Secret Order By Gonzales Delegated Extraordinary Powers To Aides

[swag]

Source: National Journal

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed a highly confidential order in March 2006 delegating to two of his top aides -- who have since resigned because of their central roles in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys -- extraordinary authority over the hiring and firing of most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department. A copy of the order and other Justice Department records related to the conception and implementation of the order were provided to National Journal.

In the order, Gonzales delegated to his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, and his White House liaison "the authority, with the approval of the Attorney General, to take final action in matters pertaining to the appointment, employment, pay, separation, and general administration" of virtually all non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department, including all of the department's political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation. Monica Goodling became White House liaison in April 2006, the month after Gonzales signed the order.

The existence of the order suggests that a broad effort was under way by the White House to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department, not just at the U.S.-attorney level. Department records show that the personnel authority was delegated to the two aides at about the same time they were working with the White House in planning the firings of a dozen U.S. attorneys, eight of whom were, in fact, later dismissed.

. . .

A senior Justice Department official, who did not know of Gonzales's delegation of authority until contacted by National Journal, said that it posed a serious threat to the integrity of the criminal-justice system because it gave Sampson, Goodling, and the White House control over the hiring of senior officials in the Justice Department's Criminal Division, which oversees all politically sensitive public corruption cases, at the same time that they held authority to hire and fire U.S. attorneys.


Read more: http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070430nj1.htm

---

via atrios

[Eurobabe]

1. Dereliction of DUTY, resign now Abu Gonzo! n/t

[TacticalPeek]

2. Conspiracy!

:popcorn:

[peacebird]

3. k&r - sad sad sad.....

[truthisfreedom]

4. I wonder what powers he granted the janitors?

Maybe Gannon/Guckert was granted royal powers too?

[displacedtexan]

5. Here's the permalink

LINK

I can't wait for next week's questioning!
(I have Gallery tickets.)

[Judi Lynn]

7. That should be unbelievable. Infuriating! Many DU'ers will be with you in spirit. n/t

[displacedtexan]

10. I'm really excited about it.

I figured I would just see Gonzales say "I don't recall"
a brazillion more times, but this news means that there
could be real fireworks.

[gratuitous]

6. And at this exact same time . . .

Even as the details of the shenanigans going on at Justice are slowly bleeding out, this same Department of Justice is arguing in court that attorneys for the “detainees” at Guantanamo be limited to three visits with their clients. How many interviews with the Senate Committee will Mr. Gonzales require to “remember” all the little details – like this one – he’s forgotten or didn’t recall that he’d forgotten? We’re up to two now, and I don’t see Joe Biden growing any more patient with Gonzales’ nonsense as time goes on.

[xultar]

8. If he couldn't be bothered to do his fuckin job then why did we confirm him.

We should have confirmed his aides and sent his dumb ass out in a cheerleading outfit.

[Kool Kitty]

39. Good question. Why do they bother stealing elections,

rigging votes, etc., when they clearly hate these jobs? I mean, what't the point? Nevermind, I know-it's the money. It has to be, because they hate people and government.

[Tatiana]

43. Republican-controlled, rubber-stamp Senate.

I'm sure these "Dems" are proud of their vote to confirm Abu Gonzales.

Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Salazar (D-CO)

[Beetwasher]

9. See? I Know Nuttin'!

I told other people to do my job, so I'm not responsible.

[KittyWampus]

23. It's really that transparent. Isn't it?

[rodeodance]

11. well, this takes the cake!!

......A senior executive branch official familiar with the delegation of authority said in an interview that -- as was the case with the firings of the U.S. attorneys and the selection of their replacements -- the two aides intended to work closely with White House political aides and the White House counsel's office in deciding which senior Justice Department officials to dismiss and whom to appoint to their posts. "It was an attempt to make the department more responsive to the political side of the White House and to do it in such a way that people would not know it was going on," the official said.


An original draft of Gonzales's delegation of authority to Sampson and Goodling was so broad that it did not even require the two aides to obtain the final approval of the attorney general before moving to dismiss other department officials.




As was the case with the fired U.S. attorneys, the employees targeted for dismissal would never know that they had been selected by the White House or the Justice Department aides, according to records and interviews. Most of the eight fired U.S. attorneys were given the news by Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty; by McNulty's chief of staff, Michael Elston; or by Michael Battle, another senior Justice official, typically with no mention of any role by anyone else.

An original draft of Gonzales's delegation of authority to Sampson and Goodling was so broad that it did not even require the two aides to obtain the final approval of the attorney general before moving to dismiss other department officials, according to records obtained by National Journal.

