Alice Fisher DOJ Prosecutor/ Ties to Gitmo Interrogations/Chertoff/DeLay

[KoKo]

Thanks to Firedoglake for the research on this.

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/

-------------

Alice S. Fisher
From SourceWatch

Alice S. Fisher was appointed (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050831-5.html) by President George W. Bush in a recess appointment August 31, 2005, as Assistant Attorney General to head the Criminal Division in the Department of Justice.

Fisher was nominated March 29, 2005, and her nomination was sent to the Senate April 4, 2005. Her nomination was stalled over interrogation tactics at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility.

Fisher "had a substantive law firm career, and she worked for two years in the Criminal Division overseeing the Department’s prosecutions in the high-profile areas of counterterrorism and corporate fraud. She also been a long-time protégé of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff," Vermont Senator Patrick J. Leahy said (http://www.senate.gov/comm/judiciary/general/member_statement.cfm?id=1500&wit_id=2629) in his May 12, 2005, statement. "I am somewhat concerned, however, that Ms. Fisher is nominated for one of the most visible prosecutorial positions in the country without ever having prosecuted a case, and she brings to the position minimal trial experience in any context," he said.

Leahy also expressed concerns about Fisher's "views on checks of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act and her opposition to the Act’s sunset provision; her participation in meetings in which the FBI expressed its disagreement with harsh interrogation methods practiced by the military toward detainees held at Guantanamo, and her ideas about appropriate safeguards for the treatment of enemy combatants." Leahy was also concerned about "reports that she has had ties to Congressman Tom DeLay’s defense team" and "also to know what steps she to take to avoid a conflict of interest in the Department’s investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and possibly Mr. DeLay."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alice_S._Fisher

[barbaraann]

1. The press conference left me feeling unsettled.

n/t

[KoKo]

2. I had a bad feeling about her too.

She was too smiley and seemed somewhat unprofessional compared to other prosecutors I've seen announce over the years. More like Ken Starr than Pat Fitzgerald. It was very odd...and now we know.

I guess we should have figured that the Bushies would pull out all of the stops on this one. We have to hope other investigations can over-ride this. There are still some good people out there, and the folks who were standing with her didn't look to happy with Fisher's presentation. Just my opinion on that, though.

[barbaraann]

11. She seemed relieved instead of righteous.

I think there was a lot of planning going on in Crawford over the weekend to figure out how to deal with this investigation.

[renate]

46. apparently they didn't learn their lesson with Harriet Miers

Of course there's a difference between Miers and Fisher--the religious right won't fuss about Alice Fisher. But this attempt to manipulate the justice system by installing another crony will make a tasty morsel for the media to chew on while we wait for Abramoff to name names. (A year ago I wouldn't have thought anybody in the corporate media would report on it; now it would surprise me if they don't.)

[FreedomAngel82]

53. They don't know about her probably

She isn't a judge position who opposes Roe v Wade and gay marriage. She was snuck through.

[Spazito]

3. Oh oh!

She needs to stand aside then, imo, if not by her own choice than forced.

[KoKo]

5. Public opinion should mass to force her resignation for "conflict of

interest."

[Spazito]

6. Yep, I hope the dems can find supportive evidence to her

ties to DeLay's defense team. That would force the issue for sure! I would have, in better days, said I hoped the media would find those ties but no longer.

[KoKo]

7. I think Josh Marshall, and others will be ALL OVER THIS....and it matters.

It matters that there are enough people out here on the "internets" with information that they can't keep appointing their shills and not figure they will reach the end of the road by over-stepping.

[Spazito]

8. Yep, if she is other than a committed Asst. AG with no vested interest

beyond justice then her ass should be grass. I agree, the internet no longer allows information such as this to remain buried, thanks goodness!

[KoKo]

12. The more I think about it ..she appeared so inexperienced in Press Conf.

It's possible the "experienced" folks can run rings around her. She's very young for such an important job...and I we have to hope that Bush hasn't managed to replace every career lawyer in the "Criminal Division" with his "bots."

So, maybe it will all work out.

[Spazito]

14. Yes, I was thinking the same, hopefully she is only the 'face' of

the investigation and not the 'feet' of it!

[KoKo]

23. They will hold this off until after the 2006 Mid-terms. So that both

parties don't have to deal with "SCANDAL!"


Wait and see for those who will wonder why nothing comes of this in the next year.

[Trevelyan]

43. No wonder Hastert wants to shut down Congress for two weeks and I bet he

and bushco will try to keep Congress from convening at the Constitutionally appointed times. Give them two weeks and they will take forever...

Write your Congressperson not to allow Hastert to illegally prevent Congress from meeting after the recess.

