Repubs use Patriot Act to axe prosecutors investigating them

Politics International Politics
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This source gives a detailed account of one of at least four and possibly as many as seven cases where attorney generals investigating Republican corruption are being canned mid-term and being replaced without any impartial oversite whatsoever. I can’t quote the article because of technical issues, but the level of political bias evidenced in the replacement they’ve found for Arkansas attorney general Bud Cummins is just repulsive.

How can they do this? According to this TPMMuckraker article:

Rule of law is swiftly coming to a close in this country.

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And here’s the latest on this whole conspiracy…

Western Washington attorney John McKay, described below as a “superb” prosecutor, gets canned for no reason explicit reason under the Patriot Act:

Former US Attorney says he was forced to resign

[quote]“This is unanimous among the judges: John McKay was a superb U.S. attorney,” Lasnik said…By every measure, the performance of his office improved during his tenure," Lasnik added. “If you talk to local prosecutors, or local sheriffs, or the FBI or the ATF, they never had the kind of service from the U.S. attorney’s office in terms of service, cooperation and aggressive handling of cases that they had under John McKay’s leadership. We’re busier than ever before because they’re bringing more cases.”

McKay’s office filed charges against twice as many defendants last year as it did in 2001, the year he was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate.[/quote]

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And yet Starr pursed Clinton for months over a blow job in the White House. Something is very, very rotten in the States of United methinks. Isn’t anyone kicking up a stink about this over there?

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Most despicable of all, I just found out that one of the prosecutors axed by Bush was Carol Lam, the prosecutor who nailed the former representative from my own beloved San Diego, Randy Duke Cunningham, in the biggest corruption scandal in congressional history!

The conspicuous silence on this thread from our local GOP mouthpieces says volumes…

And for good measure, even more on this story…

Justice Dept. Firings Included 3 U.S. Attorneys Investigating GOP Politicians

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Not to mention the silence from the lefties. Must be one hell of a thread subject.

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They’re all just shaking their heads in silent indignation.

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Waiting for more “talking points” so they’ll know which way the wind is blowing more likely.

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[quote][url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/washington/16attorneys.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1172165689-DIdK+b0TZYDGjYBcE6m7Sw]WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — A United States attorney in Arkansas who was dismissed from his job last year by the Justice Department was ousted after Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, intervened on behalf of the man who replaced him, according to Congressional aides briefed on the matter.

Ms. Miers, the aides said, phoned an aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggesting the appointment of J. Timothy Griffin, a former military and civilian prosecutor who was a political director for the Republican National Committee and a deputy to Karl Rove, the White House political adviser.

Later, the incumbent United States attorney, H. E. Cummins III, was removed without explanation and replaced on an interim basis by Mr. Griffin. Officials at the White House and Justice Department declined to comment on Ms. Miers’s role in the matter.

Paul J. McNulty, the deputy attorney general, said at a hearing last week that Mr. Cummins had done nothing wrong but was removed to make room for Mr. Griffin. It was not known at the time Mr. McNulty testified that Ms. Miers had intervened on Mr. Griffin’s behalf.[/url]
Her involvement was disclosed on Wednesday by Justice Department officials led by Mr. McNulty, who held a closed-door briefing for senators on the Judiciary Committee after Democrats criticized the dismissals of 7 to 10 United States attorneys as politically motivated.

Ms. Miers, whose resignation as White House counsel was effective Jan. 31, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

At the briefing, Justice Department officials denied that the White House had been involved in any of the other dismissals, suggesting that the department had acted on its own after advising the White House of its intention to remove incumbents.

Democrats have said the removals represented an effort to make room for rising political favorites of the Bush administration and to be rid of independent-minded prosecutors, all of whom had been appointed by President Bush.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said that he was not satisfied by the Justice Department’s explanations at the briefing.

“Yesterday’s briefing by the deputy attorney general did little to alleviate our concerns that politics was involved and, in fact, raised those concerns,” Mr. Schumer said. “Some may have been fired for political reasons because they may have not done what Justice Department wanted them to do.”