[LiberalFighter]

27. I'm sure Gonzales took time out to explain clearly what the order meant.

[rodeodance]

12. By Murray Waas, National Journal

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Secret Order By Gonzales Delegated Extraordinary Powers To Aides

By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, April 30, 2007

[hang a left]

13. Jeezuz What a bombshell!

I sure would like to know who Waas' source is!! knr

[rodeodance]

14. Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto said it was "unremarkable" that

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said that Gonzales's order "simply gives the chief of staff and the White House liaison the authority to execute certain decisions related to the hiring and termination of some noncareer employees with -- as the memo states -- the 'approval of the Attorney General.' The constitutional issues were explicitly resolved in the order."

Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto said it was "unremarkable" that Sampson and Goodling would be involved in the hiring and firing of Justice Department officials.

"The job of a chief of staff is to work with the White House liaison to hire qualified people," he said. "That is fairly standard practice in any large Cabinet department or agency." Fratto added, "The White House has full authority in hiring and firing presidential appointees" and "can choose to delegate that authority. There is no need for written authority to exercise that power."

Asked why, if the process is routine, Gonzales issued the confidential order, Fratto responded, "I don't know why anyone would force the need to write such a memo." He referred further inquiries to the Justice Department.

[MnFats]

22. how much more are they going to take with this guy? Bush must want him no matter what..

...to stay....so he can justify mass arrests at the GOP convention next year?
suspension of the constitution when mass protests start around the country?

[TexasLawyer]

15. "all of the department's political appointees...

who do not require Senate confirmation."

With Bush-co's sneaky recess appointments, that's pretty much everybody.

[Roland99]

16. Probably designed to distance himself and the WH from the partisan purging.

[Postman]

17. Sounds like a convenient pass the buck exercise....

"secret" order that nobody knew about, not even Henry Waxman, when he interviewed Gonzales?

I think this shit is being made up as they go along to avoid prosecution..

[Straight Shooter]

18. "all of the department's political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation."

I wonder how many of those appointees are Regent graduates ...

[yardwork]

50. Goodling is a Regent graduate - which puts the Christian Right in the middle of this

Take a look at what is happening. This is the attempted take-over of the government into a theocracy. The Supreme Court - five of four Justices are Catholics, several (all?) of them Opus Dei. The hard-right Christian Regent "University" graduated Goodling and others who were secretly put in charge of the U.S. Justice Department.

Attorneys with good credentials (Ivy League law school graduates) were dismissed and passed over in favor of Regent University graduates. In order to get or retain a job in the Bush Justice Department, one must pass a litmus test - hard-right Christian fundamentalist theocracy.

[Straight Shooter]

51. Goodling is the infamous Regent graduate.

I'm wondering how many others. I think Palouse, the nasty-tempered domineering U.S. attorney who is Goodling's friend, is another one.

How many others?

I'm a lapsed Catholic, and there are good Catholics, but there's not much spookier than a diehard theocratic of any religious stripe on the highest bench in this land. :(

[Arkansas Granny]

19. This answers some questions I had. I couldn't figure out why or

how Presidential appointees could be fired and replaced without the AG or the President being at least aware of it. I don't know if this would qualify as delegation of authority or dereliction of duty.

[bvar22]

20. It didn't take them long to gin up a super secret order....

...that no one had ever heard of. I wonder why Gonzo didn't mention this super secret order when testifying under oath?

Did't George W Bush say that transparency is the hallmark of a democracy?

[youngdem]

21. There is only one reason you would take the time to create such authority

There is no longer ANY plausible deniability.

Time to resign, Gonzo.

[stevedeshazer]

24. Blam! That's gonna leave a mark

This sure helps explain Gonzo's extreme memory loss. :hi:

[Gman]

25. IM-friggin'-PEACH already

start with Gonzales to get it going. Then get Bush & Cheney.

[Thor_MN]

26. I get it, Goodling and Sampson were USA Czars!!!

Falling into that gray area between the AG, the pResident and KKKarl, otherwise known as the fall guys.

[Zhade]

28. You kNOW this is happening in other departments.

IMPEACHMENT! NOW!

[spindrifter]

33. Certainly! It's because they put the

incompetent window dressers who can barely function enough to appear before Congressional confirmation hearings into the lead spots and back fill with incompetent, inexperienced political sycophants who run amok with their freakin' Blackberries.

[pinto]

29. 'authority over the hiring and firing of most non-civil-service employees'

This is the basic internal MO, inherent in the Republican agenda, to strip established civil service guidelines, Congressional oversight and union protection from the federal workplace - across the board.

They've gotten away with most of it, when it pertained to less visible federal agencies. The corruption of the US Attorneys', though, is a long overdue sighting of the tip of the iceberg that is the Republican attempt to dismantle the broad based, largely competent, federal bureaucracy in favor of a select coterie of political operatives.

From the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq to the US Park Service, for crying out loud, there's been no department left un-compromised by their blatant politicization and cronyism.

I favor that "Mission Accomplished" banner be replaced with "You're doing a heck of a job Brownie" poster as the legacy of this administration.

Aghh.

