Comments (19)

Cy Guy wrote on March 20, 2007 12:38 AM:

I think it's pretty clear from this email Sampson sent on Groundhog's Day of this year that this story is going to keep coming back to haunt this administration again and again.

(from 3-19-2007 DOJ-Released Documents 1-6, page 23)
========================================
Elston, Michael (ODAG)
-----------------------------------

From: Sampson, Kyle
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2007 4:15 PM
To: Elston, Michael (ODAG); Hertling, Richard
Cc: Goodling, Monica; Moschella, William; McNulty, Paul J; Seidel, Rebecca
Subject: RE: Bud Cummins

I don't think he should. How would he answer:

Did you resign voluntarily?
Were you told why you were being asked to resign?
Who told you?
When did they tell you?
What did they say?
Did you ever talk to Tim Griffin about his becoming U.S. Attorney?
What did Griffin say?
Did Griffin ever talk about being AG appointed and avoiding Senate confirmation?
Were you asked to resign because you were underperforming?
If not, then why?
Etc., etc.

-----Original Message-----

From: Elston, Michael (ODAG)
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 3:52 PM
To: Hertling, Richard
Cc: Sampson, Kyle; Goodling, Monica; Moschella, William; McNulty, Paul J; Seidel, Rebecca
Subject: Bud Cummins

just called to let me know that Pryor's and Schumer's staff have called and asked him to testify on Tuesday. He declined, but wanted to know if we wanted him to testify -- would tell the truth about his circumstances and would also strongly support out view of S 214.

Thoughts?

Arlen wrote on March 20, 2007 12:51 AM:

Scoop from the document dump: Cunningham complained about Lam to Gonzales barely a month before he plead guilty in Lam's corruption investigation.

http://www.thedailybackground.com/2007/03/19/exclusive-cunningham-complained-about-lam-to-attorney-general-before-he-plead-guilty/

Ron Byers wrote on March 20, 2007 12:51 AM:

My first impression is there is that we are missing a lot of the communications that must have occured in the run up to the firing. We are also missing many of the supporting documents for the talking points that seem to be repeated over and over.

libra wrote on March 20, 2007 12:53 AM:

With my security code being "crime" (HOW??? do you guys set them up to be so a propos???), I'll take Conyer's word/opinion over the entire DoJ "act"

Lee Stranahan wrote on March 20, 2007 1:07 AM:

Margaret Chirria Thrown Under A Bus

In going through the docs, fired Michigan Margaret Chirria's story is...well, kind of sad and pathetic.

http://www.judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/DOJDocsPt2-1070319.pdf

On page 9 she asked to be told why she's being forced to resign so she can 'live in peace with the aftermath' and she was trying to get another job but no go because the position was given to someone who lost their congressional seat, she hears.

In an earlier email, she'd begged to keep some kind of government job or she'd lose everything and is worried that at her age she'd never get it back. Paul McNulty is immune to her pleading.

comadrejo wrote on March 20, 2007 1:15 AM:

There is alot of garbage in this document dump, alot of repeated material that has one new email message and then countless repetition about preparing for the Feb 6th hearing.

the first couple pdfs on the House Judiciary website about some "problems" with the attorneys. What the political appointees get so upset by are either alleged bad ettiquette, or releasing press statements without DOJ proper authorization.

It is obvious from alot of the DOJ preparing for the February Hearing, that they had to find stuff to rationalize their actions. The Firearms documents to try to show Lam was bad, is difficult to contrast because every other US attorney except Chiara was blanked out.

Second of all DOJ political appointments may have had some problems with them, but they wouldn't fire the 8 US attorneys without approval from the high up. McKay seemed to bother them a bit, but I don't think what he did with his petition he circulated was so awful.

Reading the documents were frustrating, they really didn't answer many questions, there are some nuggets like the above quote from Kyle Sampson about not having Bud Cummins not testifying, and Margeret Chiara getting praise for her firearms prosecutions, (THe documents trying to show that Lam was lax on Firearms prosecution) however these documents don't answer the question why were these US Attorneys fired, besides I wouldn't be surprise that the other 78-83 US Attorneys got some of the same responses to put this in perspective...

