Starting right NOW. US Attorneys Firings Discussion of their Firings on C-SPAN 2

[L. Coyote]

Iglesias now answering, "What happened?"

C-SPAN 2

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Thanks!

:)

[L. Coyote]

2. "Two incredibly inappropriate and wrong phone calls"

from members of Congress and their staffers.

Sen. Domenici "hung up on me." Within weeks I was put on the list.

"I was put on the list for political reasons."

[bobbolink]

29. I really hope Iglesias "hangs up" Pete and Heather!

That would be so sweet!

[MadMaddie]

3. Watching now.....Thanks!

[L. Coyote]

4. "What was happing at the higfhest levels of the Justice Department was wrong."

Iglesias. He started by saying it was a good thing there was a time limit when asked "What went wrong?" !!

[L. Coyote]

5. McKay, Charlton, Iglesias on the panel.

Charlton.

Discussing taped confessions. "Extraordinary" FBI still using note taking, like Hamarabi's era!!

Discussing death penalty issue, cases require "perfection" or as near to it as possible in the criminal justice system. DoJ would not pay to seek evidence, body, to prove guilt and allow seeking death penalty with real evidence. Death penalty review committee, McNulty, and Gonzales ordered seeking death penalty.

Where is the voter fraud in this state. NOT.

[L. Coyote]

6. McKay now answering question.

"We weren't told anyone else was being fired." They were being kept isolated, in the dark, by DoJ, to keep the firings hushed up.

"They fired some very good people"

"I, to this day, do not know who fired me and why"

[MadMaddie]

7. The testimony of these lawyers is extroidinary...

These men strived for prosecutorial independence....they would not abide by the partisan bullshit...

Carl may have royally fucked up on this one....these men, Carol Lam and all the others are sharp adn they know the law....

This group of prosecutors could bring down the administration.....

[L. Coyote]

14. They have about 93 good friends too. What happens if you mess with 93 lawyers?

You sure have not created a new lawyers joke!!

[L. Coyote]

8. McKay catches DoJ in a LIE

The blamed an article in the Seattle Intelligencer. PROBLEM, he was on the list before the article was written.

Then Sampson put the blame on the Wales murder case being pushed too far. "It's absurd. But if they used it as an excuse ... I fiond it very upsetting."

Noone "will admit to putting on a list. That leaves the White House...."

[L. Coyote]

11. Q: Was there some effort to keeping you quite?

McKay was "subject to two inaapropriate phone calls" to keep him quite.

"We just want to assure you the AG will not say you were fired."

[Moochy]

9. Tom Wales?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/42670_shot13.shtml

John McKay was told he was fired because he pushed the as yet unsolved investigation into his assassination "too far".

[MadMaddie]

35. And it makes you wonder why they don't want the Wales case

solved?

[slowry]

10. K&R n/t

[L. Coyote]

12. "If we testified before Congress, that would be seen as

an escalation of this conflict." McKay.

When I heard about the firings, i thought, "But these are Republican US attorneys." Who is this professor.

"After the fact rationalizations"

The President is the only person in the US who can fire US attorneys." The professor.

[SeattleGirl]

13. Whoa! It's at Seattle University, my alma mater.

And thanks for the heads up, Coyote.

[L. Coyote]

15. "The reasons that they gave were the genuine reasons"

was Charlton's first impression. Not any more. He just equated this to Watergagte!!!!

[L. Coyote]

16. McKay: I thought that if I announced, Hey, I got fired, I would disrupt

other ongoing prosecutions. He held back until there was good reason to speak out.

[L. Coyote]

17. Iglesias: Four of the eight had ongoing public corruption investigations

[L. Coyote]

18. Q. Is this part of a plan to centralize control?

=============================
May 10, 2006 - Lam litigation: HHS Seeks to block Medicare payments to Tenet Hospital chain.
May 11, 2006 - Kyle Sampson e-mails deputy White House counsel William Kelley, re "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam ....
May 17, 2006 - Tenet Healthcare Agrees to Divest Alvarado Hospital
May 18, 2006 - Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) provides false information to AP that Lam has prosecuted only 6% of 289 suspected immigrant smugglers.
Dec. 7, 2006 - Michael Battle, director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, calls seven U.S. Attorneys to ask for their resignations.
Dec. 13, 2006 - McNulty strips USAs and Prosecutors of their decision powers.

SEE:


I doubt that, as you write, "at the bottom of it was Rove's obsessive plan to increase prosecutions of alleged election law violations against Democrats in battleground states critical to Republicans." Even if that was what Rove was "obsessing", there is far more to the USA firings.

Besides, where are those Rove prosecutions? Are you arguing that Rove is totally ineffectual?
Or, if they had prosecuted a few people, election outcomes would have been altered? Big maybe, not?
There are well-proven methods to impact election outcomes, like advertising, or the civil rights felonies.

