Justice Department Officials Confirm White House Instigated Plan To Bypass Senate On U.S. Attorney
Justice Department Officials Confirm White House Instigated Plan To Bypass Senate On U.S. Attorney
Both Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his former chief of staff Kyle Sampson approved a plan to bypass the Senate and install Karl Rove-protege Tim Griffin as U.S. attorney in Arkansas.
But according to Karen Tumulty of Time, private testimony by Sampson reveals that the idea was “instigated” by the White House:
In private testimony that is being released this afternoon by the commitee, Alberto Gonzales’s former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson told investigators that Gonzales himself initially resisted the idea of bypassing the Senators from Arkansas to install Karl Rove protege Tim Griffin as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Pressure to do it, he suggested, was coming from officials at the White House–specifically, White House political director Sara Taylor, her deputy Scott Jennings and Chris Oprison, the associate White House counsel. Sampson described himself and Goodling as “open to the idea,” which is not the same as instigating it.
Taylor reports directly to Rove. In a Dec. 19, 2006 e-mail, Sampson said that getting Griffin “appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”
Additionally, according to written testimony by Bud Cummins — the prosecutor Griffin replaced — Michael Elston, the chief of staff to former Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, the plan to install Griffin and circumvent Senate approval was completely dictated by the White House:
Elston denied knowing anything about anyone’s intention to circumvent Senate confirmation in Griffin’s case. He said that might have been the White House’s plan, but they “never read DOJ into that plan” and DOJ would never go along with it. This indicated to me that my removal had been dictated entirely by the White House.
Fortunately, in a 306-114 vote, the House yesterday passed legislation “that would curb President Bush’s power to appoint prosecutors indefinitely,” limiting interim U.S. attorneys’ terms to 120 days. The Senate has already approved the bill, and it now heads to Bush for his signature.
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27 Responses to “Justice Department Officials Confirm White House Instigated Plan To Bypass Senate On U.S. Attorney”
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At least the House has a veto-proof majority. Republicans must be getting nervous over all their corruption being exposed to voters.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:03 pmAnd his signing statement…
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:04 pmPlz let this finally be the one to nail these criminals.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:09 pmWhy are they letting this piece of shit President Of the United States
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:18 pmdo this to our country?
Good luck getting that criminal to sign it,,,he likes being a dictator, and answering to no one.
Hating the repukian mafia daily
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:18 pmSuskind:
The aide [to George Bush] said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:19 pmOne of these days we’re going to know EXACTLY who stuck that disgusting provision in the Patriot Act.
I’m stunned that these guys have gotten away with this for this long. Stunning.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:24 pmWe’re looking into the question of holding a no confidence vote. Frankly, I have no confidence, and we may vote on it soon.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:26 pmHe breaks every fking law in the books and grins like a fking psycho!
He thinks its a joke. People are dying in Iraq, Afganistan, NOLA, Kansas…. Our people! And he’s laughing at us.
He tells lie after lie to promote terror and death.
WTF! Who in their right mind can support an asshole as evil as this guy.
This is not a just man, This is not a religious man. This man is sick, arrogant, vindictive and greedy.
If he does talk to some one i doubt very seriously that it is God or Jesus. He talks to the evil one….Himself!
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:30 pm“One night, before passage of the bill, Tolman surreptitiously inserted a paragraph into the legislation that basically removed Senate oversight and approval of replacements for U.S. Attorneys. Tolman didn’t ask Specter and didn’t tell Specter or, as far as we know, any other senators. He just snuck it into the bill and none of them knew they were voting for that provision.”
http://www.firedoglake.com/ 2007/ 03/ 28/ why-isnt-brett-tolman-in-prison-yet/
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:32 pmOnce upon a time their was a land of the FREE and home of the BRAVE. Those days are over!
Welcome to the land of the SELLOUTS and the home of the RUBBERSTAMPS.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:34 pm#4 the reason this piece of **** is doing this dude is because they
can whatever they please and WE get the crumbs headed for the
land fill dude.
i stand STRONG that we the people get far superior service at mcdonalds
none of us know dracula’s who get us the finest of everything, we the
people get nothing….. we pay pay pay so that 1% gets 50 - 70% of
everything
and WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN DUDE
cause the system is RIGGED dude RIGGED
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:39 pmthanks Lily-
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm#10 dude… this time, i watched the 110th carefully on their promise
do you know in 6 months that first 100 hours not one single promise
kept
just before the latest news, they broke their promise regarding lobbyist
reform
and the latest SELLING OUT THEIR COUNTRY TO WARLORDS DUDE
right now the deparment of justice is SO DOG GONE CORRUPTED
and we haven’t even gotten into the dracula votes YET…. there’s still
friggin almost 4 more years DUDE
we got ourself into this mess because THE SYSTEM IS TOTALLY RIGGED
YES………………
POLITICAL HIGH CLASS HOODLUMS DUDE
political parasites dude…
oh what’s the use dude
now LOOK,,,, i need to as said get a grip DUDE and chill OUT man
i know i’m such ultimate coolness i blow everyone away DUDE
but i have to chill dude chill :)
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:44 pmDon’t you mean, headed to Bush for his signing statement?