I am sorry that I am citing my points... If People want me to, I can tomorrow...

mbbsdphil wrote on March 20, 2007 1:28 AM:

When those three thousand become three hundred thousand pages, I'll know the DOJ is starting to take it seriously. Until then, this is not the "data dump to end all data dumps"; it's a mini-dump.

joel wrote on March 20, 2007 3:06 AM:

Random thoughts from my scans:

According to his resume, Tim Griffin was a legal adviser for Florida 2000. Who didn't see that coming? He's also *twice* been president of local chapters of the Federalist Society and is a current member. Keep that in mind in case he ever gets nominated for a bench seat and develops a hazy memory on the subject. He's also a military reservist -- I wonder if he will be an "absent manager" like Iglesias? (I think that prong of attack against Iglesias just flies out the window if they're going to nominate another reservist for a like position.)

Ryan's performance problems were probably fairly straightforward, thought I haven't dug deep enough to see whether there is enough documentation there such that--in the private sector--dismissal for cause would be justified. (And of course these are not private-sector jobs so that's really just a reference point at best anyway.) We already knew about his poor performance reviews. Looks like he also went to the press with an issue that he wasn't authorized to comment on, and it looks like he'd been coached on that previously. I think that kind of behavior would be frowned on in just about any job.

Lam's problems seem to stem from limited financial resources. She already had more major immigration cases than she had authorized headcount to prosecute, so she had to make some decisions. She decided to prosecute the rapists and murderers who were here illegally at the expense of more minor offenders who were clearly breaking the law but who weren't, you know, raping and murdering people. It looks like Congress had appropriated more money for prosecuting immigration cases, but once again the vaunted Republican "trickle down" didn't trickle all the way down to the feet on the ground level...her staff only increased by 6 people over 4 years.

The FBI taping "pilot program" in Arizona met with some harsh criticism, but it still got blessing to proceed. I think this confirms what we already knew.

They make adult porn in Nevada! And the USA is too busy to prosecute! I think AGAG was upset that his vaunted Porn Patrol got snickered at.

Does anyone have any evidence that any USAs resigned in the weeks leading up to October 2006? It looks like the "Resignation Guidance" letter was a bit of pump-priming, possibly leading up to the elections as a bit of added pressure, and not actually prompted by any serious resignation inquiries. We do this at work sometimes...recently, we hired a new employee who was in a wheelchair. About 2 weeks before she started, we sent out a communication to all employees that started something like, "We've received a few questions in HR lately about how to work with disabled employees. Here are a few tips for helping our valued employees feel comfortable in the workplace..." even though we really hadn't had any of those inquiries. We just wanted to get the information out in as friendly a manner as possible. Anyway, I haven't seen that any USAs voluntarily announced resignation in October, but we know that the target lists were being refined around that time.

There are some redactions on the preliminary "push out" list -- but Ryan's name isn't on the list. If the Congressional request was like subpoenas I've been involved with, you can't redact out "material" information, so since he's part of the inquiry he'd be included on the list as is. Wonder who else they were considering pushing out...and really wondering why Ryan isn't on the list at all since he's the most demonstrably performance-oriented termination. Unless, of course, performance wasn't really the problem. (ed: looks like Ryan's term was up in July, and he was being held over as is custom for the position. He might not have resigned but might have had his technically open seat appointed out from under him...but wouldn't he still get a call of some sort if they expected a vacancy?)

Even though the PATRIOT emendation makes it obsolete, DOJ did ask for Senatorial input on USA replacements...for states with Republican senators. McCain was not on the "consult" list for USAAZ...the notification only went to Kyl.

WHO ARE THE OTHER THREE WHO WERE ALMOST ASKED TO RESIGN? One of them might have been at the cusp of some kind of scandal...

