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Watchdog Asks, What about Abramoff?

As former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins has written, "Once the public detects partisanship in one important decision, they will follow the natural inclination to question every decision made, whether there is a connection or not."

Today, the nonpartisan congressional watchdog Democracy 21 sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty asking whether there had been political interference in the investigation and prosecution of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"Based on issues that have been raised in the firing of the eight U.S Attorneys , we're all in a position to want some assurance that there hasn't been political interference in the case," Fred Wertheimer, Democracy 21's president, told me. "This still remains the worse congressional corruption scandal in 30 years. There are lesser players who have been convicted. But there are still big players here, including sitting and former members of Congress whose cases apparently have not yet been resolved. "

Citing concerns about the slow pace of the investigation and high turnover of prosecutors and supervisors working on the case, Wertheimer also asks Gonzales what resources the Justice Department has committed to the investigation.

You can read the letter here.


338 Comments

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I can't believe this hadn't yet occurred to me, but it was probably up to Bill Mercer to investigate Conrad Burns' Abramhoff dealings in Montana, being that Mercer is Montana's US Attorney. Anyone checked into that one?

Why is Mercer still employed?

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See, this is the problem.

The Administration has given the public good reason to wonder if the wheels of justice are turning for political considerations instead of "rule of law."

What's to say someone convicted of a federal gun crime now doesn't have standing to challenge his/her conviction when it becomes clear that gun crime convictions were a political priority of the Administration.

And that some in the Administration did "whatever it takes" to make those convictions.

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The gurus at FDL just figured out what is behind this whole bloody thing! Remember the weird interview with Karlosivitch Rovski, Zampolit of the BushSoviet Empire, where he said "I'm entitled to THE math"? Well, that was almost certainly in reference to the purge he was working on.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/03/21/the-math-2/

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The newly resurrected Tom DeLay was an integral part of this one also in Guam.

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The newly resurrected Tom DeLay was an integral part of this one also in Guam.
Yup--here's Josh on that one. Acting U.S. Attorney in Guam fired days after he starts an investigation into Abramoff.

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And don't forget the USA in Guam, who was canned right after he went after Abramoff. Here's the top of the LAT story, 8/8/2005:

WASHINGTON -- A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.

The previously undisclosed Guam inquiry is separate from a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia that is investigating allegations that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars.

In Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.
In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency.

The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.

And the Web also yields a TPM archives, 9/27/2005 (12:16 a.m.)

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SLOUCH - here's your answer : Burns recommended Mercer for USA position!

http://www.umt.edu/urelations/mainhall/102/briefs.htm

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A very very small blurb in the WSJ Washingtonwire announced Gonzales had filled the section chief heads positions for the Public Integrity and Fraud sections sometime last week. No public announcement was made. Both had been vacant for over a year. So glad that Gonzales found the time in his busy schedule to slip this under the radar. You might want to check out the LegalTimes blog for Feb. 26th -a good timeline and overview of the investigation and March 12th -Gonzales appointments, for more info.

http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1172052183120

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Don't forget the Curt Weldon investigation.

On 12/12/06, AG Gonzales visited the basement of the Delaware County courthouse in Media PA ostensibly in connection with an internet safety program with a $650k annual budget.

Gonzales met with USA-EDPA Pat Meehan and Delaware District Attorney G. Michael Green. Pat Meehan was Delaware County district attorney from 1995 until 2001 when he was appointed USA.

Was Gonzales in Media PA on December 12 to discuss the Weldon case off the record?

Delaware County has been GOP-controlled for more than twenty years. Charles P. Sexton, Delaware County GOP heavyweight, is under investigation in the Weldon case.

Much has been written about real estate agent-turned-lobbyist, Cecilia Grimes. Less has been written about her partner, Cynthia Young. Young is Rep. Bill C.W. Young's daughter-in-law.

Nothing has been written in MM about Grimes and Young making political contributions in September 2004 as executives of defense contractor, Galaxy Scientific. Nor has anything been written about Grimes' appointment to a three-year term on the board of a state commission in 1997.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, John J. Gallagher, also under investigation in the Weldon case, set up a dummy corporation, CSG Software, in October 2001 to take advantage of a DOE program to re-train Russian nuclear weapons scientists. When Weldon held a joint press conference with the DOE in October 2001 to announce the partnership of CSG Software and a Russian company, Luxoft, he knew CSG Software was a front with no operations.

That's just for starters in the Weldon case. But Curt Weldon just took a job as chief strategic officer for defense contractor, Defense Solutions, LLC. I read today that Weldon is now in Bangladesh representing the Global Alliance for Homeland Security, an organization I know nothing about (yet).

Curt Weldon seemingly doesn't have a care in the world.

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Not likely that it was Mercer who had that responsibility. There is a Public Integrity section at DOJ in D.C. that handles such matters, and it is staffed by career prosecutors, supposedly, but supervised by a Bush appointee. What is going on in that section is important to find out.

