Comments (41)

Kate wrote on March 20, 2007 11:13 AM:

Yeah, Carol Lam wasn't prosecuting the "real crimes". These guys are the ones making law for the rest of us? Geez, we're in trouble. I wonder why Karl didn't stop it then though. Maybe Cunningham was a real pain in the butt and they decided he was too dirty to defend.

stats-man wrote on March 20, 2007 11:25 AM:

Apologies, but this comment is pretty much a repeat from a comment on "we need you to comb through the pages" post.

Re: Carol Lam and immigration cases

I went to http://www.uscourts.gov/stats/index.htm, and looked at the "D-3 tables cases commenced", which breaks information down by district.

I looked at the 12-month period ending June 05, it shows Calif-S initiating 1559 immigration cases.

For 12-month period ending June 04, the figure is 2285

My point is that there may indeed be something to Issa's complaint about the decreased prosecution of immigrations cases.

(Yes, the reason may well be that Lam needed so many investigators to untangle the Duke Cunningham-Jerry Lewis-Dusty Foggo-etc., mess).

But, still, readers should be aware that the number of immigration cases initiated _did_ decrease.

(Why is June 05 the most recent publicly available report? Did it go up again after June 05? Whatever the answer is, it is public info, it just hasn't been put up on the web site. I'm sure a call to the Adminitrative Office would answer that question).

Also, someone may want to look at the other districts involved here (N.M., etc.)

============
Of course this in no way excuses anything, or the Duke-stir's obvious conflict of interest. But in order to argue / advocate / form opinions intelligently, we need to know all the facts. The D-3 tables are also part of the facts.

tomboy wrote on March 20, 2007 11:29 AM:

Stats-man,

Lam admitted a reduction in the number of persecutions, but the length of sentences for offenders went up. They spent time on tougher cases, the most egregious violations, and actually taking things to court.

She apparently was never told by the DOJ that she should be acting otherwise.

Paul Rosenberg wrote on March 20, 2007 11:31 AM:

I don't know the figures, but this has been widely reported:

http://www.10news.com/news/11255228/detail.html

"Feinstein: Lam Fired Over Cunningham Prosecution"
(AP)

Feinstein wrote to Gonzales last June questioning border prosecution guidelines in Lam's district, but received a reply from Moschella in which he described Lam's immigration smuggling caseload as rising "favorably" in 2006.

Stormwatcher wrote on March 20, 2007 11:41 AM:

That letter was also signed by :
Jerry Lewis - next in line for indictment
Richard Pombo - corruption suspect
John T. DooLittle - corruption suspect

and those are just the "Signatures" I can make out.

Rayne wrote on March 20, 2007 11:49 AM:

If Lam is too busy trying to keep Issa and the DOJ-DC off her back, she can't spend as much time on white collar corruption, now, can she?

And if there's (15) signatories, she probably has to do something to make each of them happy rather than just one or two pains in the neck. Nevermind that thos (15) signatories probably didn't do a lot to ensure a substantive increase in funding commensurate with the increase in prosecutions they wanted, in parallel with the "Ashcroft Letter" that asked for fewer more substantive prosecutions rather than more but smaller prosecutions on immigration.

Obstruction. That's what this is.

profmarcus wrote on March 20, 2007 11:50 AM:

i'm inclined to think there's a very good chance bush may try to retain gonzales... he does so at great political risk to his credibility, since so many in his own party are jumping ship over this latest scandal... however, if you think about it, a gonzales departure would remove fully one-third of bush's inner, INNER circle defense, the other two being rove and cheney... bush is undoubtedly highly conflicted about saving his ass with his own party vs. leaving an entire flank exposed... he's truly between a rock and a very, very hard place... gonzales leaving will potentially open the floodgates to a massive deluge of garbage that has been accumulating for six-plus years...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/...

JPT wrote on March 20, 2007 11:51 AM:

Duncan Hunter was also on the list.

Darrell Issa and Bono also received money from MZM and ACDS, but I believe they may have returned funds.

Still not too flattering when 40% of the signatures are from people who have a very real conflict of interest with the MZM, ACDS angle.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/cunningham/20051208-9999-1n8dukefund.html

HARVARD wrote on March 20, 2007 12:04 PM:

Is anyone (San Diego paper, others in The Press) examining the Cunningham files? Is anyone tracking:

*All those earmarks (To Wilkes, Wade, et al?

*Money paid not only to "The Dukester" but to:

*Sham corporations run by Wilkes, Wade and Who Knows who else

*The kickbacks by Wilkes, Wade and Who Knows Who Else to assorted (read run by Delay and Abramhoff) to assorted GOP fundraisers?

*In the end, will we learn American Taxpayers' money was being "stolen" to fund Fake Defense Companies AND The Repubican Party?

