Waxman Reveals New Use Evidence Showing White House Use of Political Email Accounts
"U.S. News reported recently that several White House aides said that they stopped using the White House system except for purely professional correspondence. In a new letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding, House Government and Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman reveals new e-mail communications that provide further evidence that White House employees were trying to circumvent the archives system." (Think Progress)

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Email Shows Rove's Role in Fate of Prosecutors
"Almost every Wednesday afternoon, advisers to President Bush gather to strategize about putting his stamp on the federal courts and the United States attorneys’ offices. The group meets in the Roosevelt Room and includes aides to the White House counsel, the chief of staff, the attorney general and Karl Rove, who also sometimes attends himself. Each of them signs off on every nomination." (NY Times)

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Pakistan's $4.2 Billion 'Blank Check' for U.S. Military Aid
"In the three years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.2 billion, compared to $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks — a 45,000 percent increase — boosting Pakistan to the top tier of countries receiving this type of funding. More than half of the new money was provided through a post-9/11 Defense Department program — Coalition Support Funds — not closely tracked by Congress." (Center for Public Integrity)

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DOJ Official Ignored White House Guidance
"The firestorm over the fired U.S. attorneys was sparked last month when a top Justice Department official ignored guidance from the White House and rejected advice from senior administration lawyers over his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The official, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, ignored White House Counsel Harriet Miers and senior lawyers in the Justice Department when he told the committee last month of specific reasons why the administration fired seven U.S. attorneys." (ABC News)

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GSA Chief Accused of Playing Politics
"Lurita Doan, Chief Administrator of the General Services Administration, joined Karl Rove deputy Scott Jennings in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates. Jennings gave a PowerPoint presentation on Jan. 26 of polling data about the 2006 elections; afterwards, Doan allegedly asked how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections," according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee." (Washington Post)

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How 41 Pages Helped Unseat Lam
"When an anonymously authored 41-page Border Patrol report was released by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), it became a vital cog in Republican efforts to focus attention on Lam's prosecutorial record -- an assault that ultimately brought down the prosecutor. However, the report is oddly written, with editorial comments and aphoristic tangents interspersed among graphs and statistics." (Voice of San Diego)

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Prosecutors Says Bush Appointees Interfered
"The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case. Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers." (Washington Post)

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Justice Dept. Used Pregnancy As Excuse To Appoint Griffin
"In a Dec. 26, 2006 article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse explained that they 'temporarily' appointed Griffin, rather than Bud Cummins’ deputy Jane Duke, because Duke was pregnant. He noted that often, the first assistant U.S. attorney in the affected district will serve as the acting U.S. attorney until the formal nomination process begins for a replacement. But in this case, 'the first assistant is on maternity leave,' he said." (Think Progress)

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Justice Job Considered for Ousted Prosecutor
"With the Senate poised to rein in the attorney general's powers to appoint federal prosecutors, the Justice Department is engaged in discussions aimed at giving a new job to one of the seven U.S. attorneys dismissed without explanation on Dec. 7, according to a Capitol Hill Republican. Under fierce pressure from a Senate Republican, Justice Department officials are considering a new position for Daniel Bogden, the ousted U.S. attorney from Nevada who, agency officials explained to Congress, was dismissed in an effort to get "new energy" into the job." (Washington Post)

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Walter Reed Maintenance Contract Delayed 3 Years
"An Army contract to privatize maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was delayed more than three years amid bureaucratic bickering and legal squabbles that led to staff shortages and a hospital in disarray just as the number of severely wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan was rising rapidly. While medical care was not directly affected, needed repairs went undone as the non-medical staff shrank from almost 300 to less than 50 in the last year and hospital officials were unable to find enough skilled replacements." (AP)

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President Turns to an Insider to Negotiate on Dismissals
Fred F. Fielding, the new White House counsel, turned up Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill. He had come to negotiate with Democrats, who are investigating whether politics played a role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors and demanding testimony from Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush. But Mr. Fielding’s real task is even bigger and more delicate: to serve as the point man for the White House as it decides the future of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime Texas friend and confidant of Mr. Bush." (New York Times)

