Fired U.S. Attorneys: Were There Others?

[sabra]

Source: ABC News Blotter

Could the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal be bigger than Americans know?

For months, the Bush administration has declined to directly answer a key question posed by Congress: were more top federal prosecutors targeted for dismissal beyond the nine that have been publicly identified?

In a new letter to senators who have been pushing for the answer, a Justice Department official said only that it was contained in information shared earlier by Justice staff in interviews with Senate aides.

"Wholly unsatisfactory," declared Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a recipient of the letter, blasting the arguably cryptic response.

A Feinstein spokesman confirmed the senator did not believe those interviews had elicited any information useful to determining how many prosecutors had faced firing as part of the White House-coordinated purge.

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/08/fired-us-attorn.html

[Supersedeas]

1. those would be the attorney who straightened up from to the '06 election

[gratuitous]

2. "We already told you"

Yes, buried somewhere in the snowstorm of "I don't recall," "I have no recollection" and spurious claims of executive privilege, if you're patient, guess right about what wasn't said, draw the proper conclusions about cryptic comments, then yes, you might discern that there were more federal prosecutors targeted for dismissal. You might even be able to figure out some of the actual identities of those prosecutors. Of course, if any of your surmises or guesses were wrong, the Bush administration would be more than happy to crow about how "partisan" and "irresponsible" you were, and the Right Wing Echo Chamber would gladly pick up the narrative about how unfair it all is to the poor misunderstood Bush administration to be held accountable for its actions.

But look for a straight answer to a simple question? Perish the thought.

[NashVegas]

3. Nashville Lost Its US Attorney Last Autumn

Before all the fuss was made. In his case, there were allegations of ageism and that he (Jim Vines) was being a general ass.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6802232,00.html

The interesting thing though, was his interim replacement - Craig Morford - is now tapped to be deputy Attorney General.

But here's a fascinating tidbit:

A case in point: Vines’ office is working with the Franklin Police Department and the FBI in a matter involving a former employee of medical claims management firm AIM Healthcare. The employee allegedly stole client data from AIM and used it to start a competing firm, Arbor Healthcare. Franklin Police Chief Jackie Moore, who has worked with Vines on this and several other matters, says the Nashville prosecutor “has kicked it up a notch.”

http://www.businesstn.com/pub/2_5/cover/7722-1.html

I looked up Arbor Healthcare on Opensecrets.org. Whose executive VP was a Bush donor.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. It is known...

That Chris Christie(USA-NJ/RNC) dodged the firing bullet. Likely by creating a brouhaha over the rental of some property, to a non-profit, by Robert Menendez. This happened just before the election. It has been noticed.

He is a likely gubernatorial candidate in '09.

[badgervan]

5. "arguably cryptic response"?

ABC does it again. Arguably?

[barbtries]

6. i believe a US attorney in Guam

was fired as a direct response to an Abramoff investigation. unfortunately i am at work and have no time to look it up.

[hootinholler]

7. He was the first...

By special request of Abramhof...

Here's my raw US Atty file:


-=-=-=-=-
Margaret Chiara, the 63-year-old U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., Indian populations?
-=-=-=-=-
* Kevin V. Ryan in San Francisco
-=-=-=-=-
* Carol S. Lam in San Diego,
-=-=-=-=-
John McKay in Seattle, -Possibly related to handling of Gov elections? Contacted by Rep Doc Hastings, DeLay protege -Hastings involved in Guam
-=-=-=-=-
David C. Iglesias in New Mexico, Not prosecuting democratic candidates. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032107D.shtml -Pueblo
-=-=-=-=-
* Daniel G. Bogden in Nevada and
-=-=-=-=-
* Paul K. Charlton in Arizona.
-=-=-=-=-
* Bud Cummins, the former U.S. attorney in Little Rock
who was asked to resign earlier than the others to make way for a former White House aide,
-=-=-=-=-
Other Prosecutors:
* Peter Clark: - Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section of the. Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice
-=-=-=-=-
* Frederick K Black: USA Guam
-=-=-=-=-
Tom Heffelfinger: Minnesota
-=-=-=-=-
Todd Graves of Missouri
-=-=-=-=-
Paul Warner of Utah - left for Magistrate position
-=-=-=-=-
Debra Wong Yang, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles -TO Gibson Dunn, defengin Lewis? http://www.gibsondunn.com/news/firm/detail/id/526/?pubItemId=8231