The money that was paid to both Cunningham AND to assorted GOP? This isn't rocket science folks ...

EH wrote on March 20, 2007 12:06 PM:

Another datapoint is that Darrell Issa is a winger psycho not known for his ability to keep his handguns out of public view.

scavok wrote on March 20, 2007 12:06 PM:

Which makes me wonder whether the other names on the list had a reason for getting Lam to focus on immigration more than on investigating their crimes.

Stormwatcher wrote on March 20, 2007 12:08 PM:

Majority of signatures appear to have conflicts of interest with her corruption investigation.
Dana Rohrbacher, George Radanovich, Ken Calvert, Walley Herger, Devin Nunes, Dan Lungren. etc....

SteinL wrote on March 20, 2007 12:27 PM:

"Bring me the head of Alberto Gonzales!"

Well, you couldn't script the absurdity of this administration with any greater aplomb.

klevenstein wrote on March 20, 2007 12:28 PM:

OK. Check out Rep. Issa's own web site:

http://issa.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.View&ContentRecord_id=405&CFID=21649177&CFTOKEN=32567297

See Lam's reply noted at the bottom of the page, which seems to completely debunk the charges that she was negligent.

JPT wrote on March 20, 2007 12:31 PM:

Stormwatcher, not so sure about the ones that you've listed. Rohrabacher is believed to have a connection to the Abramoff scandal, but not so sure about a connection to MZM, ACDS. The other ones just appear to be members of the California GOP.

The ones that I have with an established link are:
Cunningham, Lewis, Doolittle, Hunter (the big four), followed to a lesser extent by Pombo, Issa, and Bono. 7 of the 18. (See San Diego Tribune article link above). Still a significant number with a conflict of interest.

If I'm not mistaken Rohrabacher is the only GOPer congressman to call for Gonzo to get canned so far.

cmc wrote on March 20, 2007 12:40 PM:

Ken Calvert accompanied Duke Cunningham and one of Cunningham's bribers, Thomas Kontogiannis on a trip to Saudi Arabia in Dec 2004 to "better promote relations between the US and Saudi Arabia"

bibimimi wrote on March 20, 2007 12:41 PM:

I see Cunningham's face and all I think is "hookers-hookers-hookers!!" and what a greedy lecherous scum he is and was all well he states he's "on the side of the angels, here!"

Carl Nyberg wrote on March 20, 2007 12:43 PM:

Do other criminals send letters complaining their prosecutors should be spending their energy on something else?

klevenstein wrote on March 20, 2007 12:44 PM:

Note that the 'pubs expended a lot of energy on their supposed "oversight responsibility" of the Justice Dept., while expending zero on oversight of the rogue, traitorous Bushie administration.

Does the Constitution really give Congress this kind of "oversight responsibility" over Justice?

jhickey wrote on March 20, 2007 12:47 PM:

My God. These guys touch all bases in corruption.
Start with deny everything. Lie. Don't investigate(Libby/Plame).Appointing federal procueters that are Bushies.Stacking the Supreme Court. Getting the right coverage on Fox NY Post. After all else fails Pardons.Thank God for subpoena power.THWOW THE BUMS OUT.JHickey

jhickey wrote on March 20, 2007 12:49 PM:

My God. These guys touch all bases in corruption.
Start with deny everything. Lie. Don't investigate(Libby/Plame).Appointing federal procueters that are Bushies.Stacking the Supreme Court. Getting the right coverage on Fox NY Post. After all else fails Pardons.Thank God for subpoena power.THWOW THE BUMS OUT.JHickey

DG wrote on March 20, 2007 12:51 PM:

It's been mentioned here before, but at least four of San Diego's Congresspeople had reason to make sure Lam didn't make any headway in another sole-source contract fiasco (Hunter, Bilbray, Filner, and the Duke-ster).

See:

http://hughbartling.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-politics-influenced-big-clean-up.html

http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/Bajagua/co-060301-Bajagua.html

david baerwald wrote on March 20, 2007 1:05 PM:

Slightly OT, but you citizen journalists are making me proud. What an interesting moment in journalistic history, with the work being done here, and over at Firedoglake. It almost seems like... democracy.

cevrero wrote on March 20, 2007 1:06 PM:

If they start prosecuting more illegal immigrants, they might have to pay real money for someone to clean their mansions and educate their children. Don't forget to pay your illegal immigrant time and half for holidays.

stats-man wrote on March 20, 2007 1:12 PM:

re: Carol Lam

I fear my earlier post was misunderstood. There are lots of good reasons for Lam's numbers to go down on immigration.

And, in fact, Lam described a meeting with Issa in one of the emails that got released, that does a better job of explaining it (as well as describing that Issa seemed to be *satisfied* with the explanation) than anyone else has. (That's why she's a good US Attorney and the rest of us aren't).