[wishlist]

4. Interesting, she said a 90% increase in public corruption in past 3 years

I just watched the CSpan coverage where she talked about the massive Abramoff case involving fraud, money laundering, improper influence, tax evasion, conspiracy, violations of public trust etc. She was asked by a reporter to put this into perspective and she said that Justice Dept records show a 90% increase in the past 3 years of public corruption cases coming to their attention.

In light of her background, Repubs cannot spin this as a partisan vendetta although this scandal embroils them. No surprise that Bush and Repub friends in the media are trying to emphasize Dems receipt of donations even though no Dems are linked to the quid pro quo receipt of personal gifts in return for political favors.

[barbaraann]

10. A percentage means almost nothing.

What matters is the real numbers. This sounds like "We doubled the money for the VA" when the needs have gone up 1000%.

Why would a prosecutor use percentages instead of actual numbers?

I'm feeling queasier by the minute.

[KoKo]

19. Notice she didn't answer the question the Press asked about what cases

DOJ had investigated. That was part of what tipped me off there wasn't something good there about her..

[barbaraann]

32. Yes.

:-(

[KoKo]

9. Here's more about her work on Whitewater with Chertoff...plus grumblings

about her lack of experience for the position. Maybe some of those "grumblers" will find a way to work around her...

--------
Latham & Watkins Partner to Head DOJ Criminal Division
Vanessa Blum
Legal Times
04-01-2005

The White House has tapped Latham & Watkins partner Alice Fisher to run the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

Fisher, a protégé of Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff's, will replace outgoing chief Christopher Wray.

From 2001 until 2003, Fisher, 38, served as Chertoff's deputy in the Criminal Division, overseeing major fraud and terrorism cases. However, unlike Chertoff and Wray, Fisher has never served as a federal prosecutor.

Instead, Fisher has spent the bulk of her career as a white-collar defense lawyer at Latham.

To many observers, the choice of a lawyer with no prosecutorial experience to run the Criminal Division is a surprising one. If confirmed, Fisher will have to overcome skepticism from federal prosecutors in the field. "The most important thing for line prosecutors is to have one of their own," said one former Assistant U.S. Attorney before Fisher was formally identified as the administration's pick.

Fisher could not be reached for comment.

A graduate of Catholic University Columbus School of Law, Fisher worked alongside Chertoff in the mid-1990s as a staff lawyer on the Senate Whitewater investigation. Before taking the helm of the Criminal Division, Fisher must be confirmed by the Senate. There is no word yet on when the Senate hearing will be held.


http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1112263511555

[Tuesday_Morning]

13. lobbyist for the Frist family health care company

from
K Street Communique - By Michael S. Gerber
13 Apr'05

Latham & Watkins saw two of its attorneys, Philip Perry and Alice Fisher, nominated by the president to top administration positions this week, but the firm shouldn't be too surprised. Both lawyers are in their second stints with the firm, having left to work for the Bush administration during the first term.

Perry, who happens to be the son-in-law of Vice President Dick Cheney, will be general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security. Before coming back to Latham, he was general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget and earlier a top official at the Justice Department. At Latham, Perry's lobbying clients included HCA, the health care company founded by the father of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Lockheed Martin.

Fisher also registered as a lobbyist for HCA during her short second run at Latham. She rejoined the firm two years ago from Justice, where she was deputy assistant attorney general for the criminal division. This time around, she's been tapped to head the division as assistant attorney general.

http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2005/12/19/features/communique/99communique13.txt

[Tuesday_Morning]

15. A recess appointment?

Sept. 2, 2005

Bush used a ''recess appointment" Wednesday to name Alice S. Fisher to lead the agency's criminal division. Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, had blocked the nomination because he wants to talk to an agent who named Fisher in an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the US military prison camp at Guantanamo.

The agent wrote that in weekly meetings with Justice Department officials, ''we often discussed techniques and how they were not effective or producing that was reliable." In the next sentence, the agent said Fisher, then the number two official in the criminal division, was among Justice officials who attended the meetings.

Fisher has said she does not recall participating in the discussions, and Justice officials have said the agent did not intend to say she had. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declined to let senators question the agent, saying it would violate longstanding policy.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/02/bypassing_senate_president_appoints_a_top_justice_official/

[in_cog_ni_to]

22. OK something STINKS HERE! Dammit. Why, oh why, do they have EVERYTHING

covered at EVERY angle? This is frightening as hell. So, where's this going? Where's this lead? Will they let all the corrupt SOBs go?

[KoKo]

16. And! She was a Bush RECESS APPOINTMENT just like John Bolton!

(from the original post) Thanks for the extra information.. I think I need to Google the others who were there at the Press Conference with her today...

[Tuesday_Morning]

17. A recent recess appointment at that! n/t

[KoKo]

18. It gets more interesting: Mark Everson the IRS Guy was Bush Recess

Appointment too? Mark Everson from the IRS spoke at the Press Conf. with Fisher today and look at his background. From Ari Fleisher's PC:

------


Home > News & Policies > Press Secretary Briefings

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 15, 2003

Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer

2:30 P.M. EDT

MR. FLEISCHER:

Today, of course, is April 15th, tax day, the day on which all Americans are accountable to pay their taxes. The nation needs somebody accountable at the IRS to run the IRS. This administration nominated Mark Everson to be the Commissioner of the IRS on January 22nd. Despite the fact that he's been unanimously confirmed by the committee in the Senate, the full Senate has not yet taken up the confirmation of Mark Everson, despite the fact he had twice previously been confirmed unanimously by the Senate for other positions.

President Bush is committed to bringing better service to the taxpayer and to strengthening enforcement efforts against those who seek to circumvent our tax laws. The IRS needs to be an important part of the corporate accountability effort to restore confidence in American business. This requires a commissioner in place to direct the activities of this agency. The President calls on the Senate to act to confirm Mark Everson as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. It doesn't serve the taxpayers for members of the Senate to use the IRS commissionership for political horse trading. The President urges the Senate to take that action.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:E9sPsU4hV-8J:www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030415-6.html+Mark+Everson,+FBI&hl=en

[KoKo]

20. This Info is SO Important to Du'er....why do I have to kick it...it's

humiliating...that I need to grovel..kicking this information about how Bush corrupted the Abramoff Investigation...

Why do I have to do this? :shrug:

[denidem]

21. Kick

Just kick.

[JetCityLiberal]

26. You shouldn't have to

This is very important to me anyway and I will pass this info along.

I want to apologize to you for being one who really only reads here and does not post much. Thus I don't kick these threads that are very very informative. This is more than worth a login and thank you and a kick up because this crap keeps getting deeper and deeper and it has to be followed and seen.

Thank you. :thumbsup:

[Trevelyan]

42. Kick - This is important Koko - Thank you.

FireDogLake tipped me off about Alice Fisher but your information and that of the posters on this thread is so extensive. I am glad to know and will post where I can and wrote more letters to Congress and the media.

Nothing But Hope has had the same problem too getting front page for her very important estensive posts on Posse Commitarus and she predicted what would happen in NOLA with the 82nd Airbourne instead of local National Guard pointing guns at even Brian Williams and who were not from the area so unlike the guard would have less compunction about threatening and killing people in their hometown and the Blackwater mercs even less compunction about killing Americans - are the mercs and armed Mexican troops still in NOLA? What about the Katrina victims who were behind barbed wire and fences with ARMED MILITARY GUARDS not allowed to speak to the media? Has anyone done further research on what happened to these people sent against their will to far away states?

[hang a left]

24. .....

:kick:

[caligirl]

25. K&R

:wtf:

[chat_noir]

27. Senator Leahy's statement on Fisher

Alice Fisher comes before the Committee as the nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. Ms. Fisher has had a substantive law firm career, and she worked for two years in the Criminal Division overseeing the Department’s prosecutions in the high-profile areas of counterterrorism and corporate fraud. She has also been a long-time protégé of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. I am somewhat concerned, however, that Ms. Fisher is nominated for one of the most visible prosecutorial positions in the country without ever having prosecuted a case, and she brings to the position minimal trial experience in any context. In contrast, previous Criminal Division AAG’s such as Mike Chertoff, James Robinson, and William Weld were seasoned federal prosecutors prior to taking this job.

I hope that this hearing will illuminate Ms. Fisher’s views on checks of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act and her opposition to the Act’s sunset provision; her participation in meetings in which the FBI expressed its disagreement with harsh interrogation methods practiced by the military toward detainees held at Guantanamo, and her ideas about appropriate safeguards for the treatment of enemy combatants. There have been reports that she has had ties to Congressman Tom DeLay’s defense team. We will also want to know what steps she intends to take to avoid a conflict of interest in the Department’s investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and possibly Mr. DeLay. I would like to know her priorities for the Criminal Division. I will be interested in her plans with respect to the growing problem of computer crime and identity theft, the responses to the Supreme Court’s recent sentencing decision, and prosecution of intellectual property theft. .

http://judiciary.senate.gov/member_statement.cfm?id=1500&wit_id=2629

[chat_noir]

28. Department of Justice contacs

http://www.usdoj.gov/dojofficials.htm#crm

If you dare...

