“A Go for the US Attorney Plan”
Tell me again that there was no orchestrated plan to push out US Attorneys? C’mon, Bush.
Technorati Tags: prosecutorgate, us attorneys, DOJ
Sphere: Related ContentUS Attorneys: Bush Holds the Smoking Gun
From yesterday’s batch of DOJ-released documents, part 7-8, page 17, comes the smoking gun which proves that the US Attorney firing of Bud Cummins in Arkansas and replacement was politically mandated. Cronyism only? You make the call.
The documents leading up to this are a series of emails between Monica Goodling and Tim Griffin, discussing the procedures for his appointment to Cummins’ post ahead of any notice given to Cummins that he was being forced out.
From: Goodling, Monica
Sent: Friday, August 18,2006 12:09 PM
To: Sampson. Kyle
Subject: Re: Conf Call, re: Tim Griffin
Fyi – to catch you up on the latest here (unless something else has happened this week), scott and I spoke last thurs or fri and this is what’s going on… We have a senator prob, so while wh is intent on nominating, scott thinks we may have a confirmation issue. Also, WH has a personnel issue as tim returns to the states this week and is still on WH payroll. The possible solution I suggested to scott was that we (DOJ) pick him up as a political, examine the BI completed in May pursuant to his WH post, and then install him as an interim. That resolves both the WH personnel issue and gets him into the office he and the W want him in. I asked Elston to feel out the DAG on bringing Tim into one of the vacant ADAG spots there, just for a short time until we install him in Arkansas. The DAG wanted to look at his resume, and I sent it him before I left. Was going to run this plan by you once I knew the DAG was onboard. If not, I suppose we can look at CRIM, but knowing Tim, my guess is he’d prefer something else given that he was in CRIM in 2001. (Tim knows nothing about my idea for a solution at this point – wanted your signoff, and a home for him, before I called him.)
(note: I added bold emphasis)
First reply (Please note the email addresses)
From: Sampson, Kyle
To: ‘SJennings@gwb43.com’ rSJennings@gwb43.com,; Goodling, Monica
Sent: Fri Aug 18 11:52:05 2006
Subject: RE: Conf Call, re: Tim Griffin
Tell us when, Scott, and we’ll be on it.
NOTE: In case you’re curious about who Scott Jennings is, here’s his title: Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Political Director
Technorati Tags: US Attorneys, prosecutorgate, smoking gun
Sphere: Related ContentOf course Gonzales was involved
From Document 1-8, page 11, letter to Sen. Harry Reid from Richard A. Hertling (Acting Assistant Attorney General):
The decision to appoint Tim Griffin to be interim U.S. Attorney in the Eastern
District of Arkansas was made on or about December 15,2006, after the second
of the Attorney General’s telephone conversations with Senator Pryor.
Technorati Tags: law, legal, DOJ, Prosecutorgate
Sphere: Related ContentDOJ Releases More Documents
Over 2000 new pages have been released. I’m reading them now.
Reading hint: Start at the back, read to front. There is so much duplication and so many multiple documents that you see the layering much better by reading in reverse order.
Technorati Tags: DOJ, Prosecutorgate, US Attorneys, documents, law, legal
Sphere: Related ContentBud Cummins Interview on PBS
Former US Attorney Bud Cummins is a loyal Republican. He is also one of the fired US Attorneys at the heart of the current attorney firing scandal. He was interviewed by PBS and he makes some eyebrow-raising statements:
But they never admitted whatever the other reasons were in the other seven cases, and tried to just lump them all together as performance-related decisions. And as recently as yesterday, I saw where Karl Rover gave a speech and tried to—ratify that suggestion once more. And—and that’s just simply not true. And he knows it.
And—and somebody has decided that if they try to continually talk about Bill Clinton firing 93 U.S. Attorneys, that will somehow you know, muddy this water up to where people can’t see anything. The truth is, what they have done here is unprecedented.
I accepted the decision. And I moved on without any complaint, as did all my seven colleagues. And no one spoke out. And you would not have me on the phone here today if they had not gone to Congress later and tried to avoid discussing very embarrassing—apparently very embarrassing things that went into these decisions, by trying to justify them by saying they were performance issues.
There was a time when I would say that that was a little bit too conspiratorial or a little too paranoid, and—and that it probably doesn’t reach so far to retaliate against somebody that conducted a corruption investigation, or to stop someone from conducting another one, or to punish somebody for not investigating a voter fraud case or a Democrat public corruption case. But at this point, the—the credibility of some of these people involved in this is so low that I wouldn’t—you know, I really wouldn’t wanna put my credibility on the line and tell you that it—that didn’t happen.
There are many more tidbits in the transcript that caused my jaw to drop. You cannot come away from reading this without understanding the depth and breadth of the wrongdoing in this whole scandal.
Here’s one more to get you clicking to the whole thing:
There’s an issue of right and wrong here that’s not political. It’s just about people. And—and they really oughta get right on this one issue. It won’t solve all their problems. But—it’ll solve their problem with me, ’cause they won’t ever hear from me again.
Bonus Link: Sen. Feinstein Drops Purge Bombshell — it seems that Sen. Feinstein can prove that Carol Lam’s firing had nothing to do with performance and everything to do with an investigation into Republican corruption.
Technorati Tags: Bud Cummins, PBS, US Attorney, scandal
Sphere: Related ContentWhy isn’t anyone concerned about these break-ins?
Via the Huffington Post, this report of a key computer stolen from MN Democrats’ HQ. I blogged earlier about a break-in at the New Hampshire Democratic headquarters.
There has been almost no national press on this. Why not?
Technorati Tags: democratic headquarters, break-in, crime, politics
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