TPMMuckraker
July 12, 2009 - July 18, 2009

Morning Joe Producer Offered "Friendly Place" For Sanford To Tell Story

Zachary Roth | July 17, 2009, 5:23PM

We've made it through all 570 pages of those emails sent from and to Mark Sanford's office in the period just before, during, and after his disappearance.

Earlier we highlighted how big name TV journalists like David Gregory, George Stephanopoulos, and John King aggressively wooed the South Carolina governor's press secretary in an effort to get the governor to come on their shows. But here are a few of the other interesting finds -- mostly press related -- from our search:

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (20) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (32)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Leon Panetta

Congress To Probe Secret CIA Program

Zachary Roth | July 17, 2009, 3:31PM

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, who chairs the House Intelligence committee, has announced an investigation into the secret CIA program that Leon Panetta recently ended, and which Dick Cheney reportedly ordered kept secret from Congress.

From Reyes's statement:

After careful consideration and consultation with the Ranking Minority Member and other members of the Committee, I am announcing an official Committee investigation into possible violations of federal law, including the National Security Act of 1974.

This investigation will focus on the core issues of how the congressional intelligence committees and Congress are kept fully and currently informed. To this end, the investigation will examine several issues, including the program discussed during Director Panetta's June 24th notification and whether there was any official decision or direction to withold (sic) information from the Committee.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (17) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)
Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta

Mark Sanford

NBC's Gregory to Sanford's Office: "Meet The Press Allows You To Frame The Conversation As You Really Want"

Zachary Roth | July 17, 2009, 2:29PM

The Charleston Post and Courier has posted online (pdf) all 570 pages of emails obtained from the office of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

There's a bevy of information in there, but one exchange that jumped out at us was the one between Sanford's press secretary, Joel Sawyer (who just today announced he's quitting -- good for him!) and David Gregory, the host of NBC's Meet the Press. In courting Sanford's office, Gregory wrote that "coming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation as you really want to."

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (94) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (68)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Financial Crisis

New Pecora Commission Looks Unlikely To Aggressively Probe Financial Mess

Zachary Roth | July 17, 2009, 9:12AM

Earlier this week, we told you over at TPMDC about the newly named members of what's being called the Pecora II commission, which has been given the crucial task of getting to the bottom of the financial crisis.

The stakes are high here. If we're ever to come to a full understanding of the causes of an episode that has created enormous pain, dislocation, and anxiety for a large number of Americans -- allowing us to craft policies to ensure it doesn't recur -- we need an effective commission. In other words, one that's capable of conducting an aggressive investigation that goes after the truth and lets the chips fall where they may, even if that means publicly calling out powerful Wall Street interests and lax Washington regulators. And not one that settles for making a few polite recommendations while protecting its political overseers -- as too many Washington commissions have done in the past.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (24) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (23)
Topics: Financial Crisis, Lobbyists, Wall Street

C Street

Suit: Pickering Chose Mistress Over Senate Seat

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 6:48PM

Former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) and erstwhile C Street resident turned down Trent Lott's old Senate seat so he could be with his mistress, according to the lawsuit filed by his estranged wife this week.

The suit alleges that when Trent Lott resigned in 2007, Gov. Haley Barbour offered Rep. Pickering the seat. But the congressman turned it down after his girlfriend, Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd, "insisted" that their relationship could not continue if he accepted the seat, as he would have to stay married for public appearances. She allegedly gave him an ultimatum, and he chose her.

A spokesman for Barbour told Muckraker that he never offered Pickering the seat.

Shortly afterward, the suit says, Pickering moved out of his home. He filed for divorce in 2008, but that case is sealed.

Other gems from the suit, which Leisha Pickering filed against Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection:

Creekmore-Byrd is allegedly on the board of Telepak, her family's Internet company, which employs the lobbyist organization Capitol Resources. Pickering claims the mistress got her husband a job with the lobbyists. (A visit to the company's web site shows he does work in their Mississippi office.)

The suit alleges that Creekmore-Byrd aimed "to entice and tortuously interfere" with the Pickerings' marriage, with the help of seven unnamed defendants. It also says the alleged mistress's actions would "evoke outrage and disgust in civilized society."

Pickering alleges that Creekmore-Byrd showed up at a family ski vacation intending to cause a marriage-ending rift.