Justice Department officials have said that because United States attorneys are presidential appointees they may be replaced at any time without a specific reason, although they have said that none were removed for pursuing politically sensitive cases.[/quote]

Interestingly, the majority of these US Attorneys are moderate Republicans and/or independents. I guess they’re not right wing/facist enough for Al-BER-to and George Jr. The politicization of the executive branch of gov’t IS disgusting and this administration has taken it to new heights.

Bodo

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U.S. Attorney Firings Set Stage for Congressional Battle

Behind the Firings of Six U.S. Attorneys
Appointees Had Conflicted With Justice Department, Investigated Corruption

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It’s a sure sign that somebody’s up to no good when they try to get rid of any oversight. The quick lesson for prosecutors is that that looking into any GOP corruption makes you “fair game” in the same way that we saw with the Wilson/Plame situation. In the Republican line of thinking, there is nothing sacred anymore – they will do anything to remain in power.

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[quote][url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/washington/25lawyers.html?_r=5&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=login]WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 — Internal Justice Department performance reports for six of the eight United States attorneys who have been dismissed in recent months rated them “well regarded,” “capable” or “very competent,” a review of the evaluations shows.

The performance reviews, known as Evaluations and Review Staff Reports, show that the ousted prosecutors were routinely praised for playing a leadership role with other law enforcement agencies in their jurisdictions.

The reviews, each of them 6 to 12 pages long, were carried out by Justice Department officials from 2003 to 2006. Each report was based on extensive interviews, conducted over several days with judges, other federal law enforcement agencies and staff members in each office.

It had been known that the reports were mostly favorable, but the reports themselves had not been made public.

Over all, the evaluations, which were obtained from officials authorized to have them, appear to raise new questions about the rationale for the dismissals provided by senior Justice Department officials. The officials have repeatedly cited poor job performance to explain their decisions to oust the eight prosecutors, all of them Republicans appointed by President Bush in his first term.

On Saturday, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who has led a Congressional investigation into the dismissals and has been briefed on the evaluations, said the reports showed that new legislation was needed to keep the Justice Department from politically motivated firings.

“As we feared, the comprehensive evaluations show these U.S. attorneys did not deserve to be fired,” Mr. Schumer said. “To the contrary, they reveal they were effective, respected and set appropriate priorities[/url].”[/quote]

More evidence of the politicization of the Justice Dept.

Bodo

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The Republican “Nacht der langen Messer” has no real end in sight, as they move quickly to purge “disloyal” party members from positions of power, focusing tightly on the prosecutors who dared to ask any questions in even the most blatant of corruption cases or who were not “ideologically pure” in their pursuit of GOPKultur.

The latest? Margaret Chiara, who has been tossed out in Michigan – she had been rated the top prosecutor in Western Michigan previously. Her sin? She may have clashed with the administration on the issue of the death penalty.

We know that the usual GOPbots won’t show up in this discussion thread with any serious thoughts because they have no response to these embarrassing facts.

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So on the one hand, Bush is an idiot who has no plans for how to win in Iraq and no idea how to run the country except through crony contracts and on the other, the man and his minions are evil geniuses capable of no end of underhanded crafty shenanigans for say outing “covert” operatives etc. I wonder then how MFGR “feels” about the actions of the Italian judge who named 26 covert CIA operatives in a law suit that has actually put hundreds of lives at “real” risk not Plame style play risk. MFGR? er? back to you? and your “outrage” about the “principles” of these matters? So, you have 26 really serious “outages” and one “er kinda sorta we don’t know whether she was covert or not one” and the anger? outrage? etc. is directed where? and why? exactly? Better get one of your Democrat Website dipshitbots to help you out with how to respond to that one. hahaha

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So on the one hand, Bush is an idiot who has no plans for how to win in Iraq and no idea how to run the country except through crony contracts[/quote]

Well done!

First off, the shenanigans are not so “crafty”, a factor that undercuts the “genius” part of any of this. Several years ago, Alec Baldwin did a soap-opera sketch on SNL in which he played the retarded-but-evil twin of a respected millionaire. The quality of the Bush presidency’s plotting reminds me much of that SNL sketch.