Meanwhile, 30 USA had been investigating Medicare fraud, including Lam and Graves.

Read this thread: 30 U.S. attorneys investigate BILKING BILLIONS, Medicare, Medicaid, Military’s Healthcare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

And today, Paul McNulty, "the principal driver of the Department’s policies and efforts to prevent corporate fraud" resigned.

Dec. 13, 2006
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1165917921963
... the Justice Department announced a number of immediate changes to its corporate-fraud charging policies Tuesday.....
The changes, announced ... by Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty ... are a step back from the government's aggressive anti-fraud prosecution tactics .... McNulty said the new guidelines were designed to address the "perception, well founded -- or not," that the Justice Department's policies were "chilling attorney-client communications" and hurting the effectiveness of corporate lawyers ...................

For certain types of sensitive attorney-client information, such as the advice a defense attorney gave to the management of a corporation facing a fraud investigation, prosecutors are now required to obtain the approval of the Justice Department's No. 2 official in Washington -- currently McNulty.

For privileged factual material a company has obtained through an internal investigation into an alleged fraud, such as transcripts of interviews with culpable employees, prosecutors will need to obtain the approval of the local U.S. Attorney in their district, who can only sign off on such a request with the approval of the head of the DOJ's Criminal Division in Washington, currently Alice Fisher.

Previously, prosecutors had wide latitude to issue such requests on their own ....

[L. Coyote]

21. Iglesias: "It appears there was a power grab."

but he was not aware of it.

McKay: "I never detected a coherent plan." "I think we are seeing the ascendancy of the personal loyalty test to the President..."

I think what it was is, We want our people, as determined by some 32 year old people..."

"I think they were largely unsuccessful and they were caught .. by the new people in the Congress..."

[SeattleGirl]

19. I love what John McKay is saying about the loyalty test!

:applause:

[L. Coyote]

This has to be on U-tube! any URLs?

[SeattleGirl]

25. I didn't find this particular one on YouTube.

There are other things with McKay on there, though.

[Moochy]

27. Here is a WAPO blog entry on this conference

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/04/fired_us_attorneys_convening_i.html

[L. Coyote]

37. Lots of comments too. Thanks. The other panelists named too.

[Moochy]

20. McKay "Department of something"

McKay: I think that those running the justice dept. failed to read the last bit on their nametags...

(Justice)

They are not supervising the manufacturing of widgets.

[Moochy]

22. Iglesias on Gonzales Testimony

He felt terrible after watching the Gonzales Testimony.


(me) This needs to be on the news, not on the corner of the cable channels. :((

[wildbilln864]

23. Iglesias is fantastic!

A real American patriot!
Hard to believe he's republican.

[L. Coyote]

24. Q: Karl Rove and Harriet Miers "in the loop"

Professor: "Extraordinarily inappropriate." "very troubling and, again, at variance with the way the DoJ operated."

"The effect of what happened, particularly the firing of seven US attorneys at once" had the effect of centralization."

McKay: "Chilling effect"

[L. Coyote]

26. By their conduct "they have opened up" questions about many cases

"If you are a good United States attorney, why did you get fired." People have been harmed and cases have been harmed.

[L. Coyote]

28. "This entire process has made me a lot more bi-partisan in nature"

:rofl:

[L. Coyote]

30. McKay concludes that having a special prosecutor is appropriate.

[L. Coyote]

31. Iglesias and McKay On Meet The Press = YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMo9-rsFIrM

[L. Coyote]

32. Iglesias: "Getting new leadership that will stop what has been going on"

for the last several years is "very, very important right now."

James Eisenstein: New attorney General needs to have some independence.

[L. Coyote]

33. YouTube; Bill Maher Interviews fired US Attorney DAVID IGLESIAS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vybidsy30-w

[L. Coyote]

34. YouTube: Katie Couric, Eye To Eye: Former US Attorney David Iglesias

Eye To Eye: Former US Attorney David Iglesias - 07:18
Katie Couric talks with David Iglesias, the former US attorney for the District of New Mexico, about the circumstances surrounding his firing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9WyymqbzYE

[L. Coyote]

36. Other panelist identties are

James Eisenstein, a law professor at Penn State and author of a book on U.S. attorneys, told The Washington Post's Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein that it was "very unusual" for Gonzales to appoint so many of his own top aides to the federal prosecutor outposts around the country.

And Laurie L. Levenson, professor at Loyola Law School, testified before Senate Judiciary Feb. 6 that "the increasing politicization of federal law enforcement" was having a "devastating impact on the morale" in U.S. attorney's offices around the nation.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/04/fired_us_attorneys_convening_i.html