Comments (38)

profmarcus wrote on March 25, 2007 10:49 AM:

i am a recent frequent visitor... i remember when josh was working to get this started, i was somewhat put off with the title "muckraker..." well, i've gotten past that, needless to say... great work, all... you're having a HUGE impact...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

elrapierwit wrote on March 25, 2007 11:17 AM:

Josh, it is my fervent hope that TPM can become the Drudge report of the Left.

When something is reported here, it should be on the cable networks and big 3 news networks as a lead story

Right now this attorney purge story needs to shift from it being a Democrats vs. GOP story to the dismantling of a democracy.

What we have here is way bigger than partisian politics. Yes, the GOP wants to be the party of power in control in perpetuity..but the bigger issue is that we no longer have justice under the law. The integrity of our legal system has been stripped.

This story is about how an American Democracy was destroyed and justice subverted under the law.

The only thing that matters in a democracy with governance under the law IS the law.

In other words..we's been robbed!!!

This is not about one neighbor robbed (GOP) another neighbor(Dem)...the entire community has been robbed!

Let's shift the focus to the true severity of a DEMOCRACY in CRISIS.

Every single TPM reader needs to be writing letters to the editor, to Olberman, and Dobbs, Blitzer, Matthews, Williams...it is imperative that the overarching narrative of the story shift to the true meaning of the myriad actions.

The purge, corruption cases, 'voter fraud' issues are nothing but details withing the framework of a corrupt federal system of justice.

noshrub wrote on March 25, 2007 11:54 AM:

Nice job! Been with you from the beginning...nice to see some great coverage for the work you do.

Judy Solomon wrote on March 25, 2007 12:12 PM:

Small pont - but "on The Media" is also NPR - the NY station just picked it up as does my local station - WGBH.

fred dodsworth wrote on March 25, 2007 1:58 PM:

TPM, Muckraker, & Horse's Mouth are my first three reads many times a day. As a journalist for more than 25 years, I've seen too much fawning and cheer leading from the press and too little hard work. You (all of you including the commenting contributors) do a good job and deserve the 'attaboys' you're now getting.
It is my hope that you and your blogging ilk will remind the rest of the journalism community what real news for real people looks like.
fred

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 25, 2007 2:10 PM:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're all wonderful.

Back to business. After conducting further research, I learned that on 5/4/04, the IRS filed a tax lien against a Kyle Sampson in Washington DC in the amount of $91,627.10.

If this Kyle Sampson is the former DOJ AG Chief of Staff, how did he incur a $91k tax bill? Sampson presumably has been on salary for his entire career and it is pretty difficult to generate a $91k tax bill by taking a few unwarranted tax deductions or exemptions. In fact, you would have to file fraudulent tax returns to get up to $91k.

If the Kyle Sampson currently under investigation had a $91k tax lien slapped against him in May 2004, you have to wonder how he and his wife financed the purchase of a $425k house in the fall of 2004.

I think I remember reading that the Sampsons have four children so it is unlikely that his wife is working full-time and bringing in big bucks.

Again, I don't know for sure that the Kyle Sampson under investigation is the Kyle Sampson who has a $91k tax lien against him. The address on the lien is a post office box in Washington DC. Sampson's SS# is on the lien but I wouldn't know what to do with it.

JD21 wrote on March 25, 2007 2:23 PM:

Democracy Now!

For those on the left you haven't found Democracy Now yet, I highly recommend it. For those who think they are getting an unbiased view from Fox, I also highly recommend listening to Democracy Now for another POV. In my opinion, however, Democracy Now is a lot truer than Fox. Listen for yourself - their daily podcast is free and a little under an hour with no commercials. You will hear news the major networks don't pick up. Sometimes it's stories are widely reported around the world in nearly everyplace but the US, and sometimes they aren't. Amy Goodman, their award winning journalist reporter, is excellent. I like her hour better than BBC. You can hear it at:

http://www.democracynow.org/

JPT wrote on March 25, 2007 2:57 PM:

Keep up the great work! We need more accountability in Washington--not less. You guys are doing more of your fair share as citizen journalists.

chuckles wrote on March 25, 2007 3:10 PM:

I hope Sampson sings like a canary this week. Just wishful thinking as I am sure he is so scared. And this clown wanted to be a prosecutor...too funny.

FMArouet wrote on March 25, 2007 3:11 PM:

Mrs. Panstreppon,

Very interesting, but you are right. We need to be very careful to make sure that this is the same Kyle Sampson and that we not talking about some other tax deadbeat with the same name. Your instinct is good to protect the privacy of Sampson's SSN.