I “feel” that the Bush administration has risked those officers by exposing their identities to foreign authorities through this thoroughly illegal redition-and-torture game. Unfortunately for the GOP, they cannot simply “fire” the Italian judges the way that they do U.S. federal prosecutors who get their way. I suppose that must make you gnash your teeth in great misery.

You’re done? You haven’t said anything much yet.

So, you don’t have anything to say about the purging of Republican prosecutors for doing their job? You only have unrelated stuff about how some Italians might have figured out the identity of CIA officers through the Bush administration’s carelessness.

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So on the one hand, Bush is an idiot who has no plans for how to win in Iraq and no idea how to run the country except through crony contracts and on the other, the man and his minions are evil geniuses capable of no end of underhanded crafty shenanigans for say outing “covert” operatives etc. I wonder then how MFGR “feels” about the actions of the Italian judge who named 26 covert CIA operatives in a law suit that has actually put hundreds of lives at “real” risk not Plame style play risk. MFGR? er? back to you? and your “outrage” about the “principles” of these matters? So, you have 26 really serious “outages” and one “er kinda sorta we don’t know whether she was covert or not one” and the anger? outrage? etc. is directed where? and why? exactly? Better get one of your Democrat Website dipshitbots to help you out with how to respond to that one. hahaha[/quote]

First of all, Fred, this is a HUGE tangent (RED HERRING), and doesn’t address the topic in this thread. Why don’t you start a whine and whinge thread on this rather than trying to hijack the thread?

The CIA was breaking European/Italian law, they got caught, those are the “real” risks of doing that job. I have no sympathy. Extraordinary/extrajudicial kidnappings are wrong.

Back to the topic, it does seem that the Bush Administration is creepily bent on absolute control. They want to expand the powers of the executive, and don’t care if they trample upon the constitution to do so. It is frightening. I haven’t read anything really about the Nazi rise to power or the Communists. It seems that MFGR was making a comparison. That is interesting. Is there one?

Bodo

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Fred, you don’t have anything to say on-topic, so just give it a rest. I predicted the Bushbots wouldn’t have anything to add, and that’s basically how it has turned out to be. I would think that Republicans would have plenty to say about the firing of several capable Republican-appointed prosecutors for doing too good a job of cleaning up the ranks. Frankly, I think it would bode well for the GOP to take a step back to get a bit of perspective on their party and use the opportunity to clean house a bit. The Duke Cunninghams, Safavians, Abramoffs, Scanlons, Neys, Delays, etc. have to go – corruption is simply not a good thing.

For the same reason, I’m puzzled how Republicans are so swift to jump to defend Hastert and Foley as if Foley’s exposure was a partisan matter. Apparently in the view of these guys (and despite the many years of Republican leadership knowing of Foley’s creepy efforts to bait and bed children) fixing the Foley situation was only to be done when an election was not coming up … which in the House of Representatives pretty much means never because an election is always around the corner.

So if you can’t bring yourself to condemn the partisan Rovian firing of several highly capable Republican prosecutors who were doing a great job (and who could have formed the backbone of the future GOP), then go find a thread where you can talk about Italian judges, CIA officers and other tangents to your heart’s content.

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The prosecutors start to strike back:

[quote]A political tempest over the mass firing of federal prosecutors escalated yesterday with allegations from the departing U.S. attorney in New Mexico, who said that two members of Congress attempted to pressure him to speed up a probe of Democrats just before the November elections.

Iglesias also responded to allegations from Justice officials that he had performed poorly and was too often absent, citing positive job reviews and data showing increasing numbers of prosecutions. He also noted that he is required to serve 40 days a year in the Navy Reserve.

Iglesias declined to name the lawmakers who called him, but he said in an interview: “I didn’t give them what they wanted. That was probably a political problem that caused them to go to the White House or whomever and complain that I wasn’t a team player.”

