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Rick Renzi: August 2009

Renzi's Lawyers Argue Bush DOJ Leaked Info For Political Gain On Eve Of Election

Justin Elliott | August 30, 2009, 9:27AM

Fmr. WH Counsel Harriet Miers and Fmr. Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)

We now have the lawyers of a former Republican Congressman arguing that the Bush Administration encouraged the Justice Department to leak information on an ongoing probe for "partisan political reasons."

The twist comes in a motion filed Thursday in the case of ex-Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), who was indicted on 36 corruption counts in February 2008. (Read the motion here.)

His lawyers are demanding that the government show why it should not be held in contempt for disclosing information from grand jury proceedings.

The motion lays out the facts we now know, thanks to documents recently released by the House Judiciary Committee, about the White House's apparently successful attempt to secure favorable DOJ leaks on the Renzi probe in the days before the 2006 election.

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Topics: Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Rick Renzi

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.