So who is Alice Fisher and why should we care?

[DoYouEverWonder]

Alice Fisher is the Assistance Attorney General in charge of the Abramoff case. Ms. Fisher is a Bush recess appoint. Fisher is directly connected to key people involved in the investigation and it is customary under such circumstances for someone in her position to recuse themselves from the case. The conflict of interest is just too significant for her to continue to be in charge of such an important investigation.

Alice Fisher to Be New Head of DOJ Criminal Division

Alice Fisher, a partner at Latham & Watkins and former Deputy AAG to Michael Chertoff when he led the Criminal Division, will be nominated as the new head of the Division. Chertoff is now Secretary of Homeland Security, and Fisher has been working for him since 1996 in different positions. According to her law firm biography (here):

Ms. Fisher served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Department of Justice from July 2001-2003. While at the Department of Justice, Ms. Fisher was responsible for managing both the Counter-Terrorism Section and the Fraud Section - two of the Department of Justice’s top priorities during her tenure.

Specifically, Ms. Fisher was responsible for national coordination in the terrorism area, including all matters relating to September 11 investigations and prosecutions, investigation and prosecution of international and domestic terrorist groups and terrorist acts, terrorist financing investigations, USA Patriot Act implementation and all other terrorism policy issues. She supervised a number of terrorist-related prosecutions and coordinated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council and the White House on terrorism threat, litigation, and policy issues.

Although she has experience at senior management levels and on the defense side in white collar cases, Fisher has never served in a prosecutor's office (state or federal) dealing with cases on a day-to-day basis. There may be some grumblings from the field offices about her lack of experience in that area (see article available on Law.Com), but it should not be a major impediment if she surrounds herself with some experienced prosecutors who know the operation of U.S. Attorney's Offices and can manage (or massage) the egos. The head of the Criminal Division does not need to get involved in the minutiae of particular cases.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/...

Alice S. 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

[bluerum]

1. Thanks for the heads up. n/t

[hootinholler]

2. kick

[bonito]

3. Kick!