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What is the name of the new head of the Public Integrity and Fraud sections?

We need names, to follow.

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Public Integrity is William M. Welch. From Mass, graduated from Princeton, has been acting head since last summer. From what I could find, not exactly a star. Prosecuted a couple of smaller corruption cases and a murder case.

Fraud is Steve Tyrrell. Had a difficult time find almost anthe ything on him. He was last in S. Florida as the Deputy Chief of Counter-terrorism unit in Miami. Interesting tidbit here.
http://sdfla.blogspot.com/2006/09/true-miami-mafia.html

Hope you can find more than I could because this whole thing has a very funny smell.

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Right On, Long Memory. And more has been found out since 2005 concerning the Abramoff Global Crime Spree.

This subchapter concerned the firing of Frederic Black, US Attorney for the Territories (Marianas, Guam, etc.), upon receipt of a purchase order from Jack Abramoff, by Bush, the exclusive holder of such authority.

Since 2005, with a mad-dog like free press savagely hunting down the slightest impropriety, we found "...Jack Abramoff wanted to take the credit for getting rid of the chief federal prosecutor for U.S. territories in the Pacific Ocean", from a story "Abramoff sought credit for work he didn’t do", MSNBC, Joel Seidman, June 30, 2006.

The story also said "Black told FBI agents investigating the wide-ranging influence-peddling scandal spawned by Abramoff that he was replaced because he stirred political controversy by starting his own, earlier probe of Abramoff."

And Rep. Hastings was involved in this crime spree for along time, see "Lawmaker in DeLay Inquiry Tied to Lobbyist", AP, June 8, 2005.

Also, when Charlie Brown ran against Rep. Dolittle in 2006, the Brown campaign sent out a bit of info on these issues, see "Campaign 2006: Brown Campaign releases records...", Sept. 27, 2006.

After posting this basic comment recently on WashingtonMonthly, someone (Old Hat, 13Mar07) was kind enough to point out Arianna has mentioned this issue last January, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-next-abramoff-shoe-to_b_13469.html, titled "The Next Abramoff Show To Drop", "Here's the next Abramoff blockbuster coming soon to a newspaper..."

Hasn't come to my town yet. (CBS, NBC, ABC, NYT, WaPo, LAT, ...)

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Here is a link to Ari Berman's story about this matter:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=177639

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Oops! Link is good, but more accurately it discuss the Abramhoff Guam connection and the firing of an acting USA.

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Why no conviction on Plame leak for the treason charges?

Why no charges against Rove?

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Hey, AG Gonzales is on top of the important stuff! According to a Politico story, the FBI is investigating a five-year old campaign contribution to John Edwards.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3225.html

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I found the following at wikipedia ongoing events and found it appalling:

Black demotion

On August 8, 2005 the Los Angeles Times reported that the day after a grand jury subpoena of records connected to Jack Abramoff "US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black." His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party, was confirmed without any debate. The investigation of Abramoff in Guam ended when "Rapadas recused himself from the public corruption case involving [Carl] Gutierrez" because "the new US attorney was a cousin of 'one of the main targets'," according to a confidential memo to Justice Department officials

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Mantra for this evening:

Frederic Black - West Marianas Islands . . .Frederic Black - West Marianas Islands . . .Frederic Black - West Marianas Islands . . .Frederic Black - West Marianas Islands . . .Frederic Black - West Marianas Islands . . .

Yes, I recognize this four years old BUT still fresh today.

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The more anyone looks into the Bush White House's politicalization of the Justice Department, the more than is to see--such as the free pass being issued to Brother Jeb.

See "Bush Justice Department Stalling Clinton-Era Probe into Brother Jeb's Shady Nigerian Deal with GOP Fund Raiser" at http://milkhouse-mouse.blogspot.com/2007/03/bushs-justice-department-stalling.html

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Why have Alberto Gonzalez and Alice Fisher refused to file "RICO" charges aqainst Abramoff and Kidan for the murder of Konstantino "Gus"Boulis??? Was there no conspiracy in the theFt of Gus Boulis"s Sun-Cruz Casino Ships and his death by "Murder Incorporated"
CHECK IT OUT!! Lwayno

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Let's keep the pressure on folks. We've got the '08 elections coming and people to see how corrupt this group of keystone cops really is.
That Jerry Lewis investigation can't die, and Duncan Hunter attempted to get rid of the Iraq IG by slipping a provision in a defense bill. When the Dems. tookover, they quickly reinstated him position.

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I don't know if Alex Acosta is still leading investigations in this case but here's an interesting article about some of his activity before Abramoff...

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1125318960389

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One can't help but wonder about interference in other cases such as one in the news today. The former Interior Secretary Deputy pled guilty to a single charge of obstruction of justice connected to the Abramoff scandal. He's been offered the minimum 10-month sentence, half of which is to be served at home. Other charges have been dropped in exchange for the plea. Is someone looking to avoid a trial?

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Why no investigation of admitted sex tourist Neil Bush??

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