gonzales that “the reality is that your characterization of your participation is just significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts." And those were just the Republicans.

..............

Me? I’m more in the camp of the unnamed “White House officials” who reportedly said that the Attorney General was “going down in flames.” I thought that Gonzales’ performance was among the worst I have ever seen offered by a public official on Capitol Hill. The Attorney General, our nation’s top law enforcement official, was evasive, incomplete and at times even incoherent with his explanations about what he knew, and when he knew it, when it came to the decisions that were made about the prosecutors by the Justice Department and White House. He kept saying “I don’t know” or “I don’t recall” and he was particularly infuriating to the senators when he used as a crutch the notion that current investigations into the scandal have precluded him doing more to offer them relevant answers to their earnest questions.

................

Whether he is a liar, as some say, or a fool, as others contend, the consequence ought to be the same. ....

..............

===================
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3226264
babylonsister Fri Apr-20-07 10:02 AM
The Gonzales Testimony: "A Performance Among The Worst I've Seen By A Public Official"

[L. Coyote]

227. US NEWS & WR: by John W. Mashek, Rove's Fingerprints and the Gonzales Fiasco

Rove's Fingerprints and the Gonzales Fiasco
by John W. Mashek. Mashek covered politics in Washington for four decades with U.S. News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe. His primary beats were Congress, the White House, and national politics. He covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996. He was a panelist in three televised presidential debates in 1984, 1988, and 1992.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/mashekblog/archive/070420/roves_fingerprints_and_the_gon.htm


In the pitiful performance by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in an attempt to save his job, the undercurrent of Karl Rove's role is obvious.

Rove has been behind about every act of political chicanery in President Bush's tenure and while Bush was governor of Texas.

How else can you explain Rove's missing E-mails that you can bet were incriminating to his part in the firings of eight federal prosecutors? Rove's fingerprints are all over this sorry episode.......

............

Politics ain't beanbag, as one wag put it long ago. Some Democratic consultants can play hardball too. But Rove likes to go beyond the rough stuff.

..............

If any Republican wants a consultant and strategist without a conscience, I've got your man.

===================

DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x719640
Hissyspit Fri Apr-20-07 11:55 PM
U.S. News & World Report Opinion: "Rove's Fingerprints and the Gonzales Fiasco"

[L. Coyote]

230. Lee Iacocca blasts Bush & Cheney as "clueless bozos" = "Throw the bums out!."

Poiuyt Sat Apr-21-07 12:01 PM
Lee Iacocca blasts Bush & Cheney as "clueless bozos"
DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x721988

An excerpt from Iacocca's new book - read the entire excerpt:

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

.......

=============

Thank YOU Poinyt!!

[L. Coyote]

231. ABRAMOFF: U.S. attorney targeted, demoted, protested office shutdown, loss of resources

Demoted U.S. attorney protested office shutdown, loss of resources
By Kevin Bogardus - March 21, 2007
http://thehill.com/business--lobby/demoted-u.s.-attorney-protested-office-shutdown-loss-of-resources-2007-03-21.html


A U.S. attorney targeted by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff complained to his superiors in Washington about losing investigative resources little more than a month before his demotion.

Years before Abramoff was sent to jail, the Department of the Interior ignored an October 2002 letter from Frederick Black, then the acting U.S. attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and had shut down the territories’ Inspector General’s office by the summer of 2003.

Obtained by The Hill through a Freedom of Information Act request, Black’s letter laid out ongoing investigations, including a probe into an Abramoff friend, Carl Gutierrez, then Guam’s governor.

Gutierrez and Abramoff had discussed removing Black from his position, “need to get this guy sniped out of there,” according to one of the lobbyist’s e-mails. Black had already indicted several members of Gutierrez’s administration and was starting to look at Abramoff.

Black’s case may get another look from Congress. Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) wrote to both the Senate and House judiciary committees last week, asking them to add Black’s demotion to their broader investigation of the U.S. attorney scandal.