Please see http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/DOJDocsPt7-8070319.pdf page 12.

I'm just shedding light on the *apparent* reasonableness the original complaint (and that anyone discussing Lam will have to know those facts, as well as her rebuttal).

Dale145 wrote on March 20, 2007 1:19 PM:

Paul: perhaps you could add a running "Update" above, on the conflicts of interest of some of the other signatories?

Below is a list of signers. I can't make out #'s 3, 4, 7, & 11 on p. 2; someone who knows or looks up the CA delegation can probably guess them. (Duncan Hunter is one.) I've added a few more notes on conflicts I'm aware of.

(p. 1:)
1. Darrell Issa: received money from MZM and ACDS.
2. Ed Royce: ?

(p. 2:)
1. Ken Calvert (R-CA 44th CD): in September 2006, CREW named Calvert as one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress," based on "his use of earmarks for personal gain and his connections to a lobbying firm under investigation." Calvert brought real estate (with his brother Quint and Woodrow Harpole) near projects that he sought Federal funding for. (See Wikipedia for details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Calvert#Controversies)

2. John Doolittle: corruption suspect. Fifth highest recipient of Abramoff money, refused to return it.
3. ?
4. ?
5. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA 46th): close friend of Jack Abramoff for 20 years. Trip to Marshall Islands with John Doolittle funded by Abramoff. (Google for sweatshop scandals in M.I.). Ate free at Abramoff-owned restaurant Signatures. Defended Abramoff, e.g. in December 2005 told Washington Post: "I think he's been dealt a bad hand and the worst, rawest deal I've ever seen in my life. Words like bribery are being used to describe things that happened every day in Washington and are not bribes." Pleaded for leniency with judge after Abramoff's conviction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Rohrabacher#Controversies

6. Devin Nunes: ?
7. ?
8. Richard Pombo: corruption suspect. Received $7,000 from Abramoff in 2003 ($5k to PAC).
9. Bill Thomas: ?
10. [second column] George Radanovich: ?
11. ?
12. Buck McKeon: ? seems clean
13. Mary Bono: ? received money from MZM or ACDS?
14. Walley Herger: ?
15. Jerry Lewis: next in line for indictment
16. Dan Lungren: ? [NB: "illegal aliens" are his big issue]
17. Randy "Duke" Cunningham: pled guilty, convicted.

Vadranor wrote on March 20, 2007 1:31 PM:

For those who have difficulty reading terrible handwriting, the names are Darrell Issa and Ed Royce on page 1. On the next page, the left column is Ken Calvert, John Doolittle, Gary Miller, Elton Gallegy, Dana Rohrbacher, Devin Nunes, Dan Lungren, Richard Pombo and Bill Thomas. The right column is George Radanovich, Duncan Hunter, Buck McKeon, Mary Bono, Wally Herger, Jerry Lewis, David Dreier and the Duke. Basically, it is the entire California Republican delegation. John Campbell had not yet been elected to replace Chris Cox when he left to become head of the SEC.

JPT wrote on March 20, 2007 1:36 PM:

Dale145, I believe the signature just above "Duke" is Duncan Hunter, not Dan Lungren.

JPT wrote on March 20, 2007 1:37 PM:

Scratch what I said. Vadranor has got it right

Kay wrote on March 20, 2007 1:59 PM:

Royce was possibly tied up with a gentleman named tom rubin. Rubin was recently (end of 2006?) convicted for fraud and money laundering (approx. $30 mill). Rubin was under indictment in 2005.

I'm not 100% sure of the reliability of this website, as I've never heard of the organization before, but it's a press release detailing what Royce may have tried to do to help out rubin.

http://www.ereleases.com/pr/20061102005.html

kathi smith wrote on March 20, 2007 2:04 PM:

The net effect of this pressure on Border districts to file immigration prosecutions is to make these districts safe havens for non-immigration criminals. Sadly, the ones who would be most keenly aware of this safe haven would be the polticians privy to the pressure to file immigration cases.
If the interior state districts would prosecute employers attracting these workers, the burden of prosecuting would be spread more evenly and there would be fewer safe havens.
Re "Illegal Immigration", there is an interesting article in Monday's LA Times about jobs created by micro-credit in southern Mexico.

jdw wrote on March 20, 2007 2:10 PM:

If anyone at TPM is decently connected to Keith (I saw Josh's appearance on Countdown last week), they might want to point out this and the Issa lies about the phantom "Report" to him. They may not be smoking guns, but they give off a stink.

When passing it along to Keith, you need to set it out very clearly in "bite" form that he can roll into coverage. The timing of the SD investigation into Duke. The specific Congressmen to reference in signing it (Duke, Lewis, Issa). The timing of Issa making a stink. Issa admitted the "Report" was a phantom, yet later referencing it several times after the admission.

