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Conservatives Launch Full Court Press On IG Firing
Conservatives are starting to smell blood on the IG firing story.
Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch -- the conservative-leaning government watchdog that made life miserable for President Clinton in the '90s -- tells TPMmuckraker that his group is eager to work with the canned IG, Gerald Walpin, to keep the pressure on the White House over the firing. "We have let it be known that we'd like to talk to Mr. Walpin," said Fitton.
Fitton declined to say whether his group had already contacted Walpin, and if so, how Walpin had responded. The Plum Line reported earlier this afternoon that Walpin had refused to comment when asked whether Judicial Watch had offered its help.
Walpin certainly doesn't seem inclined to go softly into that good night. In recent days he's been continuing his tour of conservative media to push his view that he was fired for going after an Obama ally, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson. And today -- in the wake of Sen. Charles Grassley's demands that the White House offer a more detailed explanation for the firing -- Walpin told the Plum Line that he'd like to see congressional hearings over the issue, at which witnesses "testify under oath as to what's happening."
But the news out of Sacramento today may have a bigger ultimate effect in stoking the story. The Acting US Attorney there, Lawrence Brown, confirmed to the Sacramento Bee that the FBI is probing obstruction of justice allegations made by a former executive of St. HOPE, the local non-profit, formerly led by Johnson, that Walpin had been looking into.
Rick Maya, who officially quit last week as St. HOPE's executive director, claimed in a resignation letter written in April that a member of the St. HOPE's board deleted Johnson's emails during Walpin's investigation into the misuse of funds at the non-profit.
Brown's office now says it has asked the FBI to look into that allegation.
And even Brown's own role in the saga is now being called into question. The Bee separately reports that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight committee, today released a statement asking Brown to explain the legal basis for the complaint he filed in April, against Walpin, to a federal oversight body for inspectors general. Brown's complaint -- which came after the US Attorney's office had declined to bring charges against Johnson -- accused Walpin of withholding key information from his findings, and of acting "as the investigator, advocate, judge, jury and town crier" in the case. The complaint was cited by the White House as having contributed to its decision fire Walpin.
Issa wrote:
The allegations that form the basis for your complaint seem very ordinary, which makes the fact that you pursued sanctions against Mr. Walpin seem extraordinary by contrast. This begs certain questions about the reasons the complaint was filed.
Like we've said, this one isn't going away any time soon.

















I am so sick of these rotten, sore-loser Republican jerks and their Democratic appeasers, I could throw-up....!
June 18, 2009 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. But if somebody did something illegal don't you think they should be held accountable?
June 18, 2009 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's start with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzo - and even W. Then we can worry about two-bit players like Walpin.
June 18, 2009 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like the Repugs were so fond of saying a while back, the IG serves at the pleasure of the President. And he's obviously not as pleasing to Obama as he was to Bush, who appointed him.
June 18, 2009 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dont you know that The Supreem Leader Ayatillah Barack Husain Obama has spoken.
Get on your knees and face Washington DC lean over and kiss you a-- goodbye.
I live in Hawaii and cant wait for the 4th of July.
June 18, 2009 10:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, if Issa and Judicial Watch manage this the way they manage everything else, they may just end up getting Walpin deported or executed by the time they're through. Frankly, the White House is probably salivating over the possibility that this will become a bigger story. How does any of this work out well for the Republicans? Walpin's story fits into a well-established history of Bush appointees targeting Democrats or Democratic supporters.
June 18, 2009 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I say good riddance to the senile old bastard.Let this play out an embarass the hell of this man.
June 18, 2009 11:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is one time when the WH better tell them to suck eggs. If they roll over for this racist ideolog, that will be the last straw for me!
June 19, 2009 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have a better idea.
Why doesn't Obama immediately fire ALL Bush appointees? Clean house. Every single Bush appointee that serves that the pleasure of the President should be canned. If the Repugs want something to bitch about, great.
June 19, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
As usual, the conservatives aren't actually concerned with legality, they are concerned with looking as if they care about legality, so as to stanch the electoral bleeding they've suffered since 2005. Where was any of this 'full-court press' over the past 4 years when there was plenty of reason to look into goings-on at the DOJ? These assholes are more full of shit than a constipated hippo.
June 19, 2009 8:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me, but whatever happened to the investigation of the real political firings: those of the Bush Whitehouse from the Justice Department? Republicans truly have no shame, and the traditional media no memory.
June 20, 2009 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
If by "not going away any time soon" you mean "no one gives a damn" then I agree.
June 21, 2009 10:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
A reminder, the local US attorney, a Bush appointee, found no criminal wrongdoing in the case. Why is this still an issue at all?
November 16, 2009 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink