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3000 Pages and Counting

By Paul Kiel - March 23, 2007, 2:21PM

We hear there's likely to be another document release from the Justice Department sometime today.

Comments (37)

Anonymous wrote on March 23, 2007 2:41 PM:

As to the delay, they probably had to go buy another few (thousand) cases of white-out...

Anonymous wrote on March 23, 2007 2:42 PM:

That's Wite-Out (tm)

Rusty wrote on March 23, 2007 2:43 PM:

Something tells me about 4:58pm, with the last guy hitting enter just before he races past the light switch (still on) and locks the door. Sounds like a good weekend to visit TPM. Great NPR segment. Keep up the good work.

Phoenix Woman wrote on March 23, 2007 2:46 PM:

Distributed journalists, start your engines!

Citizen 92 wrote on March 23, 2007 2:47 PM:

The willingness to unleash a sea of paper indicates not a willingness to cooperate, but a policy to cover-up.

For an administration whose own leaders (Cheney) won't go on record with the press but as "a senior government official" they're now being remarkably free with the document spigot.

Karl has clearly lost control.

tomg802 wrote on March 23, 2007 3:09 PM:

Have you guys seen this
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/03/23/BL2007032301067.html

It is very interesting read about the reasons for the firings.

Midwest Product wrote on March 23, 2007 3:10 PM:

Is this new dump a sure thing? I know deep into the research thread from the last dump a wiki-style approach was suggested. Can somebody put something like that together in a short enough time frame that it would be usable for this evening's treasures?

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 23, 2007 3:10 PM:

This is pretty funny.

"Fitzgerald faces friendly jeers on `mediocre' rating" by Matt O'Connor in the Chicago Tribune:

"...James Comey, a close friend and a former deputy attorney general who appointed Fitzgerald special counsel in the leak probe, agreed that it has been "the source of great merriment" among Fitzgerald's friends.

"I called him when it came out, and he said `I'm just an average guy having an average day,'" Comey said. "He just laughed about it. It doesn't require its own rebuttal. It's sort of like saying, `Derek Jeter is an average shortstop.'"

US8 wrote on March 23, 2007 3:13 PM:

Funny thing is DOJ has likely been sitting on these emails since they acquired this new electronic discovery system in February. They've had plenty of time formulate a strategy which is the selling point of the product.

http://www.metalincs.com/news/discovery_departmentofjustice_feb07_pressrelease.html

DF wrote on March 23, 2007 3:15 PM:

I also heard the NPR segment, well done.
This dump is going to be on the USA's. Everything done by the Bushies up to this point has been incompetent, but the big boys are playing now. Every time these USA's broke wind in public is going to be documented and sent. The whole point of the USA purge was to send a message... don't mess with the Bush machine. They can't let these USA's leave the stage unbloodied, that would be soft, and what good is a soft republican.

cars wrote on March 23, 2007 3:15 PM:

3000 pages makes it sound like there's a lot of substance there. But there's a huge volume of repetition. Hope we can get a searchable version of any new dump fast, to see what's new in the coverup.

John wrote on March 23, 2007 3:26 PM:

>>US8 said:
>>"and what good is a soft republican..."

I'm trying to restrain myself from making a Bob Dole joke here...

Doremus wrote on March 23, 2007 3:30 PM:

Court injunction against shredding. Too late?

Mossley Armless wrote on March 23, 2007 3:39 PM:

Shredding probably isn't the big worry. Digital signatures, manipulation of data, tape backups, encrypted files, destroyed server harddrives, etc. are probably worth a bigger concern. And what of this will address the mysterious gwb43.com emails and off the record Blackberries? Wherever the needles are hidden, we might have reasons to suspect big stacks of digital hay have been dropped on them, based on passed history.

anon wrote on March 23, 2007 3:41 PM:

... a wiki-style approach...

Yes, please.

Dirkangel wrote on March 23, 2007 3:48 PM:

Midwest Product: There is a wiki for the first large dump; I'm sure tonight's docs could and should be incorporated.
The wiki can be found at http://www.docstrangelove.com/gonzopedia/index.php/Main_Page

Foggylady wrote on March 23, 2007 4:02 PM:

This url below practically tells it all.
Wonder how many other fired USA's will be showing up?

http://www.correntewire.com/patriot_act_provision_used_to_suspiciously_replace_another_u_s_attorney_much_earlier_in_march_2006

Tho THIS story reminds me of the old Spy vs. Spy cartoons....USAs investigating USAs......

