Breaking: Fifth Top Justice Department Official Resigns (Mike Elston)

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/15/elston-resignation/

Breaking: Fifth Top Justice Department Official Resigns

Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, has become the fifth Justice Department official to resign after being linked to the firings of several U.S. attorneys

Elston’s resignation is effective at the end of next week. Reached Friday afternoon, he confirmed his plans to leave but would not say why.

Elston is a key figure in the U.S. attorney scandal. Last month, Elston admitted that at the direction of McNulty, he placed calls to four fired U.S. attorneys — calls that three of the prosecutors say involved threats not to testify before Congress about their dismissals. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said that Elston’s calls were one of many examples in this scandal that have the “whiff of obstruction of justice.”

Also, former Missouri U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman recently testified that he had consulted with Elson about filing controversial voter fraud indictments a week before the 2006 election. Former Justice Department officials have said that Schlozman’s call to Elston was “inappropriate” and may have been part of an effort to “pressure” Election Crimes chief Craig Donsanto into approving the indictments.

Furthermore, Elston came under fire for allegedly politicizing the DoJ Honors Program, a highly selective program for entry-level DOJ lawyers. A “Group of Anonymous Justice Department Employees” wrote to Congress last month complaining that “Elston rejected hundreds of potential applicants to the program last year seemingly based on their political backgrounds.”

[TwilightGardener]

Gimme an "F"! Gimme and "R"! Gimme a "Iday News Dump!"

[fooj]

1. At this point, is anyone even running the place?

I mean, geesh. I think the DOJ is in worse shape than we can even imagine. Damn.

[Raksha]

4. Oh yeah, they are running the DOJ--into the ground!!! n/t

[malaise]

2. I was just wondering about that Friday news dump

The proverbial SH@t continues to hit the fan. When in Gonzo leaving.

[CatWoman]

7. at this point, Gonzales is there for one reason and one reason only:

to buy Chimpy time.

They can't afford to even think about installing a new AJ at this point -- the appointment of a special prosecutor would surely follow.

[old guy]

11. I believe you have selected the correct answer!

[malaise]

16. 100% correct n/t

[L. Coyote]

21. 1000% correct, and the People know it. America is having a Duuuhh Summer.

[krispos42]

3. So, who is left in the DoJ?

Gonzo and three FBI agents?

[Canuckistanian]

22. Are they even planning to replace these people?

And with whom?

I think they've pretty much exhausted the "backwash pool" of even barely qualified candidates.

[krispos42]

24. The qualified people are running screaming from the DoJ, I think

They don't want to be forced into doing illegal acts, nor cover for them, nor be part of their political agenda. The frothing-at-the-mouth Regents University people won't pass Congressional muster.

There is a lot to be said for the mid-level bureaucrat. These are people that eschew better-paying jobs out of patriotism, and they get ridiculed regularly by private industry and the Republicans.

[CatWoman]

5. This shows that Conyers and Leahy are getting closer

and closer

and closer to the truth.

[Richard Steele]

6. 3 US attorneys say he threatened them not to testify, and that's just a "whiff"?

No, Senator Whitehouse, that's not a “whiff of obstruction of justice”...

That's OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE!!!!!!!!



Perhaps the Dems could send a strongly-worded letter. :banghead:

[Senator]

8. Is He Going to Start Sobbing Too?

First Monica Goodling, now Poor Timmy Griffin. Crying for their lost theocracy/payoff.

Seems like Elston grabbed one of the last (golden) parachutes. But if obstruction charges start pinballing around, we may yet see his Swaggart Moment.

---

[BuyingThyme]

9. I wish our representatives could see this.

But they won't.

[babylonsister]

10. I think their digging might have inspired all the panic. nt

[Disturbed]

12. Will there come a day when someone is actually charged with

a Crime? Why are the Dems so afraid to Impeach Gonzo?

[aquart]

15. Votes. Got votes?

[annabanana]

13. Alrighty then!. . . .

Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum,

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust

[L. Coyote]

26. Yo annabanana, and right on!! May the treand continue upward.

[senseandsensibility]

14. Great.

kick:kick: They're falling like dominoes.

[bobthedrummer]

17. DoJ Criminal Division's Alice S. Fisher has got to go too

A bunch of criminals in the Criminal Division-just like the Gestapo, or Politburo.

It isn't funny anymore, is it?

[bobthedrummer]

19. "Alice S. Fisher is still hanging in the Gonzales Criminal Division"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3294810#3294851

[L. Coyote]

20. For how long? They are really jumping ship at DoJ like nowhere else.

[Canuckistanian]

23. I'm sure they're all looking at their resumes

And desperately calling in favors from business and lobby groups.

Funny how they think that once they've quit, they're no longer prosecutable.

[L. Coyote]

18. K&R bears repeating ad nauseum "the administration misled the Congress" read LIED

As subpoenas are issued, the anticipatory resignation happens.

[SpiralHawk]

25. republicons hate democracy and Amerca

Fer sure

Traitorous no honor fat cat skillet-heads