Again, perhaps not a smoking gun. But something that smells bad, and that needs the force of both blogs like TPM and also MSM like Countdown to get Congress to look under these rooks.

John

Bayareagirl wrote on March 20, 2007 2:10 PM:

Rep. Ed Royce had a press spokesman named Bryan Wilkes until at least 2000. A Bryan Wilkes of Chula Vista was listed as a campaign contributor to a local politician along with other Wilkes family members. Is the press spokesman a relative of Brent Wilkes?

conniptionfit wrote on March 20, 2007 2:11 PM:

Well, there's your list of possible felons to investigate right there. And as far as Bush feeling pressure to dump anyone, I think it's wise to remember that Bush is at the end of his political career, and he really doesn't have to give a d*mn about what anyone, even fellow republicans want or need. The only thing that Bush HAS to do is keep his own butt out of jail. Everything and everyone else is expendable.

caligirl wrote on March 20, 2007 2:21 PM:

Don't overlook USA Yang. she left the Los angelas attorney's office Nov 10 and accepted a 1.5 million dollar salary to work for the very law firm defending Congressman Jerry Lewis, who is suspected of crimes like those of Cunningham.

www.Law.com even uses a quote from her yesterday: "The greatest travesty here is that you don't want to take away the independence of the U.S. Attorney's office," says Debra Wong Yang, who until last year ran the country's second-largest U.S. Attorney's Office, in Los Angeles. "The public relies on the impartiality of their prosecutions," adds Yang, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. "To have it operate on anything less does a huge disservice to us as a nation."
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1174035822692

How better to defend their client Lewis than to hire the USAttorney responsible for over seeing the justice dept investigation of him. Lewis has paid this firm over $800,000 in legal bills so far. they are the second firm he has hired to deal with his investigation on corruption.

Barbara wrote on March 20, 2007 2:33 PM:

I've copied the following post by Mrs. Panstreppon about Carol Lam prosecuting two Border Patrol agents for smuggling aliens just before Border Patrol began complaining to Congress about her

The Border Patrol appears to have instigated congressional complaints about Carol Lam's prosecution of coyotes sometime last spring. At the time, Lam was prosecuting two Border Patrol agents for smuggling aliens.

7/6/06 - Carol Lam in court after two Border Patrol agents were convicted: "These are Border Patrol agents who smuggled illegal aliens. It doesn't get much worse than that."

1-1 #10-22 5/18/06, Rep. Darrel Issa releases internal "report" provided by Border Patrol to press. Issa appears on Lou Dobbs on 5/22/06 to discuss report. Lam disputes authenticity of report. Issa also sends letter to Lam on 5/24/06.

1-2 #17 Issa channeled Border Patrol complaint to Rep. James Sensenbrenner, according to Lam in August 2006. Both Issa and Sensenbrenner met with Lam, presumably in San Diego, and Sensenbrenner was mostly concerned about the lack of prosecution of coyotes.

Is it unusual for the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to travel to California to discuss the prosecution of coyotes who would likely be sentenced to 60 days?

How many other USAs has Sensenbrenner met with in their districts?

2-8 #1 - Senator Feinstein's letter about the prosecution of border cases is dated 6/15/06 and was instigated by a complaint from the Border Patrol.

1-1 #25 - 10/25/05 letter from California GOP members of Congress to Gonzales complaining about the prosecution policy of "catch and release." Specifically nmentions two cases. No followup documents in 1-1.

So far, these documents appear to constitute the basis for the DOJ's position that Lam did not adequately pursue immigration cases.

Posted by: Mrs Panstreppon
Date: March 20, 2007 01:33 AM

Scott wrote on March 20, 2007 8:33 PM:

Is it beyond reason to suggest that perhaps someone "high-up" REQUESTED letters from politicians criticizing the US Attorneys, in order to "create" a paper trail supporting a reason to "fire" them?

One thing this administration is good at, is planning. They plan, all the time.

Bayareagirl wrote on March 21, 2007 12:06 AM:

There is an article about Lam today in the North County Times. She was a political independent, (not a Bushie) and traded "low-end coyote" cases for prosecutions of smuggling ring-leaders and violent criminals.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/21/news/sandiego/15_27_473_20_07.txt

hang a left wrote on March 21, 2007 2:46 AM:

re: Yang

read yesterday she got a 1.5 million dollar signing bonus.

Dump Doolittle wrote on March 21, 2007 12:39 PM:

Naturally, John Doolittle signed this letter. Pombo, too.

taters wrote on March 24, 2007 11:51 AM:

I'm surprised Issa's sig isn't there - or is it?