Michael Stevens wrote on March 23, 2007 8:05 PM:

These voluntary documents dumps suggest the White House has been trying to emulate the Clinton strategy of releasing everything, releasing it completely, and releasing it all at once. But the Bush administration has turned this winning strategy on its head. They haven't released everything, much of what they have released has been redacted, and they're definitely not releasing it all at once.

I don't think White House counsel Fred Fielding is a stupid man. If he knew things would play out this way, I doubt he ever would have suggested the document-dump. I think Fred Fielding is a smart White House counsel who has been deceived from within. He must know that for a document-dump strategy to work, there can't be any real meat to a scandal.

At a guess, Fielding was not accurately briefed as to the damning content in these documents and e-mails. Fielding almost certainly asked those involved if anything untoward or illegal happened in this matter. Maybe those involved didn't realize the implications of their actions, maybe (looking back to Watergate) they were reluctant to come clean with a White House counsel, maybe they didn't realize Fielding planned a document-dump when they assured him there was no wrongdoing, or maybe they thought they could get away with holding back certain documents.

Whatever the reason, officials both inside and outside the White House probably led Fielding to honestly believe there was no wrongdoing in this matter. This innacurate conclusions led Fielding to suggest a document-dump strategy to the President. Of course, once the first batch of those documents had been vetted by the media (and those here) Fielding realized he'd been deceived from within. By then it was too late. Once a White House opens the door to full-disclosure, shutting it screams of a cover-up.

I suspect the White House knows that shutting the door now would result in a special prosecutor. So they're keeping the door open and hoping there is no provable criminal wrongdoing.

My questions:

It became obvious in the second document dump that the White House and DOJ are vetting and redacting content in these documents.

What if those checking the documents uncover items suggesting criminal actions? Would those people checking the documents be committing a crime by redacting them?

Has the White House's claim that they are releasing *all* pertinent documents made them a bed of criminal conspiracy if they were to now hold back documents that suggested criminal actions?

georgia wrote on March 23, 2007 8:16 PM:

Anything yet? Please don't go down the Politico road. TPM has been reliable so far.

DF wrote on March 23, 2007 9:02 PM:

Good one John.

Lurker wrote on March 23, 2007 9:42 PM:

Guys? Where are you? The AP has run a story that AG Gonzales approved the firings, based on the new documents.

The Oracle wrote on March 23, 2007 11:06 PM:

Compared to other Republican sex scandals, what was the biggest (and most damaging) Republican sex scandal reported on last year? Just before last November's hotly-contested elections? That would have even "turned off" many loyal members of the Republican base, the goose-stepping evangelicals?

Mark Foley, long-time Republican U.S. Representative from Florida (now retired), who is a homosexual Republican with a penchant for young, male House pages.

Furthermore, the Republican House leadership had apparently been hiding Mark Foley's sexual escapades for years from Democrats and the House Page Office, thus putting all House pages in harms way.

So, does Mark Foley's name appear in any of the emails being dumped?

Even after the U.S. Attorneys were used to try to bump Foleygate news coverage from its dominant position in last years pre-election October news cycles by having them fabricate bogus voter fraud cases against Democrats around the country? Or as in the case of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico, pressuring him to release "sealed" grand jury indictments against Democrats earlier (in October) than the grand jury had scheduled to release them (December)?

This, my friends, is the smoking gun.

The Republicans don't want any connection to be made between the firing of the U.S. Attorneys in December and the pre-election Foleygate sex scandal from two months earlier, in which 85 U.S. Attorneys toed the line, while eight didn't, eight U.S. Attorneys who were subsequently fired in December for not doing enough to help Republicans win the November elections and retain control of Congress.

Heads had to roll and eight heads did. And we all know how vindictive the nutty neo-con Bush White House can be.

Anonymous wrote on March 24, 2007 1:07 AM:

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3000 Pages and Counting

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