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House Dems Push for More DoJ Testimony, Evidence
In a letter sent to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sánchez (D-CA) pushed for the Justice Department to make six Justice Department officials available for questioning about the department's purge of eight U.S. attorneys.
"We ask that you make available to us several officials at the Department for follow-up questioning next week and that you provide us with certain critical documents and information," they write. You can read it in full here.
In a statement, Conyers said that this week's hearing "provided an important first look into what may be a much larger and wide-ranging problem at the Department of Justice and in the Administration as a whole."
Conyers and Sanchez want to talk to the same group sought by the Senate Judiciary Committee, namely:
-- Mike Elston, we know, made the now infamous not-at-all-threatening phone call to former USA Bud Cummins.
-- Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson and the Justice Department's White House liaison Monica Goodling were involved in generating the list of prosecutors to fire.
-- Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer told two of the fired prosecutors that they were being replaced in order to free up the spot for someone else.
-- Michael Battle, who will be stepping down at the end of next week, actually made the calls firing the prosecutors.
-- and Paul McNulty, the Deputy Attorney General who has already testified before the Senate about the firings.
So we're just getting started.
Comments (16)
Anonymous wrote on March 8, 2007 6:30 PM:This point has been made too, but why not look into the US Attorney for the District of Columbia's attempts to gag the hooker "black book" that could incriminate various GOP'ers in our fair capital city.
Can we trust the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, a former counselor to both Gonzales and Ashcroft, to be "fair and balanced" in prosecuting this case?
LTO wrote on March 8, 2007 6:33 PM:King-maker Harriet Miers!
EH wrote on March 8, 2007 6:49 PM:"what may be a much larger and wide-ranging problem at the Department of Justice and in the Administration as a whole."
That sounds like a huge hole to drive through. I'm skeptical that this doesn't just morph into a general issue rather than a specific one.
Arknansan wrote on March 8, 2007 7:21 PM:Wouldn’t it be a gesture of good faith on the part of BushCo. to immediately submit the names of the current US Attorneys for confirmation?
They could do that tomorrow, while the rest of it is being sorted out.
C92 wrote on March 8, 2007 7:51 PM:Chain here is real simple.
Sen. Arlen Spector's staff slipped in the provision of indefinite interim appointments into the Patriot Act renewal "without his knowledge" in the dead of night. As far as we can tell, no one has ever disciplined the aide who did it.
The Bush DOJ immediately went to work using that authority, even admitting it to Senator John Tester.
BUT WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION?
Well, Slate.com's account of the Spector/Patriot manouver names Michael O'Neill (Spector's Chief Counsel) as having received the provision from DOJ official Brett Tolman.
Interesting to learn that Tolman is now the US Attorney for Utah. And GUESS WHAT?
He wasn't the White House's first choice, but he was Senator Hatch's (and also worked on Spector's committee!) Maybe the boy was asked to do a little quid pro quo before he got his appointment (you know, to show his loyalty?):
..."Feb 18, 2006 4:06 pm US/Mountain
Hatch, White House At Odds Over Nomination
(Courtesy The Salt Lake Tribune)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is among several key Republican senators challenging the White House over the selection of a new U.S. attorney for Utah.
The White House is pushing Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and a former White House counsel and Judiciary Committee staffer.
The senators favor Brett Tolman, a longtime prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah now working on Patriot Act renewal under Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa..."
http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_049180925.html
Looking more like a conspiracy.
Jack wrote on March 8, 2007 7:54 PM:"Honesty is such a lonely word" in the Bush Administration. The only thing that surprises me about this is that some people are only now realizing how utterly corrupt they are.
Al in Austex wrote on March 8, 2007 9:44 PM:This is the beginning of the end for BushCo -mark this day - We will see the impeachment at the very least of Abu Gonzales & most likely Dick Cheney because at the epi center of the USA scandal is the intent to derail the investigations into the earmarks , corrupted Congressman, and all the loose money for Black Ops.
Al in Austex wrote on March 8, 2007 9:52 PM:Follow the money - Lam was getting very close to the Slush Fund Money in San Diego - think Jerry Lewis and all the unaccounted for money for Dick & The Neo THUGS - Iran Contra writ large in the 21st Century !!
PS re follow the tainted money trail for all kinds of misadventures ( See Sy Hersh re giving money to Al Qaida in Lebanon ). The DC USA does want to squash the hooker gate scandal because it involved the CIA (Foggo ) the Congress (Dukester) & the tainted slush fund money given to Neo Con /DOD contractors (Brent Wilkes ) to go operate on the "dark side " for Dick Cheney's illegal covert ops .. Follow the tainted money or whomever gets in the why of the tainted money 's investigations - (paging Elliot Abrams ).
K Koer wrote on March 8, 2007 11:41 PM:Are these guys from the DOJ going to be under oath when they are "interviewed"?
share wrote on March 9, 2007 1:30 AM:Whatever physical protection a president gets should now be available to all members of Congress and the Grand Juries investigating bush and cheney's many crimes and witnesses there and in Congress should also be getting very strong protection from bodyguards.
Did Valerie Plame ever receive the protection she requested from the CIA after threats to her and the CIA refused to help - Joe Wilson said they were looking into private protection and was shocked that the CIA blew them off in that way since Valerie was in danger because of being outted by Cheney.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on March 9, 2007 2:04 AM:Go ahead & call these folk. Tell them to bring evidence supporting testimony. No matter what they say there is little odds against the truth not being very different from the Torture Czar's horse hockey about performance . . . Gone-lawless is in real danger of being proved a lying sack o' crap and comtemptee o' da Congress.
Think the high crimes half of High crimes and misdemeanors . . . Spelled I-M-P-E-A-C-H-A-B-L-E.
egregious wrote on March 9, 2007 7:50 AM:Here's part of the iceberg: look at EVERYBODY who quit being a US Attorney from 2000 - 2007. Some went quietly, others were pushed and threatened.
Subpeona all of them, and look at the targets of their investigations. This is very dirty business.
Anonymous wrote on March 9, 2007 9:25 AM:Equal scrutiny needs to be given to the USA'S that remain - and have served long tenure. Are they "playng ball" and therefore allowed to keep their jobs?
Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 9, 2007 9:41 AM:Thanks, C92. After reading Paul Krugman's column, I wonder if the ultimate plan is to stack key districts with Bush loyalists who can bring charges against Democrats next year.
Browsing through some recent appointments, I noticed that Rod J. Rosenstein was appointed US attorney for Maryland in 2005. Rosenstein was on Ken Starr's team in the '90s.
AnneW wrote on March 9, 2007 10:36 AM:Krugman's article is very good today....especially showing that possibly the prosecutors that were NOT let go, were willing to play ball.
240-something Dems being indicted versus 60-something Republicans looks pretty fishy.
epenisa wrote on January 11, 2008 12:05 AM:Hi
Nice work from your side... have a nice time with yoru blog :)
G'night