-=-=-=-=-
Thomas M. DiBiagio, the Maryland U.S. attorney
But the department official who asked for his resignation dismissed DiBiagio's claim in a New York Times article yesterday that he was ousted because of political pressure over public corruption investigations into the administration of then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030602330.html
-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-
Douglas M. Fuchs will join the firm's Los Angeles office as of counsel. Fuchs was previously an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California, where he served as Deputy Chief of the Major Frauds Section. http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2007/01/04/prnewswire200701041439PR_NEWS_B_WES_LA_LATH095.html
-=-=-=-=-
Noel Hillman - Judgeship... Abramoff investigator
-=-=-=-=-

Investigations impacted:
Cunningham conspiracy:(Lam) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/18/AR2007031801263.html
Cunningham -Plea bargain -Cooperated
Brent Wilkes, Dusty Foggo -indicted
The U.S. attorney in San Diego notified the Justice Department of search warrants in a Republican bribery scandal last May 10, one day before the attorney general's chief of staff warned the White House of a "real problem" with her, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

The prosecutor, Carol S. Lam, was dismissed seven months later as part of an effort by the Justice Department and the White House to fire eight U.S. attorneys.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070121/news_1n21lam.html
I applaud the theory of going after white-collar crime, but some of the individual decisions over who to go after have been lax, said defense attorney Michael Crowley. He represented City Council aide David Cowan, a minor figure in the San Diego City Hall strip club case who was acquitted of a single charge but was devastated by the ordeal.

In that case, council members were charged with accepting campaign contributions in exchange for eliminating rules banning touching between patrons and dancers. The convictions of former Councilman Michael Zucchet were thrown out by a federal judge after the trial. The case is now on appeal.
{what judge?}

(Lam) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032701492.html
On January 13, the San Diego Union-Tribune quoted Dan Dzwilewski, head of FBI's San Diego office, as saying Lam was crucial to ongoing investigations. "I guarantee politics is involved," he was quoted saying.

Feinstein said her chief counsel had called the FBI's San Diego office to verify the accuracy of the story. She said the office confirmed it was true "but they also said they'd been warned to say no more."

Rep Jerry Lewis: (Lam) http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-usattys15mar15,1,5413433.story?coll=la-news-a_section
On May 11 the month after Sampson told the White House counsel's office that Lam was being targeted for dismissal. The Times reported that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles had begun an investigation into Lewis. They were trying to connect Lewis, who at that time chaired the powerful House Appropriations Committee, to a Washington lobbyist linked to the Cunningham bribery case, The Times said.

Shortly before noon Washington time that day, Sampson e-mailed Kelley to complain about Lam.

The Lewis probe was an extension of the case Lam started in San Diego. But it was being handled by the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles because Lewis' Redlands headquarters falls under its purview.

Abramoff Conspiracy: (Black) http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/08/bush_removal_ended_guam_investigation/
In Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.

In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.
...

The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to the subpoena. It demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.

A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.

Halliburton - KBR - Foriegn Corrupt Practices Act: (Clark)
Instead, I explained to Mr. Clark that the young man who maintained Halliburton’s e-mail backups for the Arlington, Virginia office could surely produce copies directly from the company’s own storage system, and also pointed out that the e-mails that would be of most interest to the ongoing FCPA investigation would be those e-mails that were exchanged by the damage control fire brigade after the correct David Smith was looped in (e.g., what did the Tax group down in Houston have to say about how to spin the dirty bribe money’s tax status and offshore source?). Excitedly, Mr. Clark rang off, promising to call with further updates.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x494116
It is noteworthy that soon after the general election in 2004, Peter Clark resigned from the Justice Department, and went into private practice. Since then, the investigation and enforcement activities appear to have languished. I surmise that Mr. Clark was worn out, after trying to butt heads with those above his pay grade: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=peter+clark+deputy... .

BALCO: (Ryan) http://www.sfgate.com/balco/

Stock Options Back-dating: (Ryan) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/17/MNGFLNK1A61.DTL
It's not clear what effect Ryan's departure will have on his office's investigation of Bay Area companies for allegedly concealing their backdating of stock options granted to top executives. Ryan appointed a task force last summer to look into the practice and has obtained two criminal indictments and a flurry of executive resignations.

