New Emails: Taylor, Griffin Gone, and McNulty Testifying Again
Just a super quick comment about the new emails released today. These are all, AFAIK from a quick scan, emails listed on the list of documents not turned over. This trend has actually been true for a while–that DOJ has dribbled out documents that they said, no way, no how, they weren’t going to release. And then they release them.
What does that say about their standards for releasing documents?
And, as in the past, the release of these are tied to recent or impending events. We got a big dump of documents just before Monica Goodling testified, presumably, because she might discuss or release them herself.
So we might call this batch the Taylor, Griffin, McNulty batch. Many are emails where Taylor exhibits herself to be a big jerk among a clique of jerks. There is more detail on the Griffin nomination (it appears it came from DOJ, not Miers, as I thought, but I’ll return to this tomorrow). And there are a few comments where members of the clique attack McNulty for saying something that put DOJ in a tough spot. The release of these, then, seem to be tied to Taylor and Griffin’s recent departures and McNulty’s upcoming testimony.
And the surprise of all surprise of this dump? Harriet Miers, not the nasty clique at DOJ, was the one insisting that DOJ/WH not go negative on the fired USAs. She always was pretty cute, with her pink blog and whatnot. Which makes me wonder how much the increasing negativity against the USAs had to do with her departure at the end of January?
As with Ashcroft, I can’t believe I’m thinking that things got worse with Harriet’s departure.
Update: Just an FYI, the email on page 17–regarding whether or not Sampson would hire Iglesias–was sent to a D Higbee. Don’t know who that is, but since they’re trying to hide it, I thought I’d make sure it was public.
Who’s â€the Chiefâ€? Bolten? or Bush?
Is there any reason to believe that these emails are part of the incredibly ballyhooed Greg Palast stuff? Think Progress says they are â€Justice Department†documents but does not say that is who released them; although that is clearly inferred. I have always figured Palast was full of it, but these are RNC emails which is what he claims to have. Not saying for a second that I believe this; just want to rule out the thought.
being the cynical sort, i strongly
suspect they’ve been released to
once again erode the credibility
of anyone who might say unflattering
things about alberto gonzales in
front of a congressional committee. . .
query: is there anyone left who wouldn’t?
[seriously, recall how the worst of the e-mails
w.r.t. ms. monica goodling miraculously
surfaced about two days prior to her
subpoenaed, and immunized, testimony. . .]
now, i would certainly put paul
mcnulty, in that same category, as of
tonight. . . it seems someone wants
the world to see a darker side of him. . .
just a hunch. . .
nolo
Yes, I think you’re right–they’re willing to protect the reputation of someone up to the day when that person tells the truth about them.
bmaz
No. These aren’t Palast emails. His are from a different era entirely.
EW
Seven posts by you today? Is this a new record?
On page 42, Sara Taylor is mad about DAG McNulty testifying that Bud Cummins was let go to make a place for Tim Griffin. She says, â€which is why we got rid of him in the first place.†Sara Taylor was Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs at the White House, not someone at the DoJ.
Notice she says â€we†[as in â€we at the White House?†or â€we†= DoJ + WH?]. Whoever â€we†is sounds like it connects the White House to the firings.
Also note Sara is using [email protected] instead of the government email.
So who is Kenneth K. Lee at the White House? I google him and find a journal article on denying the vote to convicted felons. Looks like he works for Miers. page 8
Over at FDL there’s something about an email saying that the South Dakota USA refused to resign. Also credit to ew about the Native Americam voter suppression angle playing itself out, Sara Taylor post looking very good.
I’m still trying to see if anybody cares about Waxman and Condi. And let’s not forget that the morning started with Musharraf–is he still in power at this point?
zhiv – SD not South Dakota; it is San Diego – Carol Lam.
bmaz–really? Wow. That’s cool. Gee, wonder why she didn’t want to resign.
I thought there was another USA that no one had been talking about, but the more Lam the better. Still hard to tell whether getting rid of her was the big fish of the whole thing, some kind of linchpin, or if it was part of a more important, wider voter suppression fishnet. I rely on the work and wisdom of others, but I try to have a good time.
Thanks.
I am reading through these things. First two thoughts are NOBODY among these idiots knows exactly what is going on with the big picture on who is being fired and who is being hired in all the jurisdictions. We know Gonzales didn’t. This is fucking remarkable. Unbelievable. There is only one answer left and it is Rove.
Second thought is how brainlessly and blithely they meandered through this process. Neither in these documents, nor in any testimony to date, nor in any previous documents, has there been any substantive discussion of the mechanics of the affected offices in relation to their case load in general, high profile cases underway, nor interrelation with law enforcement on ongoing investigations. That fact is simply mind boggling. I really cannot put into words how much this floors me. This is incredibly complex stuff, with people’s lives, and the justice systems of entire states and regions in the balance, and they treat it like they are changing out the lunch line monitor in a grade school. Not one tinker’s damn about the law.
One hint that a mail might have something to do with Greg Palast is if it has a whitehouse.com (rather than whitehouse.gov) in the header anywhere. Anyone seen any of those?
A possible way that these could turn up is if Palast gave any to Conyers, who could then contact the White House and say â€What about the message Sara Taylor sent on [exact date and time] to [exact set of recipients]? We know you have it, hand it overâ€.
thanks, EW — can’t wait to see sara
boo-hoo about how unfairly she’s being
portrayed — that too will be rich!
now, mickey — i think you nailed this one. . .
so, i was off writing my little bit on
it, and baking a soupy, saucy pink image,
of the email — only to come here and find
you’d already been there! thus, i re-wrote
mine, to point out that you made the very
same observations — in far fewer words. . .
do take a look at the image, though — like
the victoria toensing libby letter — it
screams for a pink-rinse. . . so i oblige. . .
p e a c e
and g’night. . .
Regarding my previous comment: I looked at the PDF, and it seems that while some From: email addresses appear, the To: email addresses are generally hidden. So it’s not possible to tell if any of these were misdirected to whitehouse.com.
These MUST be from Greg Palast
Ah, Harriet! AKA â€My Little Cronyâ€.
EW says NOT Palast emails that his alleged emails are from different time period.
clique of jerks? not a circle of jerks?
*cough*
I’m here all week folks, remember to tip your waitresses.
EW – These pages are sequentially Bates stamped by AG Office. How do the numbers fit in with other docs previously dumped? Are they sequencing only ones they released, or have they done giant batches and are picking and choosing which groupings to release?
Rove’s Blackberry leaves a digital trail of evidence. Leahy should just subpoena the digital file of evidence connected to Rove’s Blackberry account. Those on-the-fly correspondence are the most likely to contain evidence of the conspiracy – if not multiple conspiracies.
clique of jerks? not a circle of jerks?
*cough*
I’m here all week folks, remember to tip your waitresses.
Posted by: tekel | June 13, 2007 at 02:39
BAWAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
thanks for the boog blower !!!!!!!!!!
I just realized with all the smoke and mirrors and hard blowing about the US Attorneys, that no one has been charged with any kind of crime.
When will Congress get back to, as DemFromCT likes to say, good governing and cutting out the pork?
There is an odd email exchange at the end of the document dump (pg 45-46) between Kyle Sampson and Andrew Beach, who is apparently some assistant in Gonzo’s office. The exhange occurred on March 4th, 2007…and it appears that the two needed to see each other quickly to talk about something.
What strikes me, in the exchange, is the fact that both Beach and Sampson seem to have trouble accessing Attorney General related documents online…documents, it seems, they had access to in the past.
Andrew Beach states â€AG OTus2005 comes up a blank on my screenâ€. then Sampson replies â€Thx — I can’t search anything before 1/1/2007. Not sure why.â€
Certainly this could be some sort of hiccup in whatever system they use there….but on the flip side….could it be an indication that some scrubbing of incriminating AG documents had occurred???
Whining about getting back to â€good governingâ€? This is it, a seldom seen activity during the last 6 years; it’s called OVERSIGHT and it’s a key function of Congress. Get used to it, get over it.
And â€nobody†has yet been â€charged with a crime†because there is rampant, widespread obstruction; certain subjects have also been permitted the opportunity to â€change their testimony†although they have clearly misrepresented information under oath to Congress. It’s a matter of time before all the charges are out in the open — and demands for charges right now before the investigation is complete are little more than obstructive redirection.
follow-up on p. 42
* First – the ‘Description’ in the table of withheld emails hardly fits the email itself.
* Second – notice the email address, [email protected].