Leisha Pickering apparently gleaned this information from her husband's journals and other documents, which a judge ordered returned to Rep. Pickering. The judge also apparently forbade Mrs. Pickering and her lawyers from discussing what was in the documents.

You can take a look at the lawsuit here.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (14) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (15)
Topics: C Street, Chip Pickering

C Street

Another C Street Vet Falls To An Extramarital Affair

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 5:05PM

Former Congressman and C Street resident Chip Pickering's estranged wife has filed a lawsuit against Pickering's alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering is suing Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering, a Republican from Mississippi, allegedly continued seeing his college sweetheart while they were both married. According to the suit, some of the "wrongful conduct" occurred at the C Street facility for Christian congressmen -- the same one where Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have lived, and where Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has recently sought counseling.

What's with this place?

The suit alleges Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd are still together. Perhaps they're soul mates?

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Hinds County Circuit Court in Mississippi, is 28 14 pages long, plus evidence, so we'll be posting more if we find anything particularly juicy.

Late Update: The suit says Rep. Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd rekindled their relationship while he was a congressman, before and while living at the C-Street facility. The relationship was "completely unknown" by Leisha Pickering, as it occurred in Washington on weekdays, and the congressman would return home to his wife and five children only on weekends.

Later Update: The suit also alleges Pickering declined Trent Lott's Senate seat and instead quit Congress altogether when his mistress gave him an ultimatum. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour denies he offered Pickering the seat.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (18) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (29)
Topics: C Street, Chip Pickering

Charles Rangel

Rep. Rangel Paid $280,000 To Lawyers Last Quarter

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 3:59PM

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) spent almost $280,000 on lawyers in the last quarter as he faces several ethics investigations, according to his campaign financial disclosure.

Rangel has spent a total of $926,000 on attorneys in the past year.

The Ways and Means Committee chairman still raised $405,000 last quarter, much of which came from corporations, labor unions and trade associations.

The House is looking into whether trips Rangel took to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 violated rules against corporate-funded travel. He's also being investigated for getting a special deal on some Harlem apartments, for not paying taxes on rental income and for using his post as chairman to raise money by preserving a tax break for a major donor to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: Charles Rangel

John Ensign

Hampton Didn't Disclose Payment From Ensign's Parents As Gift

Zachary Roth | July 16, 2009, 12:34PM

More bad news for John Ensign -- and perhaps his former buddy Doug Hampton too?

The Las Vegas Sun has taken a look at the Senate disclosure form that Hampton filed when he left Ensign's office -- he says he and his wife Cindy were terminated -- in spring 2008.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (10) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)
Topics: John Ensign, Sex

CIA

Report: CIA Assassin Program Could Operate Anywhere -- Even Inside U.S.

Zachary Roth | July 16, 2009, 11:31AM

Since the news broke (sub. req.) at the start of the week that CIA director Leon Panetta had pulled the plug on a secret program to assassinate or capture al Qaeda leaders, we've been raising questions about one key aspect of the story. In particular, what was it about the program that was so shocking that Dick Cheney reportedly ordered it kept secret from Congress, Panetta quashed it as soon as he heard about it, and Congressional Democrats risked being painted as soft on terror by shrieking about being kept in the dark?

We may have gotten a good piece of the answer here: The Washington Post reports today on how the program had been revived and then put on hold several times since 2001. But it also says, referring to the "presidential finding" with which President Bush authorized the program in 2001:

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (55) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (39)
Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta

Daniel Inouye

Sen. Inouye's Bank Scandal: A Primer

Rachel Slajda | July 15, 2009, 6:28PM

Between Ensign, Sanford and Palin, we've had our hands full of scandal. But we'd like to dive into the conflict-of-interest issues surrounding Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who apparently intervened to get his Hawaii bank TARP money -- a bank in which he'd invested most of his wealth and helped to found.

As ProPublica first reported, the bank, Central Pacific Financial, received $135 million in bailout funds after one of Inouye's staffers called the FDIC to inquire about the application.

Central Pacific had lost $146 million in the second quarter of 2008, more than the profits of its last three years, and those losses were depleting its capital reserves. It failed to win a favorable recommendation for bailout funds from the FDIC.