[Patsy Stone]

30. I couldn't agree more:

"It would be an act of insanity and, frankly, implausible that the attorney general would grant authority to Kyle and Monica Goodling to make these decisions," the official said, "But it would be frightening if they were serving as proxies for the White House. You do not want to allow for the possible politicization of your Criminal Division like that."

[MGKrebs]

31. Wow, they really trusted Sampson.

One begins to wonder about exactly who he is. His concurrent time at Univ. of Chicago with Elizabeth Cheney becomes a little more interesting.

[quiet.american]

32. So, Kyle "The Aggregator" Sampson was a bit more than that, eh? n/t

[spindrifter]

34. Why didn't Sampson reveal

this in his committee interviews--or did he?

[speedoo]

35. Both Sampson and Gonzo failed to tell "the whole truth"....

by not disclosing this, IMO. With all the questions they were asked, I have to believe there was at least one question for both that would have required this to be disclosed.

If so, that's perjury, is it not?

[Blackhatjack]

36. Read the entire article ... Murray Waas has laid out a devastating case of huge importance

It is impossible to judge the total amount of damage that the Bush Political Officers have done to the Department of Justice and US Attorneys across the country.

This article provides evidence that the Rove Political arm intended and almost got away with purging and installing political hacks in every major decisionmaking position in the DOJ.

in layman's language, had they succeeded no corrupt Repub would ever have to worry about being prosecuted by a US Attorney.

The inside source that revealed Gonzales' TWO versions of the secret order took a big chance in revealing what went on, but it is going to light a fire under the exisiting Congressional investigations since they now know they have been lied to again under oath.

[Theduckno2]

37. All these "Deciders" and it seems no one is responsible!

"Highly confidential order"

"...their scant prosecutorial experience, and their lack of law enforcement credentials."

"...to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department."

This makes me ill.

Excellent article though. K&R

[appleannie1]

38. It is on the front page of Yahoo

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/gonzales_prosecutors

Perhaps the news media is coming out of their 6 year coma.

[HuffleClaw]

40. a shameful attempt to claim 'i didn't do it!' n/t

or is it 'i don't recall' ??

[maddezmom]

41. Gonzales aides had firing authority

Gonzales aides had firing authority By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
15 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave two top aides authority to hire and fire political appointees other than U.S. attorneys, according to a Justice Department order obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The March 2006 order gave Gonzales' then-Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson and later White House liaison Monica Goodling authority to hire and fire about 135 politically appointed Justice Department employees who did not require Senate confirmation.

Labeled "Internal Order," the document bestowed "the authority, with the approval of the attorney general, to take final action in matters pertaining to the appointment, employment, pay separation and general administration" of non-civil service employees of the Justice Department.

Such employees include deputy assistant attorneys general and press aides. U.S. attorneys, who serve as the top federal prosecutors in their state districts, normally require Senate confirmation and would not be covered by the order.

The order was first reported Monday by National Journal.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/gonzales_prosecutors;_ylt=AtBO_Vy_lFT6xwXnwuBqEiGs0NUE

[Tatiana]

42. This is a no-brainer, right? IMPEACH HIM!

Surely one of our Representatives can draw up articles of impeachment. I believe they'd get enough crossover Repuke votes to convict in the Senate.

[samsingh]

44. this is huge

it shows how anti-democrasy and justice these repug morons truly are.

this is no different than what third-world dictators have done for centuries.

bush is a dictator trying to bring us to third-world status.

[Marie26]

45. Wow this is scary

They are going to cripple the Justice Dept. from the inside to stop the upcoming criminal prosecutions. They're destroying the federal government to cover up their crimes.

Can anyone help me out - wasn't there an article in Jan. 2007 that said that the White House had just appointed political "liasons" to supervise & control every federal agency? It seems like this is all related.

ETA: Oh, here it is.

NY Times: Bush signs landmark executive order increasing power over federal agencies

Monday January 29, 2007

President George W. Bush has given his administration a boost in how the government regulates key issues such as civil rights and the environment, The New York Times will report on its Tuesday front page.

The President "signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules that the federal government develops to regulate public health, safety," privacy and other issues, writes Robert Pear for the Times.

Pear reports that "in an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Bush said that each federal agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee" who will monitor the creation of process and procedures and the associated documentation.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/NY_Times_Bush_gives_White_House_0129.html

[progressoid]

46. Brilliant strategy by Gonzo...

The underlings do the dirty work AND take the blame.

[thereismore]

47. ...and he keeps the paycheck. I like it. Devious! tn

[donkeyotay]

48. Is Tony Soprano running the While House?

These thugs could not have destroyed our Constitution and the rule of law anymore more completely if they'd worn zoot suits and carried tommy guns. They took a public oath, but apparently they took another oath to each other. Impeach them all.

[paparush]

49. You guys are clearly missing the point......

Its Clinton's fault.
:sarcasm: :evilgrin: :sarcasm: