Why wasn't Christie dismissed in the great US Attorney purge of '06? Because he did what he was told

[kpete]

Christie Showed His Stripes
by BooMan
Sat Jan 11th, 2014 at 08:28:51 AM EST

The dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy of 2007 has been largely forgotten, but it was a very big deal at the time. It resulted in the resignations of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Acting Associate Attorney General, the chief of staff for the Attorney General, the chief of staff for the Deputy Attorney General, the Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the former acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and the Department of Justice's White House Liaison. It was a total disaster for the Bush administration that was the natural result of a conspiracy to deliberately politicize the Justice Department. The U.S. Attorneys who were fired were fired for insufficient partisan zeal. In some cases, they refused to open meritless voter fraud cases. In other cases, they wouldn't open meritless investigations on Democratic politicians. In still other cases, they were actually investigating lawbreaking by Republicans.

So, one of the takeaways from the scandal was that the U.S. Attorneys who weren't dismissed were incredibly suspect. The attorneys who were found acceptable to the Bush administration were the ones who would launch phony investigations against innocent people and who would cover up criminal activity if is was carried out by Bush's allies. Chris Christie was a U.S. Attorney who passed that test. He was considered sufficiently corrupt (or corruptible) to remain a U.S. Attorney in Alberto Gonzales's (and Karl Rove's) Justice Department.

How did he pass that test? Let's go into the Wayback Machine:

The enmity between Mr. Christie and Mr. [Bob] Menendez dates at least to 2006, when Mr. Menendez was running for Senate and Mr. Christie was the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey. Mr. Christie’s office started an investigation that touched on Mr. Menendez’s dealings with a community group. Mr. Menendez charged that the inquiry was politically motivated — nothing came of it — and people close to the senator say he still resents it.

Why wasn't Christie dismissed in the great purge of 2006? Because he did what he was told, and harassed Bob Menendez during election season.

After Christie became the governor of New Jersey he had the power to make dozens of appointments to the Port Authority, and it is now clear that he continued his practice of using his office to politicize non-political organizations.

MORE plus links:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/11/82250/5972

[rhett o rick]

1. Speaking of US Attorneys, it's been custom for an incoming president to replace all the

states US Attorneys. I never heard whether or not Pres Obama did that. Any one have info on that please send me a pm. I am not intending to hijack this thread about Chrispy Christie.

[starroute]

5. He did it eventually, but it took a few years

http://www.mainjustice.com/tag/us-attorney-nominations/

January 8th, 2011

The White House is prepared to announce nominees for most of the remaining U.S. Attorney positions that haven’t yet been filled in the Barack Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday.

Speaking with Main Justice Editor-in-Chief Mary Jacoby in his 5th floor conference room, Holder said vetting is complete on most of the positions, including a replacement for controversial Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, a George W. Bush appointee who has held onto her job for two years under Obama.

Holder also said three U.S. Attorney nominees who were returned to the White House in December after the Senate failed to act on them before adjourning will be renominated. The returned U.S. Attorney nominees were S. Amanda Marshall of Oregon, M. Scott Bowen of the Western District of Michigan and Thomas Gray Walker of the Eastern District of North Carolina. John B. Stevens Jr. of the Eastern District of Texas, who was also returned, removed his name from consideration.

The U.S. Attorney positions where no nominee has been announced are in the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, Utah, Northern District of Oklahoma, and three other districts in Texas.

Down in Alabama, Canary drew the ire of many Democrats for what they perceived to be a politically motivated prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D).

[rhett o rick]

13. Thank you for the information and the link. nm

[okaawhatever]

2. I've repeated this story several times so i'm glad it's getting more press. It's much worse than

this implies. Christie's name was on the list of the to be fireds. The one that was discovered during the Gonzalez investigation. Christie didn't just investigate Menendez, he issued a subpoena one month before the elections. He made the subpoena known publicly. Once that happened he mysteriously was removed from the list of the to be fired prosecutors.
Nothing came of the investigation. It's not common practice for anyone running for office to be investigated/indicted/subpoena publicly during the period right before the elections. It smacks of political gamesmanship and could be used as a tool by unscrupulous political hacks. It was of course, one of Karl Rove's favorite tactics.

[jsr]

3. Excellent point.

[backscatter712]

4. Just think what Christie would do if he had access to all the NSA's toys...

He'd make both Nixon and Dubya look like boy scouts...