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Eye on Corporate Espionage
"A bizarre web of legal cases involving corporate spying and one of Washington, D.C.'s top lobbying firms has piqued the curiosity of a Congressional committee that has broad oversight powers." A current inquiry could result in "possibly exposing more details about a matter already filled with plenty of intrigue and putting a lobbying firm in the unenviable situation of going under the Congressional microscope." (Roll Call)

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US Sponsored Secret Renditions in East Africa
"A network of U.S. allies in East Africa secretly have transferred to prisons in Somalia and Ethiopia as many as 150 people who were captured in Kenya while fleeing the recent war in Somalia, according to human rights advocates here. Kenyan authorities made the arrests as part of a U.S.-backed, four-nation military campaign in December and January against Somalia's Islamist militias, which Bush administration officials have linked to al-Qaida." (McClatchy)

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White House Testimony Sought on CIA Leak
"Rep. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, might ask White House officials to testify about their actions involving the CIA leak case, Democratic sources tell Politico. President Bush has resisted past calls for appearances by his advisers, so the request could provoke another showdown between the White House and the new Democratic Congress." (The Politico)

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Halliburton Adds Headquarters, CEO to Dubai
"Halliburton, the big energy services company, said on Sunday that it would open a corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai and move its chairman and chief executive, David J. Lesar, there. The company will maintain its existing corporate office here as well as its legal incorporation in the United States, meaning that it will still be subject to domestic laws and regulations." (The New York Times)

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Plame to testify before House committee
"Former CIA officer Valerie Plame, who was exposed after her husband, former diplomat Joe Wilson, criticized President Bush's prewar intelligence, will testify next week before a House committee probing how the White House dealt with her identity. But it is unclear whether Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who was invited by Chairman Henry Waxman to appear before his committee, will accept the invitation." (MSNBC)

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Critics Say Blame Goes Higher Up in Walter Reed Scandal
Continuing its investigation of the Walter Reed scandal, the Senate Armed Services Committee be hearing testimony on Monday frmo David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Both men have much to speak for - Chu stirred controversy year ago when he said the army was spending too much on veterans care and not enough on bullets and bombs, while Winkenwerder failed to calm tempers when on February 21 he called the Walter Reed complaints "quality of life experience" issues. (Salon)

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Libby Declared Guilty in Perjury Trial
"I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted on Tuesday of lying to a grand jury and to F.B.I. agents investigating the leak of the identity of a C.I.A. operative in the summer of 2003 amid a fierce public dispute over the war in Iraq." (The New York Times) Speaking to the press after the verdict, juror Denis Collins said that there was a "tremendous amount of sympathy" for Libby, adding that the decision was based solidly on the evidence and that "opinion had very little to do with it." (The Los Angeles Times)

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Ashcroft Straddles Two Sides on Radio Merger Debate
"Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who sent a letter this week to his successor Alberto Gonzales blasting the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., approached XM in the days after the merger was announced offering the firm his consulting services, a spokesman for XM said Saturday. The spokesman said XM declined Mr. Ashcroft's offer to work as a lobbyist for the company. Mr. Ashcroft was subsequently hired by the National Association of Broadcasters, which is fiercely opposed to the merger." (The Wall Street Journal, sub. req.)

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Justice Department Pushes for More Internet Data Retention
“The Bush administration has accelerated its Internet surveillance push by proposing that Web sites must keep records of who uploads photographs or videos in case police determine the content is illegal and choose to investigate, CNET News.com has learned.

"That proposal surfaced Wednesday in a private meeting during which U.S. Department of Justice officials, including Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, tried to convince industry representatives such as AOL and Comcast that data retention would be valuable in investigating terrorism, child pornography and other crimes. . . Industry representatives respond by saying major Internet providers have a strong track record of responding to subpoenas from law enforcement.” (CNET News)

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Privacy Group Sues Justice Department Over Wiretaps
"A privacy rights group sued the Justice Department on Tuesday to try to pry loose a ruling by a secret court that the Bush administration says approved its clandestine wiretapping program. The suit, if it succeeds, should answer an important question about the future of the program: whether the court will require individual warrants, with specific evidence, before allowing the government to intercept phone calls and e-mails between Americans and alleged terrorists in foreign countries." (The San Francisco Chronicle)

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