Yesterday we received the latest documents the Department of Justice handed over to Congress in the ongoing investigation into the agency.
Readers flagged two interesting pieces in our document dump thread. One email highlights the prominence of the conservative Federalist Society in the Justice Department and another raises more questions about how official processes have been carried out in the agency.
In one of the email messages flagged by readers — and by McClatchy — Leonard Leo the executive vice president of the Federalist Society offers then director of the Executive Office of the US Attorney his two cents in who would make a nice replacement for the US Attorney in San Diego. His suggestion was Mary Walker, who as McClatchy points out, has ties to the White House:
Walker led a Pentagon working group in 2003, which critics said helped provide the administration with a rationale to circumvent the international Geneva Conventions banning torture in the interrogations of terrorism suspects.
Leo’s recommendation is dated March 7, 2005, almost two years before Lam was fired, but just days before her name appeared on one of the firings lists.
The role of the Federalist Society has come up repeatedly during the investigation into the US attorney firings scandal. Most recently, Bradley Schlozman named the group in his testimony before a Senate panel as one approached when looking for new Justice Department hires while the head of the Civil Rights Division. (He couldn’t recall the names of liberal organizations he contacted.)
In another reader-flagged email, White House Liaison Monica Goodling tells Paul Corts, the assistant attorney general for administration, that he can send her documents delegating attorney general authority to chief of staff Kyle Sampson and herself. We already knew Alberto Gonzales gave Goodling authority to hire and fire Justice Department lawyers, as Goodling testified a few weeks ago. Goodling’s hiring and firing powers are also outlined in this order. The new email jumped out to readers because she asks Corts to take care of the delegation of power “outside the system.”
Corts says sure.
It’s not clear what process Goodling is recommending here, but it certainly doesn’t sound like the most transparent route.