[RazzleDazzle]

29. I see you've caught "the lazies" from some of the newer,

less experienced members here, and apparently don't think it's necessary or important any longer to post the permalink for specific blog entries:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_firedoglake_archive.html#113633743134240656

Such a shame. I wish people understood how they devalue their own work by doing so, and render it far less useful starting tomorrow, and increasingly less useful each day afterwards. You'd think someone with your experience would recognize that. :shrug: Apparently not. Pity.

[in_cog_ni_to]

30. Damn. What the fuck are you? The "link" patrol? Give it a break,

would you? sheesh.

[KoKo]

38. Razzle, I gave original links to all the sourcing.

I don't know how to post a permalink for a blog unless it has a permalink offered at the bottom of each entry. I didn't see one at the bottom of the Firedoglake entry but gave link to the original sourcing so that you didn't need to link back to Firedoglake for the info.


I'm not that good with html stuff. If you can suggest a way to find a permalink for a blog entry that doesn't seem to have one...I could use the technical advice on how to copy it. Not all of us are as computer literate as the rest of you. Peace! :-)'s

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. Mike Malloy is talking about this RIGHT NOW!

:hi: He's going BALLISTIC!

[The Bear]

33. Excellent info!

I'm forwarding this info on to as many people as I can.

[Nothing Without Hope]

34. ***Related thread on Alice Fisher handling the Abramoff case:***

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x46329
thread title (1/4 GD): I find this very interesting and disturbing

Not an informative title, unfortunately, but the thread is closely related to the current one.

[Justitia]

35. Damn! It goes from bad to worse to unfreakingbelieveable! -eom

[chat_noir]

36. kick

This issue requires media attention.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

37. Another great related thread from KOS

on their front page right now. I was unable to post the link for unkown reasons. Sorry.

[ngGale]

40. Link to Kos...

Abramoff prosecutor has reported ties to DeLay defense

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/4/14339/59110

[DoYouEverWonder]

39. I assume this woman has never heard of the word 'recuse'

has in recusing yourself when there is the appearance of a conflict of interest?

[insane_cratic_gal]

41. Being connect to Chertoff should disqualify

her. and she involved with White water witch hunt!

I don't understand how this is not a conflict of interest!

After surviving a tumultuous tenure with the counter terrorism office of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003, Alice S. Fisher has been nominated to return and serve as chief of DOJ's Criminal Division.


In 2001, Michael Chertoff -- now secretary of Homeland Security -- picked Fisher to serve as his deputy assistant attorney general in DOJ's Criminal Division.

Fisher first worked with Chertoff in 1995, when he hired her as deputy special counsel to the Senate Whitewater investigation. She had graduated from the Catholic University of America School of Law in 1993, and worked as a litigation associate in the Washington office of New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell.



Why have they not chosen a prosecutor with NO ties to this administration? Sounds like Chertoff just threw around some of his newly gained weight.

[Roland99]

44. Stacking the deck with recess appointments.

What an abuse of power.

[annabanana]

45. This is a disturbing report...

I saw her press conference and she seemed...... giddy, as if she wasn't used to breathing such rarified air. I hope that 1) The details of her appointment don't predict her handling of the case or cases. and 2) Others in the investigation can keep her feet on the ground.

[phoebe]

47. Her husband works for TSA - Clint Fisher

http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1039054545557

(Clint Fisher currently serves as director of external affairs for the new Transportation Security Administration. It is most often Clint Fisher, says his wife, who arrives home first to relieve the nanny.)

I'm sure this has already been mentioned by some..

A former corporate defense attorney in the D.C. office of Latham & Watkins, Fisher hoped to round out her résumé with a stint in government service. Following Chertoff, a longtime colleague and mentor, seemed a logical professional step.

"I was very interested in managing the Fraud Section. I thought that would be a great way to serve the administration and also to advance my career," Fisher says. "I didn't really care how the rest of it got divvied up."

As it happened, Fisher now oversees the department's two top law enforcement priorities — terrorism and corporate fraud.

[Just Me]

48. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is so damned disturbing!

x( There is a clear conflict of interest! (Asst.) AGs aren't supposed to investigate those whose guilt or innocence have an impact on their damn positions/livelihoods!

:puke: I am so sick of this political corruption! :puke:

[donkeyotay]

49. At this point I'm taking the short cut. Not gonna do the media's job, not

going to do the koolaid drinkers' thinking for them. It's a giant crime family. A corruption clusterfuck. They stole the 2000 election and they did 9-11 so that they could get to the good part - this part - the part where they steal every last cent and end the democratic experiment that they don't believe in. This administration is going to get its 15 centuries of fame. They will be known as the people who destroyed America. Treasonous ratbastards.

Think I'll kick back now and let the media connect the dots and inform the public. I know they're on the job.

[bloom]

50. kick...

[progressoid]

51. Great. Another "under-the-rug-sweeper"

[Just Me]

52. HELLO.

:7