So the prosecutor for Abramoff has never prosecuted a CASE?

[shance]

There was a thread about the prosecutor, but I cant find it now.

Is this true?

[kstewart33]

1. I heard the same on Randi Rhodes today. nt

[Justitia]

2. Yup. She & my cat have the same prosecutorial case history. -eom

[shance]

5. Do you remember her name?

n/t

[LeftNYC]

7. Alice Fisher...nt

[Justitia]

10. Well, kitty is Cleo, but I think you want "Alice Fisher". -eom

[liberalnurse]

16. To give the Pollyanna view....

Did anyone see the movie, Rainmaker with Danny De Vito and Matt Damon? That was his first case and they won. understand it was based upon a true story.

[Justitia]

Good news, looks like the actual prosecutor is career (experienced) DOJ

Further down in this thread - Mary K Butler.

Appears that Alice Fisher is her boss. I'm hoping for the best.

[Ksec]

3. accidental? not

purposely done to make it nearly impossible to win? Youbetcha

[DemNoir]

4. No that is wrong

The actual prosecutor has long experience in public corruption cases. Its her new Boss that has no experience. A bit of confusion floating about. If you look at the document Alice Fisher's name is nowhere om it.

I am surprised to hear Randi Rhodes repeating this.

A long thread on Daily Kos today clears this all up.

[shance]

8. Well if she's the boss, might she just as well be the prosecutor?

It certainly is a way to block a thorough, fair investigation.

[DemNoir]

12. Think

If they could block stuff why would it be even investigated this far. The justice Dept is huge and public corruption is a very independent entity

[Mabus]

11. The signature on the indictment was Evans

It was a woman's name, I forget what right now. Is she the one prosecuting?

[DemNoir]

14. Mary K Butler

Is the actual prosecutor

[Mabus]

15. from martindale hubbell

Government Profile for Mary K. Butler

Mary K. Butler
Criminal Division, Department of Justice
US Government

Born 1956; Admitted 1981; Vassar College, A.B.; University of Wisconsin-Madison, J.D.

http://www.martindale.com/xp/Martindale/Lawyer_Locator/Search_Lawyer_Locator/search_detail.xml?STS=&LNAME=butler&CN=&PG=1&bc=65&CRY=&FN=&FNAME=mary&STYPE=N&a=568EBEF62C649C&l=&type=2&pos=3&cnt=4

[LSK]

6. what is there to prosecute, hes pleaded GUILTY

[Geoff R. Casavant]

19. At this point, investigate would be a better term

Investigate, present evidence of other wrongdoings involving other persons to a grand jury, get further indictments, etc.

[AtomicKitten]

9. I say give this case to Patrick Fitzgerald.

He will ferret out the GOP pigs at the trough.

Otherwise, this could end up being a hand job.

[Justitia]

13. Some background info from Law.com

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1115197520932

The fact that she counts HCA as a client and worked on the Whitewater sham makes me feel icky all over.

[shance]

17. Information on Alice Fisher. Chertoff picked her to serve as Deputy AJ

Alice S. Fisher, 38
Nominated chief of DOJ Criminal Division

Jason Boog
The National Law Journal
05-09-2005


After surviving a tumultuous tenure with the counterterrorism 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.

Fisher has helped lead some of the most dramatic legal proceedings of recent times, including the investigation of corporate boardrooms and terrorist cells -- and is now poised for new challenges. Since Fisher is currently being reviewed in Senate confirmation hearings, she could not be interviewed for this profile.

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 supervised about 160 prosecutors and employees, primarily guiding the counterterrorism and fraud sections.

After Sept. 11, her terrorism job became an all-consuming project. Fisher advised in many high-profile terrorist prosecutions, including the shoe-bomber Richard Reid and the American captured during the war in Afghanistan, John Walker Lindh.

Then came the corporate scandals. During her tenure, Fisher consulted with the Enron Task Force, helped coordinate the HealthSouth fraud case, and pursued identity theft and telemarketing cases. On the policy side, she helped corporations conform with new business restrictions and regulations that accompanied the USA Patriot Act.

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.

Then Chertoff brought her into the Senate investigation of investments that President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton made in the troubled Whitewater Development Corp.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1115197520932

[shance]

18. Fisher was a recess appointment - Leahy expressed "concerns"

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."

[Skidmore]

20. Can the public correct this some way. Demand a different

prosecutor. Like the pressure put on the 911 Commission to exclude Kissinger? I think that there is potential for Joe Citizen to have every legislator and the administration by the shorthairs now and to be able to jerk hard.

[Justice Is Comin]

21. It takes a mile for a train to stop

and this one is coming down a mountain. There are too many eyes on this already to play hide the salami.

It would be like trying to conceal a basketball in your glove during the World Series.

[shance]

22. Brakes are brakes Justice. The truth is all we can do to stop the train.

Good point at the same time*

However, Ms. Fisher of course was only appointed to intentionally impede the investigation and the truth, just like everything else with this Administration.