A Few Dumb Lawyers

This is too perfect not to mention. Remember David Iglesias, the role model for Tom Cruise's character in the movie A Few Good Men and the US Attorney fired for not helping the Heather Wilson campaign by indicting Democrats. Well it seems that Justice Department official William Moschella was asked during a Congressional hearing why the Department had fired Iglesias. Pointing to his repeated absences from the office, Moschella answered by saying “Iglesias had delegated to his first assistant the overall running of the office. And, quite frankly, U.S. attorneys are hired to run the office.” Moschella was right because Iglesias did, in fact, leave the office for 45 days each year. Of course, as the DoJ knew full well Iglesias is a captain in the Navy Reserve and spent 45 days each year fulfilling his reserve duty. Paul Kiel at TPMMuckraker citing a Newsweek story, notes that

the Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Iglesias was wrongfully terminated due to his reserve duty, Newsweek reports. It is against the law for employers to discriminate against members of the U.S. military.

Now, as Kyle Sampson admitted last week, there was no real performance reason to fire Iglesias. And in fact, it's indisputable at this point that Iglesias was actually fired because he didn't indict enough Democrats.* So the "absentee landlord" line was just a cover story -- but one that seems to have gotten them into some trouble now.

Apparently the guys at Main Justice running the hiring and firing of US Attorneys, Alberto Gonzales, Kyle Sampson, William Moschella, and Monica Goodling, are not competent to concoct a phony cover story that doesn't involve a violation of the law. I sure wouldn't ask any of them for legal advice. I doubt if other Loyal Bushies would.

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Capital Hijinks

By now we are all familiar with the story of how Senator Spector's "chief legal counsel,"Michael O'Neill, unknown to the "clueless" Senator, inserted finely crafted language into the USA Patriot Act stripping the Senate of its power to confirm replacement US Attorneys. The AG appoints an interim for an indeterminate term, no replacement necessary. We have all heard how Kyle Sampson said the administration should use that new law to avoid the need to seek the approval of those pesky home state Senators when they replaced the fired US Attorneys. Well this morning we learn that the idea for the law change came from David Collins a Los Angeles lawyer who emailed William Moschella, principal associate deputy attorney general the idea back in 2004. Apparently Collins doesn't like the idea of US Courts appointing interim US Attorneys if the replacement US Attorney isn't promptly confirmed by the Senate. Well according to Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers

Moschella, principal associate deputy attorney general, said that he pursued the changes on his own, without the knowledge or coordination of his superiors at the Justice Department or anyone at the White House.

Let me see if I understand this a former Deputy US Attorney comes up with an idea. He emails a mid level deputy friend of his at Justice who apparently puts a bug in the ear of a Senate staffer who inserts important language into the USA Patriot Act stripping the Senate of a long held and highly prized power to confirm US Attorneys. At no time did any elected Representative or Senator, or senior Administration official know about the change. Sounds like a Jedi mind tricks to me.

Fire the State Department and the CIA. Hire the team of Moschella, Collins and O'Neill to run the whole thing. Damn they are good.

If there isn't a Saturday Night Live or Daily Show skit in this story, the boys and girls at those shows aren't trying.

UPDATE: I just remembered something. Here is the text of part of Spector's statement of what happened when the Patriot Act was changed.

Prior to the PATRIOT Act, U.S. attorneys were replaced by the Attorney General for 120 days and then appointments by the Court or the First Assistant succeeded to the position of U.S. Attorney. The PATRIOT Act gave broader powers to the Attorney General to appoint replacement U.S. Attorneys. I then contacted my very-able Chief Council Michael O’Neill to find out exactly what had happened. Mr. O’Neill advised me that the requested change had come from the Department of Justice, that it had been handled by Brett Tolman, who is now the US Attorney for Utah.

Isn't Brett Tolman the guy who got the US Attorney job Kyle Sampson wanted? Wasn't Sampson the AG's Chief of Staff? Not only did they screw the Senate out of a long held power they screwed Kyle Sampson out of his dream job as well. Wow, these second and third level AG and Judiciary Committee staffers are good.

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Puzzled. Please Help.

I awoke this morning puzzled about something. Maybe you can help. As we are all aware 8 or so US attorneys were recently fired and replaced. The current argument by the administration is that the USAs were replaced for performance reasons. Well, all along it has been agreed that one of them, Bud Cummins of Arkansas, was removed simply to make room for one of Karl Rove's proteges.

Now it seems that a second USA was not removed for performance reasons. Daniel G. Bogden was told by a senior Justice Department officials that he was being replaced to make room for another appointee.

Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General William Moschella told a House subcommittee "no particular deficiencies" in Bogden's performance existed. Moschella said the department wanted someone with "renewed energy" to take the Las Vegas-based office "to the next level."

Las Vegas Review Journal, March 8, 2007

This revelation has really ticked off Senator John Ensign (R-NV.) Bogden was his selection. Ensign says he was told that Bodgen wasn't really doing his job. It also seems that initially Ensign was not consulted about a replacement. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal Article

A legal source familiar with the appointment process said it seemed clear that the administration was preparing to "parachute in" a new U.S. attorney in Nevada, possibly from outside the state, under the Patriot Act umbrella.

Questions, why was Bogden fired? Why would they not consult John Ensign? Why would they want to parachute in somebody from outside Nevada? Is the administration trying to dig dirt on the other Senator from Nevada--Harry Reid, or do they have some reason for not wanting to have John Ensign involved? After all, why would the administration want to anger a Republican Senator.

Before you jump to the former, remember Main Justice recently parachuted Nelson Cohen, head of the white collar crime unit at the U.S. Attorney's office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into Anchorage to be the interim U.S. Attorney for Alaska over the very strong objections of the very powerful Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK.) It seems Senator Stevens and his son are being investigated for some pretty smelly practices.

I am asking for comments because I truly don't know the answers.

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