David Iglesias is comparing Sheriff Joe Arpaio's alleged targeting of political foes to the notorious Rove-Gonzales politicization of DOJ, which led to Iglesias's own improper firing.
The evidence against the Arizona sheriff was "very similar to what was going on at the Department of Justice under the Bush administration," Iglesias said in an interview with TPMmuckraker. "It unfortunately felt very familiar."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (7) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the hard-line anti-immigration Arizona sheriff, is being probed by the FBI for allegedly using his authority to retaliate against political adversaries, sources tell a local TV station. One of the key cases cited by Phoenix-based KPHO is one we told you about recently, in which a husband-and-wife team of big-name Washington GOP lawyers was briefly recruited to try to build a case against a local official who had clashed with Arpaio.
In response to the KPHO report, Arpaio bizarrely lashed out at ... David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney who had dared offer an expert opinion to the station.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (25) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Mary Beth Buchanan, the Bush-appointed federal prosecutor who had a cameo in the U.S. attorney firings scandal and was charged with pursuing politically motivated prosecutions, is stepping down.
Buchanan, a Republican, is said to be mulling a run for Congress against incumbent Democrat Rep. Jason Altmire. In a statement yesterday, she said she was "looking forward to the next chapter of my professional career," without elaborating.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (7) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Could apparently false statements made by the head of a coal-industry lobby group before Congress this morning end up being referred to the Justice Department for a criminal perjury probe? Congressional investigators aren't ruling it out.
As we reported, Steve Miller, the director of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), appears to have twice misled Congress while under oath during his testimony this morning over those forged letters sent on the coal lobby's behalf by Bonner and Associates.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (5) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Hat tip Marcy Wheeler at Firedoglake...
Did Chris Christie's top aide resign as a top prosecutor this summer in order to prevent information about her financial ties to Christie from becoming public? Let's look at the facts:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)The office of a top Bush-appointed federal prosecutor who played a role in the U.S. attorney firings scandal received improper recordings of telephone calls between defense lawyers and their clients, and appears not to have turned them over to authorities, as required by law.
On Wednesday evening, Lisa Freeland, a Pittsburgh-based federal public defender, sent a lengthy email to fellow defense lawyers, reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, exposing the episode. "I am incensed," Freeland wrote.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (14) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has released a letter he sent today to the Justice Department calling for an investigation into the possible politicization of the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey in the service of Chris Christie's campaign for governor.
In the letter to Mary Patrice Brown, who runs DOJ's internal ethics unit, Lautenberg, the chair of the Jon Corzine campaign, focuses on ties between Christie, a Republican, and his former top aide Michele Brown, which Lautenberg says raise "serious concerns." We laid out many of those ties here.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)So far, the charges that Chris Christie turned the U.S. attorney's office into a "branch office" of his campaign for governor, as Jon Corzine put it yesterday, have centered on the relationship between Christie and Michele Brown, a close friend and top aide to Christie when he was US attorney. Brown reportedly took several actions this year that benefited Christie's GOP bid for governor, and in 2007 got an undisclosed $46,000 loan from him.
But did another of Christie's former top aides also put the prosecutor's office in the service of his one-time boss's political aspirations? Ralph Marra, who until this month was the acting U.S. attorney, has several times appeared to insert himself into the political back-and-forth over the race, appearing to pointedly criticize a request by the Corzine campaign for public information, and even triggering a Justice Department probe into whether he made inappropriately political public comments that may have boosted Christie.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Sen. Frank Lautenberg is calling for a federal investigation into whether former U.S. attorney Chris Christie used his office for political gain, reports the AP.
The New York Times reported this morning that a close Christie aide and friend in the office took several steps that benefited Christie's campaign for governor, after receiving a $46,000 loan from him. We took a broader look at the case that Christie may have improperly politicized the U.S. attorney's office here.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Back in August, when it was revealed that Chris Christie had given an unreported $46,000 loan to Michele Brown, his top deputy at the US attorney's office, we had a sense there was more to the story than we'd yet learned.
And today's revelations from the New York Times help fill out the picture. Simply put, a close look at the unusually close relationship between the two -- as well as at other evidence that Christie retains ties to his former colleagues in the prosecutors' office -- strongly suggests that in the service of his bid for governor, he may have improperly politicized an office that's supposed to be an independent administrator of justice.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (15) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Did a top prosecutorial deputy to Chris Christie improperly use her position earlier this year to boost his run for governor -- despite the candidate's recent claim that she had done nothing to help his campaign?
The New York Times has assembled some pretty good evidence.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (8) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Via Main Justice, we note with interest that
U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, who has been accused of pursuing politically motivated prosecutions and who played a role in the US attorneys firings scandal, is reportedly looking at a run for Congress in Pennsylvania.
Buchanan is consulting with state and national GOP leaders and is "50-50" on whether to run, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, quoting a local Republican county chair.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Notorious anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio is working with a husband-and-wife GOP lawyer team that was one of Bill Clinton's biggest tormentors during the 90s, to go after a local Arizona official. But critics are calling the effort a politically motivated fishing expedition. And the defense lawyer on the case knows something about politicized justice: he was one of the US attorneys improperly fired by Alberto Gonzales.
Here's the back-story. It's got a few twists and turns. But stay with us -- it's worth it:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (35) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)In the period after 9/11, law-enforcement agencies around the country suddenly made rooting out anyone with possible ties to terrorism a top priority. But did one Bush appointee take that zeal too far by targeting people based on little more than an Arabic-sounding name?
The Convenience Store Initiative was the farcical-sounding name of a program launched by the office of Jim Greenlee, the US attorney for Mississippi's northern district, according to documents obtained by the state's Clarion-Ledger newspaper.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)One point that often gets overlooked in the current freak-out over ACORN, is that the US attorney firings were, in part, a different manifestation of the same Republican-driven campaign to discredit and sideline the group that we've seen recently.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night interviewed David Iglesias, and reminded us that Iglesias was fired in large part for not pursuing bogus voter fraud cases tied to ACORN. The New Mexico GOP, along with Karl Rove, understood that hampering the registration of poor and minority voters was crucial to boosting Republicans' chances in the minority-heavy state. And that pressuring law enforcement to bring voter fraud cases implicating ACORN, despite the lack of evidence, was the best way to do it.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)The Wall Street Journal is out with a story suggesting Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) exerted untoward influence over a US Attorney pick for Georgia by blocking an experienced candidate who had prosecuted a longtime friend.
Is there anything to the story?
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Daniel Bogden, who was fired by the Bush Administration in 2006 during its purge of US Attorneys, officially got his old job back yesterday as the Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent to be US Attorney for Nevada.
President Obama nominated Bogden for the job earlier this year. Nevada Senators Harry Reid (D) And John Ensign (R) each hailed Bogden in statements.
Reid's statement after the jump:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (11) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)The Schloz can breathe a sigh of relief.
The Justice Department has decided to uphold the Bush administration's decision not to charge former Bush DOJ official Bradley Schlozman with perjury in connection with his testimony about politicized hiring at DOJ. The news was contained in a letter from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to Sen. Chuck Schumer, which was obtained by TPMmuckraker.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (22) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)We told you yesterday about Allen Weh's hilarious claim that, in working to get David Iglesias fired as U.S. attorney because he wasn't prioritizing bogus voter fraud cases that would help Republicans, Weh, then the state GOP chair, was actually going against his party.
And now, Iglesias has responded. In a lengthy statement to TPMmuckraker, Iglesias calls Weh's claim "a world class display of chutzpah," and writes that Weh, who yesterday formally announced his campaign for New Mexico governor, "may not be in touch with reality or may not even be literate."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (20) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)Hard to match this for chutzpah...
Allen Weh is running for the Republican nomination for governor of New Mexico. You'll remember Weh from the U.S. attorneys scandal, in which, as chair of the state GOP, he played a key role in pressing the Bush administration, successfully, to fire David Iglesias.
And in talking himself up in a Democratic-leaning state, Weh has been claiming that the Iglesias firing shows he's capable of taking on his own party!
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Via National Law Journal (sub. req.)...
This one'll make your skin crawl...
Kyle Sampson, the Bush Justice Department staffer who played perhaps the most active operational role in the U.S. attorney firings, has been granted a rare waiver to practice law in Washington D.C., despite an ongoing criminal investigation into the scandal.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (23) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Hat tip to Roger Shuler at the Legal Schnauzer blog for this one...
It didn't get much attention, but the testimony from Karl Rove that was released this week concerned not just the U.S. attorney firings, but also another alleged instance of politicization of the Justice Department: the Don Siegelman prosecution.
David Iglesias has reacted with a combination of satisfaction and indignation to this week's release of documents on the U.S. attorney firings.
"I feel 100 percent vindicated," Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, whose dismissal was the most controversial of the bunch, told TPMmuckraker in an interview.
Those newly released documents from the U.S. attorney firings raise a few questions about the Republican who may be his party's highest profile electoral contender this year.
That's Chris Christie, the former U.S. attorney from New Jersey, who's also leading incumbent Jon Corzine in that state's race for governor.