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:00 pmwhy do i always feel like puking when i ready anything about this government?
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:05 pm#15
dude the reason you is for a variety of reasons
1) because you are getting crumbs headed for the landfill. You are
getting the grease pits
As i have stated SO many times far far superior service for us
at mcdonald’s a third rate restraunt gives us far superior service
then our so called public servants
2) Because dude the system is totally rigged
3) because of all the political parasites, crony’s, because of a cesspool
filled with ticks, roaches, maggots, termites, and decaying matter
BECAUSE DUDE WE GET WHAT WILL GO IN THE LANDFILL
4) Because this country is rapidly heading towards a 3′rd world country
DUDE… Nafta, Ftaa, and the worst cafta
WE GET CRUMBS MEANT FOR THE PARASITES and they EAT US dude :)
i’m so disgusted with politics i believe i’m ready to conclude a life lesson
learned and this is nothing new in the past 1, 2 , 5, 10 years,
this kind of corruption has gone on for many decades DUDE, for probably
longer than 100 years DUDE
it’s so dog gone perverse and corrupt it is enough to make everyone ***
but accept it dude, the system is totally rigged
and the highest class you would expect rock solid integrity, rock solid
honesty, and hard hard work
but that’s not the way it works dude.
it’s called
SMOOZE WITH ME AND WE’LL SMOOZE ON
private islands
yachts
land deals
it’s called a cesspool of complete corruption DUDE
NOW…. i’m going back to chillin DUDE :)
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:23 pm“Fortunately, in a 306-114 vote, the House yesterday passed legislation “that would curb President Bush’s power to appoint prosecutors indefinitely,†limiting interim U.S. attorneys’ terms to 120 days. The Senate has already approved the bill, and it now heads to Bush for his signature.”
I don’t know why anyone thinks this matters. Chimpy will simply attach one of his patented signing statements to it, one that says, “I don’t have to if I don’t want to.”
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:33 pm#4
I think the theory is that we have to blindly respect the office of the presidency unless the office holder carries the surname Clinton then all beats are off. It is weird I agree but the times they are a weirding. If on the other hand the office holder is a complete and utter dolt and whose administration is both inept and corrupt then we must circle the wagon’s in defense of the nation’s rep.
Wait a minute, maybe I get it now. Apparently the right isn’t the bunch of dopes I thought they were. Obviously they felt the Clinton adminstration was competent to withstand their endless attacks without jeopardizing the nation but understand that the current “Rugrats” administration can not.
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:51 pm“The Senate has already approved the bill, and it now heads to Bush for his signature.”
Oh, he’ll sign this one…with a nice little FU signing statement to the effect: Yeah, condi read this one to me, but i’m gonna do what i want anyway.
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:58 pmWasn’t the vote way more almost-unanimous in the Senate? I bet Lungren was one of the shits voting against this.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:38 pmWhy are they letting this piece of shit President Of the United States
do this to our country?
Comment by really #4
The Republican leadershipand rank and file in the House and Senate…
…have steadfastly aided and abetted this criminal Bushite junta…
…in its criminally TREASONOUS acts of sedition…
… (turning the people against our government by making it intolerably corrupt and incompetent)…
…war profiteering and mass murder…
…Without the bulwark of the Republican House and Senate members’ TREASON…
…Bush and his cohorts would be on trial for their lives…
…the ENEMY are the PEOPLE in our country in their little red state cul-de-sacs…
…and farms…
…who continue to vote against their own (and the country’s) self-interest by voting…
…REPUBLICAN…
…and YOU know who they are…
…they’re YOUR:
family members
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:47 pmneighbors
friends
co-workers
and acquaintences…
Looks like Berto is giving chimpy a reach around…friggin pervs
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:48 pmOne more nail to shut this coffin.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:27 pmWith all the evidence against them, the rank and file Republican is still marching in lockstep and defending the actions of the thugs in the crime family. What does that say about those morons and the morons in the Democratic Party who cave into this bunch of thugs.
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:33 pmLandSurveyor (#6): Funny how that sounds exactly like what a certain troll (BottomBoy) has been boasting on this site. The troll also claims to be “an insider” in the administration. I just wonder…
May 24th, 2007 at 7:04 amSara Taylor is a snotty troll. Go back to Iowa you hick!
June 14th, 2007 at 5:05 pm