Talking points are that "in every case" the DOJ has sought advice from home-state senators for nominations. Has anyone heard from Boxer or Feinstein? Which of them got the call for Lam?

Despite all the Sturm und Drang, Specter is *still* letting the DOJ write its own legislative amendments. Keep your eye out for anything he submits...

JIM wrote on March 20, 2007 5:34 AM:

How pathetic that as the sun begins to set on his failed Presidency, he blames the people of our Nation, saying we have some psychological trauma rather than learning the lessons of his enormous mistakes. He will never understand that a grateful nation would rise with relief, if he only had the wisdom to learn and change, and a grateful world will rise with relief, when his days in
office are done.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 to create fear throughout the land, rather than bravery, courage and valor.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 to launch partisan and dishonest attacks on genuine American war heroes because they happen to be members of the other political party.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 as a reason to become the only President in our history to become a world-wide advocate for torture and detention practices that every leader, of every democratic nation, everywhere in the world, has publicly or privately pleaded with
him to abandon.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for showing contempt for the advice of our military commanders by allowing the man he compares to Hitler, to escape from Tora Bora, to pursue an obsessive war in Iraq, that many of those same commanders warned him about, while he publicly claimed he always follows their advice.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for treating the Chief of Staff of the Army with ridicule and contempt, when General Shinseki so honorably tried to warn him.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history, for putting his hand on the Bible and pledging to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution while using 9-11 to claim the unilateral power to break it.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history by accepting the sacred duty to faithfully execute the laws of the land, while using 9-11 to create fears to claim the unilateral powers to violate them.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for dishonoring a spirit that had Democrats and Republicans singing God Bless America at the doors of our Capitol, to personally promote a politics so venomous, vile and vindictive that he fills the air with talk of treason and enemies lists compiled by hate filled supporters.

Even when one of his media partisans slanders the Army that landed at Normandy and the Marines who took Iwo Jima with preposterous falsehoods that they committed war crimes, the self-styled war president lacks the moral integrity to speak out, for fear of offending what he proudly regards as his base.

Even when the trailer park trash of American politics slanders and demeans some widows of 9-11, this partisan who promised to bring honor and integrity to Washington lacks the moral stature to speak out, even against that.

George W. Bush will be morally impeached by the court of history for trying to frighten our people into war with Iraq, with tall tales of Saddam Hussein working with Osama Bin Laden to create mushroom clouds of nuclear extermination that would kill the people of New York.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 to fan the flames of fear so violently, that at one point, the Capital City of the land of the free and the home of the brave was turned into a panicked hutch of rabbits running to the stores for duct tape, gas masks, bottled water, and bullet proof vests while the Vice-President of the United States fled to hiding spots at undisclosed locations.

How ironic, how pathetic, and how fitting that as America prepares to honor the heroes of 9-11 the Senate Intelligence Committee issues a report detailing fraudulent exploitation of false intelligence, one of America's national networks exploits 9-11 with a docu-fraud of falsehoods, while our "wartime" President exploits 9-11 one more time, with one more taxpayer financed tour of fear, desperately trying to win one more national election.

Five years ago some of the finest Americans who God ever put on this earth gave their lives for their brothers and sisters, for their neighbors and families, for the country that they and we love so much, so deeply and so passionately.

No one ever took a poll to determine whether these American heroes were Democrats or Republicans, because it does not matter.

jbenet wrote on March 20, 2007 9:41 PM:

http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/DOJDocsPt2-2070319.pdf

doc 2-2 pg 10

the McNulty 'files

from Michael Eiston

jan 18 2007

to: Kyle Sampson, etal

Kyle:

Kevin Ryan.s FAUSA, Eumi Choi just called to let us know that Kevin is not returning calls from Sen. Feinstine or Carol Lam and doing the best he can to stay out of this. He wanted us to know that he.s still a "company man." I gave her my talkers for McKay and Charlton and askered her to convey them to Kevin.

Mike

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