I believe (but am not sure) that our Sampson's full name may be Dennis Kyle Sampson. Here is a link to a first-stage result of a quick web search, which places him possibly in Alexandria, VA, which is just across the river from downtown WDC.

http://www.usa-people-search.com/order.aspx?city=Arlington&st=va&fn=Dennis&mn=K&ln=Sampson&searchpID=676928101

Is there anyone out there who actually knows the D. Kyle Sampson in question, whether he has this tax lien against him, and whether he bought a $425,000 house in 2004? (I didn't think you could find anything that cheap in WDC, even three years ago, but it might have been possible to find something for that price in the outer reaches of Alexandria, VA.)

PW wrote on March 25, 2007 3:28 PM:

Listening to the piece on NPR, it sounded like you were singlehandedly (so to speak) saving the republic from a fleet of pirates. Which is exactly right. You're much more than counter-Drudge, thanks for dang sure!

Mooser wrote on March 25, 2007 3:55 PM:

The tax lien angle sounds very interesting.
He should've kept his tax record clean

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 25, 2007 4:10 PM:

FMArouet@March 25, 2007 03:11 PM

D. Kyle And Noelle L. Sampson bought a house in Arlington VA in June 2004 for $425k. The seller had owned the house since 1995.

Noelle Sampson's maiden name is Transtrum. The Sampsons are Brigham Young U. '93 grads.

The "D" in D. Kyle Sampson probably stands for Dennis. The Sampsons list the address of Dennis T. and Carolyn T. Sampson in Utah as their address on some public records.

The SS# of the Kyle Sampson with the $91k IRS tax lien is available online and the source has been referenced previously in the TPM MR.

The fact that a post address is listed on the lien suggests that our Mr. Sampson is Kyle Sampson, tax scofflaw. The Sampsons probably were renting before June 2004 and may have had a reason to keep the address private for one reason or another.

FMArouet wrote on March 25, 2007 4:55 PM:

Mrs. Panstreppon:

Good work, but I'm not yet sure that the connection is yet established between D. Kyle Sampson, Arlington home purchaser (who is almost certainly our man), and Kyle Sampson, Washington, D.C. post office box tax scofflaw. Could the scofflaw, for example, be this guy below? Here is a link to a Yahoo search result, and clearly a different person (if the link doesn't work, search at Yahoo People for Kyle Sampson in Washington, DC):

https://find.intelius.com/purchase.php

Hope this can be tracked down, whether to verify or to disprove the connection conclusively.

Keep in mind, though, that the tax problem would be merely embarrassing (improperly reporting a capital gain on the sale of inherited property, mishandling a partnership dissolution, etc.), unless it involves tax evasion on large corporatist "commissions" given for services rendered. In that case, we could be talking about a half million dollar bribe from somebody who got what he wanted through the services a government official. The recipient may not have reported it, but it showed up in his bank account, and the IRS found out and extracted its pound of flesh.

We don't know that yet, but it is certainly worth pursuing. You may have uncovered a nugget that will reflect even at the middle levels the astounding, unprecedented, all-pervasive corruption of the Bush Administration.

A half million here, a half million there. Pretty soon it adds up to real money and influence.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 25, 2007 5:34 PM:

FMArouet@March 25, 2007 04:55 PM

I checked Intelius and there are other Kyle Sampsons in DC so maybe K. Sampson, tax scofflaw, isn't our Mr. Sampson.

LOL - If our Mr. Sampson owed $91k in taxes, it certainly would be an indication of how hand corruption is in DC.

According to a January WTOP Radio story, seventy-one employees in the Executive Office of the President, which includes the White House, owe $664,527 in taxes for 2005. About 20 of those employees have entered into an IRS payment plan, bringing the EOP balance down to $455,881 owed by 50 employees.

Robin L. Boerner wrote on March 25, 2007 5:46 PM:

Mrs. Panstreppon,

Not only is the question of this being the same Sampson interesting but, the Executive Office of the President employees is very interesting.

Your financial responsibility goes into the evaluation for a security clearance. Under the belief that Americans will give up secrets for financial gain if they are in trouble. Anyone working close to the President would have to have a clearance of some level from secret to PRP or such.

How could so many within the inner circle have money problems and still hold a security clearance?

paul lukasiak wrote on March 25, 2007 6:00 PM:

pure conjecture, but.....

it was my impression that Sampson was in line for the USA job in Utah, but that it went instead to the Specter aide who inserted the "we don't need no stinkin' Senate approval" provision in the revised Patriot Act.

Being a tax delinquent would certainly show up in any FBI Background Investigation.... so maybe that explains why Sampson didn't get the job he was slated for?

***********

on another matter... it really bothers me that you guys aren't being interviewed by the cable networks on this story. You broke it -- you OWN this story, and the MSM knows it. But just as with FDL and Marcy Wheeler with the Plame trial, the MSM in general seems to be avoiding you like the plague---they don't WANT your expertise clogging up their bloviatathons, apparently....

lip11 wrote on March 25, 2007 6:23 PM:

Congratulations. You're doing a great job. TPM is one of my favorite sites.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 25, 2007 7:10 PM:

I am going to put aside the tax lien issue. If there is anything to it, someone else will tell us, I'm sure.

What I do know for sure is that in early 2002, D. Kyle Sampson and other WH staffers pushed for Jeffrey A. Taylor to be named USA-Southern District of California. Instead, Caro Lam got the job.

From a 1/4/02 Robert Novak column:

"...White House staffers, uninterested in the women, really wanted Jeff Taylor -- a Justice Department lawyer who has been working in the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Kyle Sampson, a former Hatch aide who now works in the White House, along with Berenson has kept the LaBella nomination from getting to the president's desk..."

Jeffrey A. Taylor is currently the USA-District of Columbia. I assume Taylor is overseeing the Abramoff, Wade and Weldon investigations which all seem to be going nowhere.

Taylor seems to have done one lousy job investigating Steve Griles and his girlfriend, Italia Federici. Based on 990s filed with the IRS by the Council for Republican Environmental Advocacy, Federici, president of CREA, was being paid by someone else besides Jack Abramoff.

If Jack Abramoff paid off Federici for access to Griles, presumably whoever else paid off Federici wanted access to the DOI, too.

The Griles case is another example of the Republicans covering up corruption and the DC press sure helped them. When Federici testified in front of John McCain's committee in 2005, half of Washington must have known that Griles and Federici had been lovers.

Griles and Federici had a relationship that began in 1998 and it does not appear to have been a secret. Gale Norton certainly knew about it. Her association with Federici dates back to at least 1996 when Federici worked on her campaign.

Federici had access to DOI Secretary Gale Norton during Norton's tenure, according to Norton's calendar available online at CREW. Norton recorded at least one phone call and two meetings with Federici.

Look at all the meetings the DOJ held in advance of an appearance before Congress. You can bet the same thing took place at the DOI before Griles appeared before McCain's committee. When Griles lied to Congress, Norton knew he was lying as he testified.

Remember Italia Federici's snotty answers to McCain's questions? She wasn't the least bit concerned about lying to Congress, was she?

Another person involved with CREA, Julie Finley, has escaped public scrutiny altogether. Finley is a big-time GOP fundraiser who held dinners for CREA in her home. Finley's dead husband, a lawyer, represented energy interests when he was alive and it might be interesting to know if Finley had an financial interest in looking after Federici.

Was the Griles deal set up before even he testified? Lie to McCain, Steve, and we'll cut you an easy deal afterwards because we want to keep Norton's name and the rest of the story out of the news.

Curt Weldon does not seem to be concerned about being investigated. No one in the press has written about Cecelia Grimes and Cynthia Young contributing to a political campaign as executives of a defense contractor when they were supposed to be lobbyists. Young is Rep. Bill C.W. Young's daughter-in-law.

Nobody to date seems to be paying much of a price in the Abramoff case. Amy Ridenour knowingly laundered money for Abramoff but not only has she not been charged with a crime, no one has even suggested that her organization, the National Center for Public Policy Research, lose its tax-exempt status.

It seems as if Mitchell Wade is taking more time cooperating with the Feds than the time he was in business.

Someone might want to ask if Jeffrey A. Taylor will be going to the Southern District of California after he is finished obstructing corruption cases in Washington DC.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 25, 2007 7:14 PM:

BTW, I posted a lot of info about Italia Federici, CREA and Norton at the TPM Cafe. Link below.

chuckles wrote on March 25, 2007 9:27 PM:

http://www.aquilaarts.com/bushmonkey.html

FMArouet wrote on March 25, 2007 9:39 PM:

Mrs. Panstreppon,

A question about Sampson's home purchase in 2004: can you tell from your access to the public record whether the home was bought with a cashier's check or using a mortgage lender?

If the purchase was by cashier's check and there is no mortgage on the house, a big red flag would pop up.

