US Attorney Daily Update: April 12, 2007

NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL ATTORNEYS

(As far as I can see, NO NEWS...)

1. Fired San Diego USA Carol Lam: From April 11, Josh Marshall gives a rundown on why Carol Lam's firing is highly, highly suspicious. Look, eventually Congress will have to stop asking why she was fired, because the Administration will either lie or simply not answer the question. It's time to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate obstruction of justice charges here.
2. Fired New Mexico USA David Iglesias: From April 4, do not forget that Republicans Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson are still in deep trouble for their role in Iglesias' firing. As Muckraker reminds us, Sampson's testimony merely served to confirm our worst suspicions about his firing- that they got Iglesias fired because he refused to indict Dems on the eve of an election. Domenici and Wilson will eventually have to fess up about what they did and who they talked to at the White House and the DoJ. And now the Office of Special Counsel is investigating the firing of Iglesias (h/t TPMMuckraker). Go read it.
3. Former Los Angeles USA Debra Wong Yang:
4. Fired Seattle USA John McKay: From March 29, In early testimony, Sampson doesn't specifically recall any Republican dissatisfaction over John McKay's refusal to investigate "voter fraud" in the 2004 gubernatorial election. But as noted above, he does sort of remember complaints coming in from Karl Rove to the Attorney General about not pursuing "voter fraud" cases.
5. Fired Arizona USA Paul Charlton: From March 29, Sampson was only aware of Charlton's investigation of Republican Rick Renzi through news accounts. Under questioning, Sampson states that Charlton's firing was due to "policy disputes," not performance issues. So now we've got two US Attorneys that even the DoJ admits were not let go for "performance" reasons.
6. Fired Nevada USA Daniel Bogden: From April 10, kind of unrelated, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Republican Jim Gibbons, under investigation for defense contracting shenanigans, sees enemies everywhere. Idiot.
7. Fired Arkansas USA Bud Cummins: From April 2, Cummins speaks out.
8. Reassigned Guam USA Frederick Black:
9. New Hampshire USA Tom Colantuono:
10. New Jersey USA Chris Christie:
11. Minnesota USA Rachel Paulose: From April 11, Republican Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman is "deeply disappointed" that Paulose has alienated her staff. That's according to this post (h/t eartha for her comment here) and this article, but I'm looking around for a link that has the official text of his letter. For her part, Paulose apologized to her staff. What exactly she apologized for, we still don't know, because she's not making any public statements.
12. Fired Western Michigan USA Margaret Chiara:
13. Former Western North Carolina USA Robert J. Conrad, Jr.:
14. Kentucky USA David Huber:
15. Southern Mississippi USA Dunn Lampton:
16. Middle North Carolina USA Anna Mills Wagoner: From March 29, from Sampson's testimony, this USA was on an early list, but was taken off on advice from Monica Goodling. Why was she on an early list?
17. Milwaukee USA Steven Biskupic: From April 11, was he about to be purged? Why wasn't he? What stopped Sampson and Goodling and Rove and Gonzales from firing him?
18. Connecticut USA Kevin O'Connor: From April 10, does this mean Mr. O'Connor is a "loyal Bushie?" And why must we insist on absentee US Attorneys?

CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

- Dems are pissed about the RNC's "lost" emails, and are probably going to investigate this.

- Specifically, Senator Leahy is very pissed, saying on the Senate floor that the White House is lying about the emails.



I'm glad to see he's not afraid to use the 'L' word, and not giving up yet.

- Subpoenas have been authorized for everything. Documents, emails, officials testifying, etc. Now, when will they fracking issue the damn subpoenas, and seize those documents, hard drives, etc.? The more they wait, the more things will get "lost" or "mishandled."

- Dear Alberto: don't delete your emails. Oh, and your friend Karl might be breaking the law. Sincerely, Henry Waxman. Text of the letter here.

WHITE HOUSE AND DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ACTIVITIES

- About the RNC's "lost emails." Yeah, oops.

- Dan Froomkin writes about the conference call held last night by the White House about the missing emails. A lot of questions went unanswered, according to Froomkin. Read his piece, it's worth it.

- CREW reports that there could be 5 million emails "lost" between 2003 and 2005. I haven't read the report yet, because it seems that CREW's server is crashing, but...5 million?!? And this is not the RNC's "lost" emails, this is within the Executive Office of the President, as clear a violation of the Presidential Records Act as we're ever going to get. I think I'm going to throw up.

- Conflict of Interest, defined. DoJ lawyers beat up on Dems with investigations of "corruption" and "voter fraud," all the while also working for the Republican Party in an official capacity.

- Kyle Sampson liked testifying so much the first time around, he's going back to Congress for a second time, although this time it will be a "follow-up interview."

- Save the date. Alberto testifies and makes a bigger ass/liar of himself next Tuesday.

PERSPECTIVE

- Behold those evil "vote fraud" criminals, as the New York Times shines a light on all those "voter fraud" investigations.

- Karl Rove loves "voter fraud", because according to this piece, it handed him a victory when his candidate lost the popular vote. The fun never stops.

- Jesselyn Radack writes that emails are forever, and IT guy jpadgett explains why it's really implausible that those emails are "lost."

- Kagro X, again, reminds us why Congress should not dick around on this and be ready to (wait for it) impeach. Quote:

The last time around, the word was that the most important thing about winning back the majority in Congress was subpoena power.

Well, either Congress has that power or it doesn't. Right now, for all the outrage the Bush White House is producing, Congress still doesn't have the e-mails.

Before we're asked again to "focus our energy" on the elections, let's hear a little bit from Congress about how they'll be focusing their energy right now.

To wait for the judicial branch to do the legislative branch's work is only to ensure the eventual Iran-Contrafication of the current spate of scandals.

As Kagro X says, either Congress has its own powers (e.g. subpoena power), or it doesn't. And if Congress is not willing to fight for its own powers, then, well, I guess we know how important it is to elect Democrats, don't we?

- Glenn Greenwald finds a pattern of behavior (h/t Kagro X).

- RandomSequence writes about something that's been on my mind with these alternate email addresses: communications security. One of the purposes of the Presidential Records Act, which White House staffers seemed to openly flaunt, is to secure and protect the sensitive communications of our highest level government officers. This alternate emailing is not only a problem with legal compliance, but of national security as well. It needs to stop.

- From me, as you can see from yesterday's diary, I was pretty upset about the lost emails, for multiple reasons. My main frustration with the "lost" emails stems from my instinctive (or defeatist, pessimistic) belief that this represents another criminal scandal for which the Bush Administration will avoid responsibility. Where is everybody else on this? Is this the end, or just the beginning?