The Daily MuckThe Marine Corps has ordered Franz Gayl, a retired Marine officer and civilian science adviser, to halt work on his scathing report about “gross mismanagement” in the Marine Corps’ delay in producing and delivering Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to soldiers in Iraq. It’s not that the Corp officials can’t handle the truth, rather Gayl’s inquiry has moved “beyond its initial purpose.” (USA Today)
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald issued a grand jury subpoena to the White House during the Libby-Plame investigation in order to obtain insight into the internal dynamics of the Bush-Cheney White House. It now appears that the prosecutor did not get all of the e-mail requested. Testimony from a former White House computer expert, Steven McDevitt, revealed yesterday that all e-mail from Cheney’s office was missing for the week of Sept. 30, 2003, to Oct. 6, 2003 - the “opening days of the Justice Department’s probe into whether anyone at the White House leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.” (AP)
For the first time since becoming a captive of the U.S. in secret detention and then at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Zubaydah has met with two attorneys who will now represent him. The lawyers, Joseph Margulies and Brent Mickum, will challenge their new client’s status as an “enemy combatant” through a federal appeals process. (Miami Herald)
After a federal judge, citing a potential conflict of interest, disqualified Kenneth Breen last month from representing former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, Breen did not leave Kerik’s defense completely. Last week he appeared at a hearing “claiming that he would play a behind-the scenes role in his [Kerik’s] defense but would not serve as a trial lawyer.” Now prosecutors are expected to ask the court to remove Breen entirely from the case. (New York Daily News)
Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the focus of recent grand jury subpoenas of three witnesses to his alleged misconduct. Though grand jury testimony is secret, sources say that the testimony sought focuses on allegations that Bowen and his deputy, Ginger Cruz, improperly read office e-mails of their employees. (Congress Daily)
During the 2004 election, political committees known as 527s - such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and America Coming Together - spent nearly $200 million trying to influence the election. But after the FEC last year fined some of the most prominent 527s for violating campaign finance laws by exceeding individual donor limits, those seeking to influence this year’s election are turning to another type of committee: the 501(c)(4). Such organizations can receive unlimited contributions and do not have to disclose their donors. (Mother Jones)
When asked whether the indicted lawmaker Rick Renzi (R-AZ) would step down from his National Leadership Team and resign as one of the co-chairs of the Arizona Leadership Team, presidential hopeful John McCain said that Renzi “would probably step down” as co-chair but that “it doesn’t matter.” McCain appointed Renzi as a co-chair on March 21, 2007, months after it was reported that Renzi was under federal investigation. (Think Progress)
Last year Blackwater USA paid C&M Capitolink $290,000 to lobby Congress on issues of oversight. (AP)