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DU discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3228513
babylonsister Sat Apr-21-07 07:25 PM

[L. Coyote]

232. Sam Husseini: Gonzalez and Leahy: Scandal as Cover-up?

Gonzalez and Leahy: Scandal as Cover-up?
by Sam Husseini
www.dissidentvoice.org
April 21, 2007
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Apr07/Husseini21.htm


Is the questioning of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales evidence that the Democratic Party leadership is finally scrutinizing the Bush administration? Or does it provide a useful illusion to distract from the Democrats' continued failure to raise questions about long-standing, deeper issues?

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont Thursday morning delivered a tongue-lashing to Gonzales: "Today the Department of Justice is experiencing a crisis of leadership perhaps unrivaled during its 137-year history," said the Vermont Democrat. "There's a growing scandal swirling around the dismissal" of prosecutors, he added.

But when I asked Leahy about investigating the impeachment of Bush and Cheney late last month, he replied only by talking about the attorney general scandal, without addressing the question of impeaching Bush and Cheney........

...........

But there is a lack of answering questions. Gonzales is being taken to task for not answering questions; but he's not the only one.

[L. Coyote]

233. GREG GORDON: Bush administration has systematically worked nationwide to restrict voter turnout

Access Denied
The Bush administration has systematically worked nationwide and notably in Missouri to restrict voter turnout in ways that favor Republican candidates in close races.

By GREG GORDON of McClatchy Newspapers
Published Sunday, April 22, 2007
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Apr/20070422Feat007.asp


For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Department of Justice political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

The administration intensified its efforts last year as President George W. Bush’s popularity and Republican support eroded heading into a midterm battle for control of Congress, which the Democrats won.

Facing nationwide voter registration drives by Democratic-leaning groups, the administration alleged widespread election fraud and endorsed proposals for tougher state and federal voter identification laws. Presidential political adviser Karl Rove alluded to the strategy last April when he railed about voter fraud in a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association.

Questions about the administration’s campaign against alleged voter fraud have helped fuel the political tempest over the firings last year of eight U.S. attorneys, .............

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DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x726938

ProSense Sun Apr-22-07 08:31 AM
Access Denied (Bush admin "systematically worked nationwide...to restrict voter turnout...")

[L. Coyote]

234. LA TIMES: Office of Special Counsel will investigate U.S.Atty firings ... ROVE political activities

Low-key office launches high-profile inquiry
The Office of Special Counsel will investigate U.S. attorney firings and other political activities led by Karl Rove.
By Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writer
April 24, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-probe24apr24,0,3535547.story?coll=la-home-headlines


WASHINGTON — .... the Office of Special Counsel is preparing to jump into one of the most sensitive and potentially explosive issues in Washington, launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House.

First, the inquiry comes from inside the administration, not from Democrats in Congress. Second, unlike the splintered inquiries being pressed on Capitol Hill, it is expected to be a unified investigation covering many facets of the political operation in which Rove played a leading part.

"We will take the evidence where it leads us," Scott J. Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel and a presidential appointee, said in an interview Monday. "We will not leave any stone unturned."

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DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x739330
DeepModem Mom Mon Apr-23-07 11:48 PM
LAT: THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL WILL INVESTIGATE KARL ROVE

[L. Coyote]

235. Senate Democrats Look to Hold ‘No Confidence’ Vote on Gonzales

Breaking News
Senate Democrats Look to Hold ‘No Confidence’ Vote on Gonzales
Tuesday, April 24; 12:55 pm
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/18147-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales vowing to remain in his job and President Bush standing by him, Senate Democratic leaders are seriously considering bringing a resolution to the floor expressing no confidence in Gonzales, according to a senior leadership source.

.... The vote would be nonbinding and have no substantive impact, but it would force all Republican Senators into the politically uncomfortable position of saying publicly whether they continue to support Gonzales ........

