Emptywheel reports on data dump from DoJ re: US attorney purge

Emptywheel has been working overtime. Let me provide some annotated referrals to her posts on the Department of Justice data dump.

• Sara Taylor, aid to Karl Rove, threatened fired US Attorneys if they spoke out. Two days before leaving office, Carol Lam (US Attorney, San Diego) indicted Brent Wilkes and CIA executive Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. Two days after Ms. Lam left, Ms. Taylor contacted Kyle Sampson at DoJ re: NY Times article about Harriet Miers' involvement in Bud Cummins' dismissal. The following Monday Mike Elston, chief of Staff to Deputy AG Paul McNulty, at DoJ Washington called Bud Cummins and threatened retaliation if he went public on the firing. Links included.
  
• Testimony of Deputy AG Paul McNulty to the Senate. Emptywheel connects Mr. McNulty's testimony on the phone calls to the fired US Attorney, and he linked his actions to Karl Rove's White House office, the White House Office of Political Affairs. Links included.
  
• Why did Carol Lam think she was being asked to resign. Ms. Lam asked, no one ever answered her. Emptywheel considers what is known. Links included.
  
• "Dusty" Foggo is trying to get his trial moved. Emptywheel points out that removing Carol Lam was supposed to let the DoJ appoint a compliant prosecutor for "Dusty" Foggo, sort of like the way they did with the Tobaccl Lawsuit. But the "flap" that has grown up around the US Attorney Purge has prevented that. So Foggo's attorneys are trying another tack. Links included.
  
• Time line for James Comey. Comey is going to testify to the Senate tomorrow, so EmptyWheel presents a time line of his connections to the US Attorney Purge and to the earlier firing of the US Attorney Frederick Black. Black was removed as USA for Guam and Marianas Islands because he had started an investigation of the activities of Jack Abramoff.

Catch up on the investigations inside the Department of Justice

Emptywheel and Chuck Schumer spotted these details weeks ago. Monica Goodling was illegally administering loyalty oaths for Assistant US Attorneys. Want a job as an Assistant USA? She has been asking who you voted for as President in 2000 and 2004, and checking which party you donated money to. Democrats need not apply. Since AUSAs are federal civil servants, this is as flagrant a violation of law as -- well, as so many other things the Bush administration has been doing for the last six years.

The article in the Next Hurrah brings everything up to date.

Enjoy the Schadenfreude. It is even more pleasant when you think how very, very little Monica Goodling is enjoying it.

Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed all emails to and from Rove by Gonzales

From Laura Rozen:

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to turn over all e-mails to or from White House political adviser Karl Rove in connection with the controversy over the firings last year of eight U.S. attorneys.

The subpoena suggests that the congressional inquiry is focusing on Rove and whether he shaped the firings and hirings of U.S. attorneys and whether the purge was influenced by GOP concerns about corruption probes and investigations of voter fraud in battleground states during the last election.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he took the step only after Gonzales twice declined to turn over such e-mails voluntarily. The subpoena gives Gonzales a May 15 deadline. If he does not comply, Leahy said, he will be asked to appear before the panel to answer questions.

I'm betting that even if Gonzales turns over all the emails to and from Rove, there will me none that are incriminating. That's because the DoJ had Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling as what I am calling "consigliares" and that in the White House Harriet Miers functioned the same way for Rove. That's why Sampson, Goodling and Miers are gone now, and if they are indicted and tried they will fall on their swords like "Scooter" Libby did for Dick Cheney.

Though Goodling might be a weak link. Her effort to "lawyer up" and the lawyer's comments that she would refuse to testify to the Senate for fear of a "perjury trap" suggests that she realized what her function was to be the fall guy. She's only about 34, and Sampson is only 37. That is awfully young to accept the sacrifice of your future because your boss has to be protected from his criminal activity.

[See the McKlatchy story here.]