The institution applied for the money in October. When there was no word by late November, a bank official called Inouye's office for help. The next day, an aide called the FDIC and, according to Inouye, left a voicemail.

The application was approved soon after.

"This single phone call was the entire extent of my staff's contact with regard to Central Pacific Bank, to any outside agency," said Inouye, who hasn't given interviews on the subject, in a press release.

At the end of 2007, Inouye reported Central Pacific shares worth $350,000 to $700,000. He was one of the founding members of the bank, which opened in 1954 to cater to Japanese-American residents of Hawaii.

Even if he did intervene on behalf of the ailing bank, it wouldn't be a violation of Senate ethics rules. And other senators pulled for home state banks -- but none, it seems, where their own money was invested.

We're going to be keeping our eye on this one and delve in a little deeper. But we wanted to get you all up to speed in the meantime.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)
Topics: Daniel Inouye

Steve Rattner

Did Pay-To-Play Probe Cause Rattner's Resignation?

Zachary Roth | July 15, 2009, 2:34PM

So: is Steve Rattner stepping down as the Obama administration's car czar because of the investigation into whether his private-equity fund used pay-to-play tactics to win business from New York's public pension fund?

Probably.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)
Topics: Andrew Cuomo, Securities and Exchange Commission, Steve Rattner, Wall Street

CIA

CIA Gets Extension Until Aug 24 On Torture Report

Zachary Roth | July 15, 2009, 12:31PM

The Obama administration's request to delay releasing a key report on torture has reportedly been granted.

According to Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent, a judge has said the CIA can have until August 24 to release the declassified version of a 2004 inspector general's report on the Bush administration's interrogations program. The report's release has already been delayed several times.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (5) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)
Topics: CIA, Torture

Mark Sanford

Tapper Responds: We Didn't Know About Sanford Affair When I Sent That Email*

Zachary Roth | July 15, 2009, 11:52AM

It looks like Jake Tapper doesn't feel like his network's response to the news that he sucked up to Mark Sanford's office by denigrating NBC's coverage of the missing gov story -- that Tapper was just "carrying some water" for a producer -- is quite sufficient.

This morning, Tapper has been tweeting further defenses of his catty email to a Sanford aide -- in which he called NBC's coverage "slimy" and "insulting."

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (31) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (16)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

Media

Tapper To Sanford Aide: NBC Spot On Missing Guv Was "Slimy" And "Insulting"

Zachary Roth | July 15, 2009, 9:10AM

Yesterday we told you about how the conservative media sucked up to Mark Sanford's office by calling stories about the governor's disappearance overblown -- even while the gov was still AWOL.

But it looks like it wasn't just the acknowledged right-wingers who were denigrating the story to Sanford's aides. The State has written up a few more of the emails, and look what they found:

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (46) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (18)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

AIPAC

Lanny Davis Now Lobbying In Support Of Honduran Coup

Zachary Roth | July 14, 2009, 4:46PM

It seems like just yesterday that Lanny Davis was making the rounds of every news outlet that would have him, talking up Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House -- and/or pushing the Reverend Wright story.

Not too long after, the former Clinton White House counsel popped up to do damage control for hawkish Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman over the AIPAC leak story.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (34) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (16)
Topics: AIPAC, Hillary Clinton, Jane Harman, Lanny Davis, Lobbyists

Justice Department

Only Yoo: Report Details Bush White House Use Of Hand-Picked DOJ Lawyer To Justify Warrantless Wiretapping

Zachary Roth | July 14, 2009, 4:03PM

The fact that John Yoo was the only Justice Department OLC official who was "read into" the surveillance program -- even though he wasn't the head of OLC at the time -- has already been noted by others looking through the inspectors general report on the program released last week.

But one excerpt from the report is worth paying particular attention to, since it underlines the special role that Yoo came to play on the White House's behalf.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (17) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (18)
Topics: Dick Cheney, Jay Bybee, John Ashcroft, John Yoo, Justice Department, Wiretapping

Steve Rattner

Talk Of Intensified Investigation As Rattner Resigns

Rachel Slajda | July 14, 2009, 1:27PM

Steve Rattner may be leaving his post as the head of Obama's auto task force because of an intensifying investigation into wrongdoing by the private equity firm he co-founded.

Anonymous sources say the investigation into Quadrangle Group LLC has intensified in recent weeks, according to Reuters and the New York Times, which may have lead to his stepping down.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is leading the probe into whether Quadrangle paid middlemen to win state pension business. From the Times:

Mr. Rattner, according to people close to the investigation, arranged for his investment firm to pay $1.1 million to an agent who helped Quadrangle obtain New York pension business. The agent who received most of that money has been indicted and accused of selling access to the pension fund, but neither Mr. Rattner nor Quadrangle is expected to face criminal charges, according to people close to the matter.

Rattner left Quadrangle in order to work on the task force, and a source said he won't return now. His post on the task force is being taken over by Ron Bloom, but the Treasury Department hasn't said when the change goes into effect.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (0) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Bailout, Steve Rattner, Treasury Department

Mark Sanford

Great Call: In Emails To Sanford's Office, Right-Wing Media Dismissed Missing Gov Story

Zachary Roth | July 14, 2009, 12:24PM

The State newspaper of South Carolina has used a public records request to obtain emails sent to and from Governor Mark Sanford's office during the hectic few days last month when he had gone missing. It's not surprising that the emails underline the utter confusion that beset the governor's hapless aides as they tried to ward off inquiries about their boss's whereabouts, without themselves having any idea where he was.

But they also show something even funnier: an effort by the right-wing media to curry favor with Sanford's office by dismissing the story as a storm in a teacup created by the liberal media. It's fair to say that, as news judgments go, it would be hard to find one that turned out worse than this -- given the subsequent revelations about Sanford's Argentinian liaison and his abandonment of his post.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (36) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (49)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Media, Sex

John Ensign

WaPo Wants Senate And FEC To Probe Ensign Scandal

Zachary Roth | July 13, 2009, 5:30PM

The drip-drip of the John Ensign sex scandal continues...

Today the Washington Post editorial board calls, in its well-mannered way, for investigations by the Senate Ethnics committee and the Federal Election Committee into the payments, totaling $96,000, that, according to a statement from Ensign's lawyer, were made last year by the Nevada senator's parents to the Hampton family.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)
Topics: FEC, Fred Hiatt, John Ensign, Senate Ethics Committee, Sex

CIA

CIA Vet: Agency Doesn't Need Secret Program To Target al Qaeda

Zachary Roth | July 13, 2009, 3:57PM

Earlier today, we raised a few questions about the notion that the secret CIA program that Dick Cheney reportedly withheld from Congress concerned an effort to kill or capture al Qaeda leaders. And now a top counter-terror expert is doing the same.

Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, told TPMmuckraker that because we've been in a state of war against al Qaeda since just after September 11, there would have been no need for a secret CIA program that received special legal authorization.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (69) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (39)
Topics: CIA, Defense Department, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta

Barack Obama

Holder May Investigate Torture -- But Several Probes Are Already Underway

Zachary Roth | July 13, 2009, 2:34PM

The pendulum appears to have swung back in the other direction on the issue of criminal investigations into Bush-era torture. It had looked for a while like President Obama's stated desire to look forward not back had carried the day. But now it appears that Attorney General Eric Holder -- independent of his boss's political concerns, which is how things should work -- is leaning back towards initiating a probe. The news was first reported over the weekend by Newsweek, then picked up today by the New York Times and Washington Post.

But whatever Holder ultimately decides, there are already several ongoing government efforts to investigate torture, which figure to substantially fill out our still patchwork understanding of the issue. So as we wait for official word from the Justice Department on a criminal inquiry, it's worth being clear about what those efforts are, and how they relate to each other.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, CIA Tapes, DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Justice Department, Steven Bradbury, Torture

Dick Cheney

New Info Brings More Questions On Secret CIA Program

Zachary Roth | July 13, 2009, 12:13PM

We've gotten some more information in recent days about that secret CIA program that the agency withheld key information from Congress about, and that CIA director Leon Panetta promptly shut down when he learned about it last month. But the new reports only raise more questions.

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the CIA withheld information about the secret program "on direct orders" from then-Vice President Dick Cheney. The Times did not identify the program, but noted that, according to intelligence and congressional officials, it involved neither the CIA's interrogation program nor its domestic intelligence (e.g. warrantless wiretapping and surveillance) activities.