Representative Renzi: (Charlton) http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/blumenthal
In September 2006, just weeks before pivotal Congressional midterm elections, Paul Charlton, US Attorney for Arizona, opened a preliminary investigation into Republican Representative Rick Renzi of the state's First Congressional District for an alleged pattern of corruption involving influence-peddling and land deals. Almost immediately, Charlton's name was added to a blacklist of federal prosecutors the White House wanted to force from their jobs. Charlton is someone "we should now consider pushing out," D. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's chief of staff, wrote to then White House Counsel Harriet Miers on September 13. In his previously safe Republican district, Renzi had barely held on in the election. On December 7, the White House demanded Charlton's resignation without offering him any explanation

Nevada Gov Gibbons: (Bogden) http://www.prwatch.org/node/5883
Daniel Bogden, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada: On February 15, 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported that Daniel Bogden was investigating the newly elected Governor of Nevada, former-Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.), for allegedly accepting unreported gifts and/or payments from a campaign contributor and earmark recipient, Warren Trepp. The investigation examined the relationship between the former congressman and Trepp between the years 1997-2007. The Journal did not report when the investigation was opened.

(Bogden) http://misterapologist.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-was-next-for-daniel-bogden.html
The political corruption investigation instituted by now fired US Attorney Daniel Bogden which utilized the Patriot Act for the first time in a non-terrorism related case not only highlighted $190,000 in campaign contributions by billionaire Sheldon Adelson (who's political connections are well established in my older posts) but also left him vulnerable to being charged with his own crimes for the manner in which he used nearly $2 million dollars in 1998 to not only get convicted felon Lance Malone elected into the county commission but also attempted to force other members from their seats. (The County Commission is extremely powerful in Las Vegas and possibly worth $2 million dollars to someone with a large vested interest like Mr. Adelson.) The investigation by Daniel Bogden that led to three convictions of former members of the County Commission also opened up the possibility that Sheldon Adelson could be investigated for his interference in earlier County Commissions. The only way to kill this investigation before it started was to have Mr. Bogden removed before the first corruption investigation was completed. Sheldon Adelson donated $10,000 dollars to Governor Jim Gibbons' secret legal fund EXACTLY one day before the official resignation of Daniel Bogden was to take place. The Gibbon's campaign initially said it was a "gift." They also initially "left" Sheldon Adleson off the list of donors by "mistake." Sheldon Adelson either buys his enemies silence or pays people to silence his enemies for him. I will prove both of these claims:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/dossier/crime/gsting/indictments.pdf

Missouri Gov Blunt: (Cummins) http://www.prwatch.org/node/5883
Bud Cummins, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arkansas: In January 2006, Cummins opened an investigation into "allegations that Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt had rewarded GOP supporters with lucrative contracts to run the state's driver's license offices." Cummins handled the case because the U.S. Attorneys for Missouri recused themselves over conflict of interest concerns. Cummins stated that he was told he would be fired in June as he was wrapping up the case. Cummins eventually brought no indictments against Gov. Blunt, the son of powerful Republican Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Cummins has since questioned whether he was fired for opening an investigation into a powerful Republican in a battleground state.

(Hillman) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/27/MNGCNGU1J01.DTL
(01-27) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.

The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department's Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.
...
Hillman's departure from the Justice Department creates a vacancy at the top of the Abramoff investigation only three weeks after Abramoff, once one of the city's most powerful Republican lobbyists and a major fund-raiser for Bush, announced his guilty plea and agreed to testify against others, possibly including members of Congress.

A former senior White House budget official, David Safavian, has been indicted in the case on charges of lying about his contacts with Abramoff, a former lobbying partner. The Justice Department's plea agreement with Abramoff makes clear that prosecutors are investigating several members of Congress and other public officials who accepted gifts from the lobbyist in exchange for official acts.

Medical Kickback (Graves) http://www.pressrelease365.com/pr/government/federal/al...
Disappointed with the continuing US Department of Justice cover up, on April 9, 2007 Samuel Lipari publicly disclosed Medical Supply discovery revealing the US Attorneys targeted by Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that resulted in Todd Graves being replaced by Bradley J. Schlozman a year earlier. John Wood was finally sworn in as the US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri on April 11, 2007.

-=-=-=-=-
Reasons for termination given:
'Voter' Fraud - not election fraud
-=-=-=-=-
Key '08 election states
....Last April, while the Justice Department and the White House were planning the firings, Rove gave a speech in Washington to the Republican National Lawyers Association. He ticked off 11 states that he said could be pivotal in the 2008 elections. Bush has appointed new U.S. attorneys in nine of them since 2005: Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico. U.S. attorneys in the latter four were among those fired.
-=-=-=-=-
Other Players:
Alberto R. Gonzales, -Attorney General
Kyle Sampson, -chief of staff to Attorney General
-=-=-=-=-
Hefflinger see http://www.mncampaignreport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=326

When Rachel Paulose was sworn-in on March 9th as U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, she had already held the job for more than a year. The White House named Paulose to take over on an interim basis early in 2006, when Tom Heffelfinger resigned. In December, the U.S. Senate confirmed Paulose to hold the job permanently.