Unless Sampson received an inheritance or a big gift from his parents, it would be hard to see how he could have built up this kind of equity by 2004 if he has, as you suspect, four kids, a non-working wife, and even a fairly generous government salary. I believe that he started working for Sen. Hatch more or less right out of law school, so he may well also have had some law school debts to pay off.

In that case, we really could be looking at the mysterious entry of a half million dollars into D. Kyle Sampson's life in 2004.

Hope somebody out there can determine whether D. Kyle Sampson of Arlington, VA and the Kyle Sampson of Washington, DC, tax scofflaw, are one and the same.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 25, 2007 11:31 PM:

Wikipedia has Jeffrey A. Taylor down as Interim US under the Patriot Act. Anyone know if this is true?

We might be looking at the Weldon leak in the wrong light. Gonzales appointed Taylor to be USA on 9/26/06 and three weeks later, the FBI had to raid the homes and offices of Karen Weldon, Charles P. Sexton and John J. Gallagher because news of the Weldon investigation leaked out.

Yes, the leak ruined Weldon's chances of re-election but the grand jury examining evidence against Weldon had been in session since at least May 2006 and it was probably a foregone conclusion that Weldon would be indicted for something substantial. If Weldon had been re-elected, it would have resulted in another GOP scandal involving a sitting member of Congress.

I think what was more important is that anyone involved with Weldon was alerted to the fact that the FBI was gathering evidence against Weldon though cell phone wiretaps and had done so for at least four months. If Weldon's phone was tapped, that is a really, really big deal.

Why was the FBI was tapping phones in an investigation of events that happened between 2002 and 2004?

As I noted above, Cecelia Grimes and Cynthia Young are listed in FEC records as having contributed to Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ)on 9/10/04 as executives of Galaxy Scientific, a defense contractor. For several years, Galaxy Scientific execs had contributed substantially to Andrews and Weldon.

Cynthia Young is Rep. Bill C. W. Young's daughter-in-law. Her husband, Robert, a student at Widener University in Chester PA, worked on Weldon's 2004 campaign. When the Youngs moved to Media PA, Cecelia Grimes reportedly handled the rental of house for them.

Since several other Galaxy Scientific execs also contributed to Andrews on 9/10/04, I suspect that the contributions were generated and bundled by someone within the company.

The story in the press about Cecelia Grimes becoming a lobbyist and then partners with Cynthia Young is simply preposterous. We are supposed to believe that real estate agent-turned-lobbyist, Cecelia Grimes hit it off with Cynthia Young who moved a few doors down from Grimes (in a $340k house)so Grimes took her in as a partner in her lobbying business in 2004.

Grimes has political connections. She was appointed to a three-year term on the board of a state commission in 1997. In Media, being politically connected means being a Republican.

Curt Weldon claimed he met Grimes when she coached one of his kids and then again when she handled the purchase of his house in 2000. I doubt Weldon needed a real estate agent to handle the transaction because he bought the house from a Florida government contractor who had just started doing business in PA in 2000.

Grimes is attractive, fortyish blonde and I've heard rumors about Weldon having affairs. I don't know if Weldon was having an affair with Grimes but I know real estate agents in Media PA don't just wake up one day and decide to become lobbyists. What do you think Grimes did? Call Congressman Weldon and say "Hi, remember me? I just wanted to let you know I am a lobbyist?"

The press has been somewhat vague as to when the Youngs moved to Media and under what circumstances. I read one story that claimed Cynthia Young, a 2002 law school grad, had a general law practice before moving to Media. Where, I don't know.

Grimes registered her first lobbying firm, CC Nexus, LLC, in Delaware on 10/25/02. My guess is that "CC" stands for Cecelia and Cynthia. If I am right, Grimes and Young were in the lobbying business together from the get-go. It also means Cynthia Young became a lobbyist only a few months after graduating from law school.

My theory is that Curt Weldon and Bill Young cooked up the lobbying scheme. If Grimes and Cynthia Young were on Galaxy Scientific's payroll as no-show execs, I'd say there was a good case to be made that Galaxy Scientific was bribing Weldon and Young.

I've even thought about why Robert Young is attending Widener U. His wife is around 28 years old so I imagine Robert Young is about the same age which means Robert is somewhat of a late bloomer. Weldon has done a lot for Widener U. over the years and maybe Weldon told Bill Young that he could ensure Robert would do well at Widener.

Widener U. certainly is not above politicking. It was awarded NASA research grants in connection with its rooftop observatory. The NASA principal investigator who approved the grants, Harry J. Augener, is now on the Widener astronomy staff.