[starroute]

6. Here's an interesting item from my files

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/karl_rove_says_gop_candidate_c.html

August 12, 2009

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie has tried to escape the shadow of former President George W. Bush, whose support for Christie has become a major line of attack by Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

But in an interview Tuesday and in congressional testimony last month, longtime Bush advisor Karl Rove said he had conversations with Christie about a possible run for governor while Christie was serving in the non-political position of U.S. attorney. . . .

Christie's campaign downplayed the exchange Tuesday, calling it "not surprising" Rove had "inquired about Chris' future plans once his term as U.S. Attorney would come to an end."

"In this informal conversation, Chris discussed with Mr. Rove the fact he was being urged to run for elected office and Mr. Rove in turn offered to recommend people who could help Chris reach a decision if he eventually seriously considered running for office," Christie spokeswoman Maria Comella said in a statement.

[starroute]

7. And this followup from two days later

And note that this story features Loretta Weinberg, who Rachel Maddow thinks may have been the real target of the lane closings, and who was then Corzine's running-mate.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1250212511243580.xml&coll=1

August 14, 2009

The Corzine campaign yesterday took its offensive on Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's reported conversations with former president George W. Bush's political adviser Karl Rove a step further by alleging those exchanges -- as well as other meetings he took while U.S. attorney -- appear to have violated federal law. . . .

Citing a string of media reports, the Corzine campaign contends Christie met with former Republican National Committee Chairman Rich Bond during his tenure in 2004, as well as Somerset County GOP Chair Dale Florio and former Sussex GOP Chair Rich Zeoli. More recently, in 2008, they say he spoke with state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) about possibly becoming his lieutenant governor candidate, as well as Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, now Christie's campaign co-chair. Christie left the U.S. Attorney's Office in December.

"It's now clear that Christie was laying the groundwork for his gubernatorial campaign while he was serving in the U.S. Attorney's office," said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), Corzine's running mate. "His phone calls with Karl Rove and meetings with high profile Republicans to plot his run for governor appear to directly violate the Hatch Act."

[DallasNE]

12. Interesting That Christie Has Been Accused Of Violating The Hatch Act

Because that is the same charge I have made concerning the use of the Port Authority Police to misinform irate drivers that the traffic tie up was the Mayor's fault. You just can't lean on public civil servants in a political manner like this.

[starroute]

9. Searching my files also turned up this oldie but goodie

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/did-christie-break-doj-rules-by-pulling-rank-on-traffic-stop

September 4, 2009

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's spotty driving record is one thing. But what's worse is that he may have violated clear Justice Department guidelines by pulling rank with cops on the scene.

Today we learned about a 2002 episode in which Christie hit a motorcyclist after making a wrong-turn that had him briefly going the wrong way down a one-way street in Elizabeth. The motorcyclist ended up in hospital, but Christie didn't get so much as a ticket. And a police official told the Star Ledger that Christie "did identify himself as U.S. attorney." That would seem to contravene Justice Department guidelines on standards of conduct. . . .

But that's not the only dodgy driving Christie incident we've learned about lately. In 2005, Christie was cited for speeding and for driving in an unregistered, uninsured vehicle after being pulled over by cops in Lambertville. The local police director has said that, as in the Elizabeth case, Christie "identified himself" as a U.S. attorney. . . .

The lawyer called Christie's rank-pulling "inexcusable, because it is so clearly a violation of the public trust and his obligations as an attorney." And a former federal prosecutor agreed, saying via email "we were told quite explicitly that flashing creds to get out of a ticket was a serious misuse of authority."

[DallasNE]

8. Other Examples Of How That Was The Model Too

Both fiasco's involved the use of private email accounts (in this case gmail.com & yahoo.com) rather than government accounts in an attempt to hide what was going on. I do not understand how that hole has not been closed because of the opportunity for abuse that has surfaced a number of times already. Indeed, there should be criminal penalties for this.

[lastlib]

10. Scum on scum--that's Christie

[Laxman]

11. Hope He's Not Afraid of Skeletons....

An oldie but a goodie. Protecting his brother Todd Christie.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06todd.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

and his $52 million payoff to his former boss and protector John Ashcroft..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/washington/10justice.html?pagewanted=all

[Rex]

14. Yes the BFEE really fucked up the DOJ for years and years.

Sadly they got away with it just like everything else.