SOUIX FALL, S.D., March 16 (UPI) -- A former Minnesota congressman, convicted in the traffic death of a motorcyclist, shouldn't have to pay any damages in the case, a U.S. attorney says.
Bill Janklow was convicted in December of manslaughter and three misdemeanors in the highway death of motorcyclist Randy Scott of Hardwick, Minn., last summer.
Janklow has appealed his conviction, the Argus reported Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger filed a motion Monday seeking to move a civil lawsuit by Scott's family from state to federal court.
"I find that the individual defendant, William Janklow, was acting within the scope of his employment as a member of the United States Congress at the time," Heffelfinger wrote.
If successful, the move would ensure any damages Scott's family might win in a civil lawsuit would be paid by the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that Janklow will not be released from jail while he appeals his convictions.

http://citypages.com/databank/24/1166/article11166.asp
If that is so, however, Operation Green Quest's performance last week appears to leave marked room for improvement. "They never contacted me," says U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger. "It's our case, and they didn't talk to us at all." Privately, federal agents in other cities echoed Heffelfinger's frustration with Green Quest's lack of communication.

Heffelfinger guesses that the confusion might have been the result of a conversation between a local and a Washington-based ICE agent. But he does not share the opinion that Green Quest's media coup amounted to a harmless miscommunication. "The thing that's of the greatest concern is the implication raised that the Haidari case is a terrorism case," he continues. "That's not true. I'm not prepared to make the assumption that because the money is going to the Middle East, it's going to fund terrorism. I'm not going to stand by and let a press release from Washington misconstrue what these two men are charged with."
-=-=-=-=-

http://www.mncampaignreport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=326
Following the pattern, these names have already been redacted. However, extensive searches of LexisNexis have indicated that only three U.S. Attorneys left their posts between Jan. 1st, 2006 and April 14th, 2006:

*Paul Warner of Utah resigned January 27, 2006 to take a post as a federal magistrate judge in the District Court of Utah. (sources: Salt Lake Tribune, 1/26/06; Deseret Morning News, 1/27/06; Associated Press, 2/25/06)

*Thomas Heffelfinger of Minnesota resigned February 28, 2006 to return to the private sector. At the time, he cited "personal" and "financial" reasons for his resignation. (sources: Pioneer Press, 2/15/06; Star Tribune, 2/15/06)

*Todd Graves of Missouri resigned March 24, 2006 to "return to private practice and become more involved in politics." (source: Associated Press State & Local Wire, 3/10/06)

Again, these are the three resignations I could find, after extensive searching, for that period. It seems that nobody has compiled a comprehensive, publicly-available list of U.S. Attorney resignations, not even the Justice Department. If you can add any to this list, please help.
-=-=-=-=-
http://www.mncampaignreport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=326
Additionally, a diarist at EPluribusMedia has discovered a possible link between Heffelfinger and Margaret Chiara of Michigan, one of the recently-fired attorneys: when Heffelfinger resigned, Chiara took his position as chair of the U.S. Attorney General's Native American Issues Subcommittee, and notes, "only a very small number of USAs have ever been identified publicly as NAIS members under this administration - and three of them in addition to Chiara have stepped down or been dismissed." Could there be a link between these dismissals / resignations? Is this related at all to this Sampson memo discussing the "termination" of a subcommittee, whose name is redacted?
-=-=-=-=-
http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3131
President George W. Bush has not made many moves more unethical than offering Noel L. Hillman, the Abramoff prosecutor, a federal judgeship. Hillman has apparently been talking with Bush's representatives since last year, and on last Thursday, he publicly announced he was accepting the appointment.

Let me make this perfectly clear.
At the same time that Mr. Hillman was conducting a grand jury and submitting evidence aimed at Bush's allies and perhaps Bush himself, he was meeting with Bush, who was, in effect, offering him a bribe.

Mr. Hillman, Bush is saying, leave the job, let me put someone else in your stead, someone I want. Forget, says Mr. Bush, that you have been in charge of the investigation for two years, that you have been involved on a day-to-day basis, and that your leaving seriously impedes the investigation.