Sampson Suggested Replacements RevealedWell, we have our first notable document of the day.
On January 9, 2006, Gonzales’ chief of staff Kyle Sampson wrote White House counsel Harriet Miers with a version of the U.S. attorney firing plan.
On his list of U.S. attorneys to be fired, he included four of the U.S. attorneys who were ultimately canned: U.S. Attorney for Little Rock Bud Cummins, western Michigan’s Margaret Chiara, San Francisco’s Kevin Ryan, and San Diego’s Carol Lam.
Sampson suggested replacements for all of them. The only one who ultimately was installed was Karl Rove’s former aide, Tim Griffin. In a previous version of the document, Sampson’s suggested replacements for the others were redacted. But in this version, they’re not.
And the documents show that the other replacements were similarly connected in the administration. Samspon recommended Rachel Brand, for instance, for western Michigan. She’s been an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department since 2005.
Others of Sampson’s candidates were eventually placed elsewhere as U.S. attorneys. Deborah Rhodes was suggested for Lam’s spot — she was a counselor at the Justice Department but was installed as the U.S. Attorney for southern Alabama instead. Jeffrey Taylor was also suggested Lam’s spot — but he’s now the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He was a counselor to the attorney general from 2002 until 2006.