Iglesias, 49 and the son of a Baptist minister, is a Navy Reserve commander whose role as a defense lawyer in a famous military hazing case was the basis for the Tom Cruise character in the movie “A Few Good Men.” He held a news conference in Albuquerque yesterday, in which he said that he was fired for political reasons.[/quote]

The Bush administration has been smearing most of these prosecutors so far:

Now, we get to the heart of it – pure Rovian politics at play:

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More on the ongoing story…

[quote]Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has indicated he is too busy to answer letters from Democratic congressional leaders about his firing seven U.S. attorneys involved in probes of public corruption, though a lower-level Justice Department official rejected their proposals.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, House Democratic Caucus chairman, had written Gonzales two letters suggesting that he name Carol Lam, fired as U.S. attorney in San Diego, as an outside counsel to continue her pursuit of the Duke Cunningham case. Asked by Melissa Charbonneau of the Christian Broadcasting Network about this column’s report that Gonzales did not respond, Gonzales said: “I think that the American people lose if I spend all my time worrying about congressional requests for information, if I spend all my time responding to subpoenas.”[/quote]

Hilarious. This is what Clinton should’ve said.

Also, below is from Republican Lamar Smith, top GOP-er on the judiciary committee in response to subpoenas in the ongoing investigation:

Yeah, that’s a great excuse. I can see where having Republicans getting nailed all over for corruption would be to the President’s “displeasure”. You’d think, however, that he’d blame the corrupt Republicans, not the prosecutors busting them!

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Gee, I guess it could be worse. Maybe just losing your job isn’t so bad after all. :slight_smile:

[quote]Now these could be coincidences’, but…………over 40 Clinton associates (friends) have assumed room temperature.

1 - James McDougal - Clinton’s convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr’s investigation.

2 - Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown. The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House.

3 - Vince Foster - Former white House councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock’s Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide.

4 - Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman…Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown’s skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors.

5 - C. Victor Raiser II and Montgomery Raiser, Major players in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.

6 – Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock, September 1992…Described by Clinton as a “Dear friend and trusted advisor.”

7- Ed Willey - Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head…Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.

8 - Jerry Parks - Head of Clinton’s gubernatorial security team in Little Rock…Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park’s son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.

9 - James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a “Black Book” of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.

10 - James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.

11- Kathy Ferguson, ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.

12 - Bill Shelton - Arkansas State Trooper and fiancée of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancée, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancée.

13 - Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton’s friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.

14 - Florence Martin - Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal Mean Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.

15 - Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide…Was pregnant at the time of her death.

16 - Paula Grober - Clinton’s speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.

17 - Danny Casolaro – Was an Investigative reporter…Investigating Mean Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.

18 - Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mean Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 “October Surprise” was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno three weeks before his death.

19 - Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August 15, 1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guarantee scandal.

20 - Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer…Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown…Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.

21- Charles Meissner - Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.

22 - Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee, died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. In addition to serving on Clinton’s advisory council, Dr. Heard personally treated Clinton’s mother, stepfather and brother.

23 - Barry Seal - Drug running pilot out of Mean Arkansas, death was no accident.

24 - Johnny Lawhorn Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.

25 - Stanley Huggins - Investigated Madison Guarantee. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.

26- Hershell Friday - Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1, 1994 when his plane exploded.

27 - Kevin Ives and Don Henry - Known as “The boys on the track” case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mean Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the two boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.

THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:

28 - Keith Coney - Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, July 1988.

29 - Keith McMaskle - Died stabbed 113 times, Nov, 1988.

30 - Gregory Collins - Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.

31 - Jeff Rhodes - He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.

33 - James Milan - Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to “natural causes.”

34 - Jordan Kettleson - Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.

35 - Richard Winters - A suspect in the Ives / Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.

THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD:

36 - Major William S. Barkley Jr.
37 - Captain Scott J. Reynolds
38 - Sgt. Brian Hanley
39 - Sgt. Tim Sabel
40 - Major General William Robertson
41 - Col. William Densberger
42 - Col. Robert Kelly
43 - Spec. Gary Rhodes
44 - Steve Willis
45 - Robert Williams
46 - Conway LeBleu
47 - Todd McKeehan
[/quote]

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JMcN -
Its commonly referred to as…[i]“Arkancide”[/i].
A strange and fatal condition affecting those who run afoul of the Clinton* cabal.

Can you say Mena Mena Mena…sure, I knew ya could!