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DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x744176
seafan Tue Apr-24-07 02:04 PM
Report: Gonzales may face Senate 'vote of no confidence'
Michael Roston = http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Gonzales_to_face_Senates_vote_of_0424.html

[L. Coyote]

236. thinkprogress.org: Iglesias Filed Complaint Against Rove, Leading To Special Counsel Probe

Iglesias Reveals He Filed Complaint Against Rove, Leading To Special Counsel Probe
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/24/iglesias-matthews/


Tonight on MSNBC, fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias revealed new key details about the Official of Special Counsel’s (OSC) probe into Karl Rove and other White House officials reported today by the Los Angeles Times.

Iglesias said that on April 3, he filed a Hatch Act complaint with the OSC, charging that Karl Rove and others may have broke the law by firing him over his failure to initiate partisan-motivated prosecutions. Iglesias said he subsequently spoke with OSC chief Scott Bloch, who made clear that he was planning to launch an investigation. Despite suggestions that the White House may have initiated the OSC investigation to obstruct parallel congressional probes, Iglesias expressed confidence in Bloch.

Iglesias also said that while evidence of Rove’s potential illegal actions is currently only circumstantial, “I believe if OSC digs in, they can get direct evidence.”

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DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x746516
kpete Tue Apr-24-07 06:03 PM
Iglesias Reveals He Filed Complaint Against Rove, Leading To Special Counsel Probe

[conscious evolution]

237. Remember IdesOfOctober and Corp

posting last fall about the mis-addressed e-mails during his time at Hal/Kbr?
I wonder if any of those e-mails had addresses on your list of suspect sites.

[L. Coyote]

238. TPM: DOJ caugtht concealing facts from Judiciary Committee. = Rep. Renzi (R AZ)

April 24, 2007 -- 10:12 PM EDT
So it looks like Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) is tied up in the US Attorney Purge scandal after all. And the AP has the story.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013821.php


....

Unlike what happened with David Iglesias, Charlton's chief investigator did report the contact to the Department of Justice, as DOJ regs dictate.

Now, here's the key: after all Congress's document and information requests to DOJ, the Justice Department had not revealed the Renzi-Charlton contact. For some reason, they've held that back.

The AP sources that to a House Judiciary Committee official and I've also confirmed with House Judiciary investigators that the DOJ failed to give this information to congressional investigators. ...

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DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x748485
kpete Tue Apr-24-07 09:16 PM
DOJ CONCEALED CRITICAL INFO-Rep. Renzi Tied To US Attorney Purge Scandal

[L. Coyote]

240. John Nichols BLOG: Kucinich: Impeachment is the Right Response

BLOG | Posted 04/25/2007 @ 12:05am
Kucinich: Impeachment is the Right Response
John Nichols
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=189758

............

Kucinich explained his initiative at a Capitol Hill press conference that he began by delivering the following statement:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.

These words from the Declaration of Independence are instructive at this moment. Because not only whenever any form of government, but whenever any government official becomes destructive of the founding purposes, that official or those officials must be held accountable.

Because I believe the vice president's conduct of office has been destructive to the founding purposes of our nation. Today, I have introduced House Resolution 333, Articles of Impeachment Relating to Vice President Richard B. Cheney. I do so in defense of the rights of the American people to have a government that is honest and peaceful.

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[L. Coyote]

242. NY TIMES Editorial: Another Dubious Firing = AZ, Paul Charlton

Editorial: Another Dubious Firing
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/opinion/26thu1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Congressman Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican, was locked in a close re-election battle last fall when the local United States attorney, Paul Charlton, was investigating him for corruption. The investigation appears to have been slowed before Election Day, Mr. Renzi retained his seat, and Mr. Charlton ended up out of a job — one of eight prosecutors purged by the White House and the Justice Department.

The Arizona case adds a disturbing new chapter to that scandal. Congress needs to determine whether Mr. Charlton was fired for any reason other than threatening the Republican Party’s hold on a Congressional seat.

Mr. Renzi was fighting for his political life when the local press reported that he was facing indictment for a suspect land deal. According to The Wall Street Journal, federal investigators met unexpected resistance from the Justice Department in getting approval to proceed and, perhaps as a result, the investigation was pushed past the election.

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DU Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x277513
maddezmom Thu Apr-26-07 06:13 AM
NYT: Another Dubious Firing (Paul Charlton)