The Muckraker's Reference Section
Kyle Sampson
An employee at the Department of Justice, Kyle Sampson moved up through the ranks to become the Chief of Staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in September of 2005. Prior to his work with the Justice Department, Sampson served as deputy White House counsel under then-Counsel Alberto Gonzales.
Samspon was involved in the purge from its first stages of development following the 2004 election. During the next two years, Sampson communicated with members of the White House Staff -particularly Harriet Miers, William Kelley and Scott Jennings- regarding the replacement of US Attorneys. Sampson was directly involved in the decision-making process; he helped to determine the number of employees released, ranked US Attorneys by loyalty to the administration, and recommended using the revised Patriot Act to replace attorneys.
Kyle Sampson resigned his position at the Justice Department on May 12, 2007, citing his failure to organize a more effective political response to the ongoing fallout from the firing of US Attorneys.
Key Points:
Sampson was the "keeper of the list."
Throughout his public testimony, Sampson denied responsibility for selecting attorneys to be fired, claiming in his written testimony that the firings reflected a "consensus-based process based on input from senior Justice Department officials." Sampson explained that his primary role in the process was one of aggregation; he did not add names himself, but rather added them based on the suggestions of others.
Sampson recommended firing attorneys who were not “loyal Bushies.”
In a January 2006 email to Harriet Miers, Sampson suggested that firing all current US Attorneys would be overly disruptive. Instead, he suggested replacing 10-15% of those serving, claiming "the vast majority of US Attorneys, 80-85 percent, I would guess, are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies, etc." Sampson also provided a ranking of all 93 attorneys, in which he made clear that loyalty to the administration was an important factor.
In his testimony from March 29, 2007, Sampson interpreted the expression “loyal Bushies” as, “loyalty to their [President Bush and Attorney General Gonzales’] policies and the priorities they had laid out for US Attorneys.”
Sampson sought to take advantage of the revised Patriot Act.
On September 13, 2006, Sampson recommended to Harriet Miers that they replace attorneys by using the Patriot Act in order to avoid senators, secure the administration’s choice and exert less political capital. Sampson also wrote to a fellow official in the Justice Department regarding the Patriot Act, “[I]f we don't ever exercise it then what's the point of having it?"
Sampson said in his testimony that advocating the use of the revised Patriot Act, “was a bad idea by staff that was not adopted by the principals. I did advocate that at different times.”
Sampson expressed an urgent need to get rid of Carol Lam.
US Attorney Carol Lam was overseeing the corruption investigation of former Congressman Duke Cunningham when she informed the Justice Department that she would execute search warrants against the CIA Executive Director Dusty Foggo. The following day, Sampson expressed a need to discuss “the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam.”
Sampson explained in his testimony that, despite the peculiar timing of his urgency, “there was never any connection in my mind between asking Carol Lam to resign and the public corruption case her office was working on....The real problem at that time was her office's prosecution of immigration cases." Substantial evidence about Lam’s immigration record has been raised to the contrary.
Despite repeated statements about dissatisfaction with the commitment of Carol Lam to immigration investigations, Sampson admitted in his testimony that Lam was never made aware of these concerns by anyone in the Justice Department.
Sampson was closely involved with the appointment of Tim Griffin.
Sampson began discussing a possible appointment for Tim Griffin, former aide to Karl Rove, as early as May of 2006. He discussed techniques to avoid consulting Democratic senators in Arkansas in the appointment. He also claimed that the appointment was, “important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”
Sampson had broad powers to hire and fire within the Justice Department
Both Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling were given broad discretionary powers by Attorney General Gonzales. A secret order signed by Gonzales in March of 2006 allowed Sampson and Goodling to hire and fire senior political appointees (although not US Attorneys), effectively cutting out other members of the Justice Department's senior leadership.
Research by Will Thomas
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