James Traficant

Ohio Ballclub Cancels 'Traficant Release Night'

Justin Elliott | August 13, 2009, 5:28PM

Take me out to the corrupt ex-Rep. Traficant prison release party?

Alas, no -- a planned "Traficant Release Night" was canceled today by the Single-A Cleveland Indians affiliate in the disgraced former congressman's district after angry residents complained, the AP reports.

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Harriet Miers

E-Mails: On Election Eve, Miers Tried To Intervene With DOJ About Sensitive Renzi Case

Justin Elliott | August 11, 2009, 7:02PM

It's just days before the mid-term elections, and you're sitting in the White House watching a close Congressional race when it bubbles up that the the Republican incumbent, long dogged by corruption rumors, is under federal investigation.

That's the situation the Bush White House found itself in when it was reported in late October 2006, first on blogs, that U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was investigating Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ).

And that's when the damage control machine kicked into gear.

Scott Jennings, deputy to Karl Rove, and White House Counsel Harriet Miers intervened to try to get the Justice Department to throw cold water on the reports of an investigation, despite the DOJ's policy not to confirm or deny the existence of ongoing probes, according to e-mails released by the House Judiciary Committee today. (Read them here.)

In the two days following Miers and Jennings' emails, articles appeared in the press quoting DOJ officials saying the investigation was in "preliminary stage" -- which it was not.

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Dana Perino

Dana Perino On US Attorney Firings Scheme: 'I Can't Breathe'

Justin Elliott | August 11, 2009, 4:58PM

This is fun. In the trove of Bush White House documents released by the House Judiciary Committee is an email chain from November 2006 in which Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino first learns of the plan to purge U.S. Attorneys.

Perino's reaction after getting the heads-up email and the attached "USA replacement plan.doc"?

"Someone get me an oxygen can!!"

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Karl Rove

Rove: Remembering E-mails Is Like Remembering 'Raindrop In A Thunderstorm'

Justin Elliott | August 11, 2009, 3:47PM

The Washington Post does us the favor of tallying the "I don't recall"-s that saturate the hundreds of pages of Miers and Rove interview transcripts.

In 10 hours, Harriet Miers said she couldn't remember events almost 150 times.

Asked if Miers ever responded to an October 2006 email from Rove with the subject line "Domenici is calling me about the USA for New Mexico", Rove offered investigators this gem:

"I don't recall. I generally receive hundreds of e-mails a day, and asking me to remember replies is like asking me to remember a raindrop in a thunderstorm."

Read that section of the interview right here.

U.S. Attorneys

Rep Who Led Miers/Rove Questioning: Iglesias Case Was Most 'Pernicious Case Of Partisan Interference'

Justin Elliott | August 11, 2009, 3:30PM

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House Judiciary Committee member who led questioning of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, released a statement today skewering the Bush White House for considering "partisan and political considerations" in firing US Attorneys.

He concludes that "a weak and pliant leadership" of the Justice Department "largely refused to stand up to the pressure."

Schiff's office says the committee's findings will be forwarded, as expected, to prosecutor Nora Dannehy, who is investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in the firings.

Schiff's full statement:

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Karl Rove

'Very Agitated' Rove Called Miers From New Mexico To Complain About Iglesias

Justin Elliott | August 11, 2009, 3:12PM

We're digging through the trove of documents released today by the House Judiciary Committee on the US attorney firings and the politicization of the Justice Department under George W. Bush.

In a June 15 interview with House investigators, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers detailed a remarkable 2006 contact with Karl Rove, then on the road in New Mexico, regarding US Attorney David Iglesias.

Rove, Miers recalled, was "very agitated" about Iglesias, who was later ousted in the Bush Administration's purge of US Attorneys. Rove was getting "barraged" with complains by "political people that were active in New Mexico."

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U.S. Attorneys

House Judiciary Breaks Down 'Key Facts' In New White House Docs

Justin Elliott | August 11, 2009, 2:34PM

Below is a press release from the House Judiciary Committee on new facts about DOJ politicization brought to light by interviews with Karl Rove and Harriet Miers along with 5,400 pages of White House and RNC e-mails.

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Henry Paulson

Interesting Reading: Paulson's '06 Ethics Agreement And '08 Goldman Waiver

Justin Elliott | August 10, 2009, 6:01PM

Earlier today we told you about the near-constant phone contact between then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his successor as Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, during the height of the financial crisis last September.

Now, we've obtained from the Treasury Department Paulson's ethics agreement, in which he pledged not to participate in matters involving Goldman Sachs, and the waiver to that agreement granted by White House counsel Fred Fielding. You can read the agreement here and the waiver here.

Of the dozens of phone calls between Paulson and Blankfein, 26 occurred before Paulson requested and obtained a waiver to deal with matters relating to Goldman Sachs, the New York Times reported Sunday. The content of the calls is unknown. But two were the morning of Sept. 17, a day after the AIG bailout, which ultimately handed Goldman $13 billion of taxpayers' money -- before Paulson obtained the ethics waiver.

In Paulson's ethics agreement, written after President Bush plucked him from Goldman to be Treasury Secretary, all but two of eight pages mention Goldman. He concludes it by saying "these steps will ensure that I avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest."

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Henry Paulson

Co-Treasury Secretary Lloyd Blankfein? Paulson And Goldman Exec Talked 24 Times In Week Of AIG Bailout

Justin Elliott | August 10, 2009, 1:20PM

Blockbuster stuff from the New York Times Sunday on stunningly frequent contacts during the height of the financial crisis between Henry Paulson and his successor as CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein.

The then-Treasury Secretary and Blankfein spoke by phone two dozen times in one week in September 2008 when AIG was bailed out -- a deal that handed Goldman, a key counterparty of AIG, $13 billion in federal money.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Times' account of the contacts between the two men, for which Paulson belatedly sought and received an ethics waiver, is that the phone calls were often coming from the Treasury Secretary.

In one day, Sept. 17, Paulson called Blankfein four times. Then after taking a call from President Bush in the evening, the Treasury Secretary called Blankfein yet again -- almost as if he felt obliged to keep the Goldman CEO constantly abreast of his progress. He spoke with Blankfein "far more" than with other executives, the Times reports.

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Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo: My Time As AG Hurt My Reputation

Justin Elliott | August 10, 2009, 10:25AM

The Alberto Gonzales self-rehabilitation tour continues?

The former Attorney General, who launched a mini media blitz in May, is back, this time trying his hand with New York Times magazine interviewer Deborah Solomon.

Among other tidbits, Gonzo says he hasn't talked to George W. Bush since the president left office. And he confirms that no law firm has offered him a job in the years since he resigned. (Though his lawyer told TPMmuckraker in May he was engaged in unspecified "legal work.")

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