A couple of months ago, I compiled a lot of information about Curt Weldon in the TPM Cafe and raised a lot of questions about other issues that are too complicated to go into here. The thread is lengthy and takes a couple of minutes to load. If anyone is interested, I pasted a link below.

If Curt Weldon and Bill C. W. Young are involved in criminal activity, the Republicans will go to great lengths to shut down the investigation. Young is the longest serving member of Congress and he has some very powerful supporters.

The Bush administration would certainly want to put the lid on a scandal involving members of Congress and the defense industry. Drag the Defense Department into it in the middle of a very unpopular war and all hell will break loose.

Jeffrey A. Taylor, USA-District of Columbia, has his work cut out for him. Shutting down major GOP corruption scandals must keep him very busy.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 25, 2007 11:53 PM:

FMArouet@March 25, 2007 09:39 PM

The record I looked at did not indicate the Sampsons took a mortage on the Arlington property but I can't say if that means the Sampsons did not take one. Other similar Virginia property records I've seen do indicate if a buyer took a mortgage at the time of sale.

Sampson worked for a Salt Lake City law firm, Parr Waddoups Brown Gee & Loveless, before joining Senator Orrin Hatch's staff in 1999. I haven't done any research but I read one story on the Wampum website(link pasted below) which referred to Parr Waddoups as having a number of clients who lease federal and Indian land.

You might want to read the story because it refers to Sampson's involvement with newly convicted Steve Griles, former DOI deputy secretary but I can't vouch for the story's authenticity.

bluestatedon wrote on March 26, 2007 1:16 AM:

There's a great piece at http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/ about the extensive web of connections between the Mormons, the DOJ, BushCo, and the Purge. Sampson is in the middle of it.

This excerpt confirms what Paul Lukasiak mentioned a few posts upstream:

"An email released in the document dump this past Thursday suggests Sampson as early as 2005 may have tried to push US Attorney for Utah Paul Warner out of his job so Sampson could then be appointed US Attorney. Warner did leave his position in 2006 to become a federal magistrate.

The job in Utah as US Attorney was given to Brett Tolman, a former Senate Judiciary Committee staff member to Senator Arlen Specter, who Specter now blames for inserting the stealthy, last-minute paragraph into the Patriot Act renewal in March, 2006, permitting Bush to appoint US Attorneys without congressional approval. In essence, Tolman wrote and surreptitiously inserted the paragraph in the Patriot Act renewal that enabled him to get the job as US Attorney."

bobh wrote on March 26, 2007 2:44 AM:

Has anyone thought to check and see who owned the home BEFORE it was purchased by this guy?

Whos to say that homes arent bough tup by front companies in long term bribery schemes and just waiting in the wings are half a dozen similar properties waiting for the right guy to move in.

Jack wrote on March 26, 2007 4:48 AM:

Mrs. Panstreppon -- Re: Jeff Taylor

The San Diego Union - Tribune. Oct 16, 2006

A former San Diego federal prosecutor has been named U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, taking over one of the busiest prosecutorial offices in the country.

Jeffrey Taylor, 41, had been a candidate for U.S. attorney in San Diego in 2002, but President Bush chose Carol Lam.

At the time, Taylor had just left the staff of Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and was a counselor to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. ...

Taylor worked on narcotics cases during part of his time in San Diego, from 1995 to 1999. ...

Now, Taylor becomes one of the most influential prosecutors in the country, heading a hybrid office that simultaneously handles federal prosecutions and street crime. ...

Because he was appointed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rather than President Bush, Taylor's appointment as an interim U.S. attorney doesn't require Senate approval.

While with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Taylor worked on post- 9/11 legislation, including the Patriot Act. At the Department of Justice, he has overseen counterterrorism prosecutions.

He said he looks forward to settling into his new job, which he started two weeks ago.

"Here, you're much closer to the casework," he said.

That includes supervising political cases, including the corruption scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, in which Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty Friday.

His office is also prosecuting Mitchell Wade, who admitted bribing Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges in San Diego last year and resigned from Congress.

barb in montana wrote on March 26, 2007 8:50 AM:

high praise for NPR interview w/Josh Marshall written by TRex at Firedoglake

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/03/25/late-nite-fdl-mad-props-yo/

Greg wrote on March 26, 2007 10:25 AM:

You were on PBS Frontline recently too.

Greg wrote on March 26, 2007 10:27 AM:

Also seen you on PBS Frontline and in an LA Times article too. You're like the Paris Hilton of the blogosphere. Hehehe

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