The coup already occurred.

[OnyxCollie]

17. Lam, and seven other US Attorneys who were fired,

and one who was demoted.

The changes came to light in December 2006 when eight U.S. Attorneys were forced to resign their posts, seven of them resigning on the same day (U.S. Dept. of Justice, 2008). One of the U.S. Attorneys was in the process of an investigation. Carol S. Lam had just successfully prosecuted congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-San Diego, CA) of accepting bribes in return for steering in excess of $70 million to two defense contractors (Pincus, 2006). Ms. Lam was forced to resign after indicting Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the no. 3 man at the Central Intelligence Agency, who had connections to Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade, two men involved in the Cunningham scandal (Pincus, 2006). On February 19, 2008, Mr. Wilkes was convicted of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud and was sentenced to 12 years in prison (Eggen, 2008). Mr. Foggo was convicted of corruption on September 29, 2008 (Johnston, 2008).

The reason the government provided for Ms. Lam’s departure was that she refused to prosecute immigration cases (Steinhauer and Lipton, 2007). However, a review of court records spanning five years had shown Ms. Lam to be ranked among the top 10 of the 93 U.S. Attorneys for prosecutions and convictions, with immigration cases providing the bulk of her prosecutions (McCoy and Johnson, 2007).

U.S. Attorney Margaret Chiara was asked to resign in November 2006. Ms. Chiara claims to have been notified by the Justice Department to resign from her post in order to make way for “an individual they wanted to advance” (Lipton, 2007, p. 1). The Justice Department cited poor performance and low office moral as the reasons for her dismissal, yet Ms. Chiara said her office had increased felony convictions by 15 percent (Lipton, 2007). Recounting an email exchange with Michael Elston, the deputy attorney general’s chief of staff, Ms. Chiara said Mr. Elston had told her that she “erroneously assumed that good service guaranteed longevity” and that she and other U.S. Attorneys were “being asked for their resignations without good cause” (Lipton, 2007, p. 1).

U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins was forced to resign on December 20, 2006. Mr. Cummins’ replacement, Tim Griffin, was appointed to the position five days earlier (Arkansas Times, 2006). Mr. Griffin had previously worked for the Republican National Committee and had been an opposition researcher for presidential advisor Karl Rove (Satter, 2006).

U.S. Attorney John McKay was forced to resign on December 7, 2006. In a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, McKay recounted a phone call he had received shortly after the November 2004 election from Ed Cassidy, then chief of staff to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Washington) (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2007). Mr. McKay had said that the call was to inquire about an investigation into allegations of voter fraud in the close election win of Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire. Mr. McKay withheld any comments about the investigation and “told Cassidy he was sure the call was not intended to suggest that Hastings was calling for a federal investigation, because that would be improper” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2007, p. 1). The Republican National Committee and Gov. Gregoire’s opponent, Republican Dino Rossi, had brought a lawsuit forward to challenge the results of the election. Lacking evidence to support the claims of fraud, Judge John Bridges ruled against the plaintiffs (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2007).

Similar to Mr. McKay was the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Mr. Iglesias received calls at his home by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM). Mr. Iglesias testified before the Senate that the calls were to question the progress of an investigation of voter fraud in the upcoming election of Rep. Wilson. Mr. Iglesias said he was pressured to bring an indictment before the election. According to Mr. Iglesias:

I was at home. This was the only time I’d ever received a call from any member of Congress while at home during my tenure as United States Attorney for New Mexico. …I recognized the voice as being Senator Pete Domenici. And he wanted ask me about the matters of the corruption cases that had been widely reported in the local media. I said, “All right.” And he said, “Are these going to be filed before November?” And I said I didn’t think so, to which he replied, “I’m very sorry to hear that.” And then the line went dead (Iglesias, 2007, as cited in McKay, 2008, p. 282, 283).


Conversely, of the U.S. Attorneys who were not fired, there were the “…80-85 percent, I would guess, who are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies, etc.” (Sampson, 2005, p. 1), who have been the subject of allegations of political prosecutions. A report from Professors Emeritus Donald C. Shields and John F. Cragan of the University of Missouri and Illinois State University respectively, shows that of 375 elected officials investigated and/or indicted, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats. “U.S. Attorneys across the nation investigate seven times as many Democratic officials as they investigate Republican officials, a number that exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops” (Shields & Cragan, 2007, p. 1).

A July 2008 Justice Department report indicated illegal hiring practices based on political or ideological affiliations for career positions. The report stated that more qualified candidates were passed over in favor of political cronies. From the report:

Elston said that Goodling made it clear to him that she did not want Democrats detailed to the ODAG because she had a ‘farm system’ approach to filling vacancies in the Department, and she wanted to ‘credential’ Republicans so that they could move on to higher positions. Elston also stated that there were some Republicans that Goodling did not want to hire as detailees because they were not ‘Republican enough’ (U.S. Department of Justice, 2008, pp. 47, 48).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8807073&mesg_id=8809373

Pair-a-dice...Guam's DOJ Gamble, the ante in the U.S. Attorneys firings
http://www.epluribusmedia.org/features/2007/us_attorney_fred_black.html

In 2002, President G.W. Bush's Administration abruptly removed the Acting U.S. Attorney in Guam, U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Black from his post. Black had been the Acting U.S. Attorney for Guam since 1991 when he was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, the current President's father.

Black was in the midst of investigating what might have touched on the lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence peddling with government officials. Evidence exists that suggest that just prior to Black's demotion, Jack Abramoff, who was ultimately convicted of defrauding of American Indian tribes and corruption of public officials, was actively seeking Black's replacement. From The Nation, Attorneygate in Guam:

"I don't care if they appoint bozo the clown, we need to get rid of Fred Black," Abramoff wrote to colleagues in March 2002.

The day after Black announced he was launching an investigation into then-governor Carl Gutierrez and his ties to the now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff himself, Black was informed he would be replaced by Leonardo Rapadas, whose recommendation was apparently made directly to Karl Rove, by Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist under contract to then-governor Gutierrez. The confirmation process for Rapadas was supposedly "well under way" when his nomination was first announced on November 19, 2002 and was completed by the U.S. Senate in May 2003.1