After firing David Iglesias as U.S. attorney for New Mexico, Karl Rove's top aide longed to replace him with a Republican party activist who had helped agitate for the firing in the first place, newly released documents reveal.
In early January 2007, several weeks after the firings had been carried out, the Albuquerque Journal reported, based on a press release from New Mexico senator Pete Domenici, that there were four leading candidates for the newly vacant post.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (13)It's fair to say the U.S. attorney firings scandal turned out to be a pretty big deal. It contributed to Alberto Gonzales' resignation as Attorney General, and triggered an ongoing criminal investigation.
But based on those newly released documents, John Solomon's take was pretty much: what's the big deal?
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (19)How big of a suckup is Tim Griffin, the Rove protege who the White House was trying to muscle into a U.S. attorney post after firing the previous occupant?
In a January 2007 email, Griffin wrote to Rove:
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!!"
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (48) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (29)Here's a fun nugget from the U.S. attorney documents (h/t reader B.M.):
It looks like Rich Lowry of National Review offered the White House his services in doing some positive P.R. on behalf of Rove protege Tim Griffin, who the administration had sought to muscle into the U.S. attorney job in Arkansas as a replacement for the fired Bud Cummins.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (12) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (22)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.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (5) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (10)This won't come as a shock ... but the just released documents on the U.S. attorney firings make it clear that Karl Rove was far from straight with the House committee that interviewed him last month.
According to the transcript of the interview, Rove said that his top aide, Scott Jennings, was "freelancing" in trying to get David Iglesias fired in the summer of 2005. Rove told his interviewers that Jennings "had strong feelings about Iglesias" after having done political work in New Mexico.
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:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (0) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Perhaps the key takeaway from the just released documents on the U.S. attorney firings is this:
Karl Rove claimed recently that he and his staff acted merely as a conduit for passing on concerns about David Iglesias. But it's now clear that Rove's office pushed from 2005 for Iglesias to be canned, and was intimately involved in the decision.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (23) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (21)
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."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Here are two quick juicy parts from the just-released documents on the U.S. attorney firings, about the decision to fire David Igleisas of New Mexico -- as flagged in a House Judiciary committee press release:
• 2005 White House "Decision" to fire David Iglesias - It has previously been known that New Mexico Republicans pressed for Iglesias to be removed because they did not like his decisions on vote fraud cases. New White House documents show that Rove and his office were involved in this effort no later than May 2005 (months earlier than previously known) - for example, in May and June 2005, Rove aide Scott Jennings sent emails to Tim Griffin (also in Rove's office) asking "what else I can do to move this process forward" and stressing that "I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY." In June 2005, Harriet Miers emailed that a "decision" had been made to replace Iglesias. At this time, DOJ gave Iglesias top rankings, so this decision was clearly not just the result of the White House following the Department's lead as Rove and Miers have maintained.PERMALINK | COMMENTS (0) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)• Iglesias criticized by Rove aide for not "doing his job on" Democratic Congressional Candidate Patricia Madrid - An October 2006 email chain begun by Representative Heather Wilson criticized David Iglesias for not bringing politically useful public corruption prosecutions in the run up to the 2006 elections. Scott Jennings forwarded Wilson's email to Karl Rove and complained that Iglesias had been "shy about doing his job on Madrid," Wilson's opponent in the 2006 Congressional race. Just weeks after this email, Iglesias' name was placed on the final firing list.
On the U.S. attorney firings, Congress has also released thousands of pages of White House and RNC emails and other documents pertaining to the firings.
Here are the White House documents. Here are the RNC documents.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (15) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)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.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (0) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)The House Judiciary committee has posted the transcripts of its interviews with Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, about the U.S. attorney firings.
The Rove transcripts are here. The Miers transcripts are here.
Have at it.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (11) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)
Looks like our old friend Allen Stanford is having some trouble finding a lawyer.
Two high-profile white-collar crime attorneys, including the man who represents Karl Rove, are trying to make sure they don't get roped into defending the cricket-loving billionaire -- who's accused of orchestrating an $8 billion fraud -- without a guarantee of payment.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)What better way to demonstrate a change from the bad old days of the politicized Justice Department than to appoint as US attorney one of the people who was fired from that job as part of the Bushies' purge?
The White House has announced that Daniel Bogden, who in late 2006 was fired by the Bush administration as U.S. attorney for the district of Nevada, has been re-nominated for that position.
"I'm extremely honored that President Obama has nominated me," Bogden told TPMmuckraker in a brief phone interview. "I appreciate the opportunity and I'm looking forward to my return to public service. and I certainly appreciate Senate Majority Leader Reid's recommending me for the position."

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