* Third – Sampson is less than subtle in hinting that they should talk about this off the radar – â€I’m out of the office but will call you†â€I look forward to visiting with you about this.â€
* Fourth – Sara Taylor is incredulous: â€Why would McNulty say this?†â€â€¦ poorly handled on the part of the DoJ.†She’s upset that the truth is being told – that it’s not being â€handled†better.
* Fifth – She uses the Royal â€We,†implicating the White House in the firings.
* Sixth – What does â€Bud is lazy†mean? We haven’t heard that before…
* Seventh – Can anyone think of any reason these emails were withheld other than the DoJ didn’t want us to read them?
cici
The panic there is that Domenici told Gonzales to his face at least once that he wanted Iglesias fired. The clique had been telling people that Gonzales didn’t have such a conversation on the phone–but they were parsing, bc they knew about this meeting, but were (as we see) panicking bc they couldn’t find the date.
Mickey
The Taylor emails were withheld bc she was championing Griffin and intended to keep him in AR even after he said he wouldnt’ got through the Senate. So his departure MAY be tied to her departure (she left about 3 weeks ago, he left about 2 weeks ago).
But they also withheld them to hide a few details and snottiness toward DiFi and others.
Get back to good governing? The second-to-last refuge of a scoundrel!
On page 57 (OAG000001795) at the very bottom there is an email from Harriet Miers to William Kelley that reads:
â€I am quite surprised that we would engage on whether a personnel action on a Presidential appointment is justified for the reasons I have stated earlier. We can see what the Chief thinks.â€
Is â€the Chief†she’s referring to the President?
EW
Are you going to comment on the Schlozman corrrection posted today?
Amazing posts. Sorry to ask if you are going to more.
i think this was their
soft-firing-cover-story:
that bud cummins (so they
say!) was not bringing
enough of the kinds of
cases this administration
so prized — porno, illegal
aliens, right-to-carry-guns-
cases. . . you know,
those — the IMPORTANT ones. . . (not).
perhaps we should recall, now,
just how little mcnulty said in his
resignation letter — and how much totally
negative-garbage gonzales offered, the
very next day. cummins’ departure
now very much looks to fit that pattern,
to a tee, but for the fact that sara taylor
was subsequently over-ruled. . .
and (yet again!), by whom? who was running her?
then, we might guess
that mr. cummins had also â€failedâ€
to volunteer to run some pet,
mostly-political, project — like
a federalist society conference/
meeting for all DoJ’ers in his
district — thus the false â€lazyâ€
smear. . . these people! how do
they sleep at night? poorly, i hope.
btw, i concur w/ EW — the â€scramble
on a sunday night at wal-mart†exchange-
of-e-mails is to nail down when, exactly,
alberto gonzales had spoken to sen.
domenici — presumably to â€fixâ€, or
innoculate the unlawful demand
for iglesias’ removal for failure to
bring a bogus, but politically-favored,
case against a democrat in new mexico. . .
a l l e g e d l y.
whew!
theleftcoaster.com has a post titled, â€Open Thread — In Praise of Marcy Wheeler.†I love it when my best friends get along.
Profile for David Higbee: http://www.hunton.com/bios/bio.aspx?id=16664
Apparently he was at the DOJ from 2001 to at least 2005 and had a dual appt. to the Whitehouse(?).
QUOTING FROM THE LINK ABOVE
Counsel to the Attorney General and White House Liaison (2003-2004): advised the Attorney General on the selection, appointment and management of senior Justice Department officials, including U.S. Attorneys; designated Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to prosecute a Caribbean-based cocaine smuggling conspiracy
Deputy Associate Attorney General and White House Liaison (2001-2003): assisted Associate Attorney General in oversight of the Antitrust Division, Tax Division and U.S. Trustee Program, including litigation, policy and management issues; counseled Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General on litigation and policy matters, including issues related to the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force; member of delegation to Santiago, Chile to negotiate U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement
Did anybody else notice the reason given for Todd Graves’ resignation? On page 37 of the document dump, it lists the USAs who have resigned and the reasons why. Graves resigned for the same reason Cummins did, apparently. For no reason at all. Anybody from the DOJ need to revise their testimony about that?
Think David Higbee handed off to Sampson, both at White House (former Special Assistant to Bush) and again at DOJ (COS to AG and Antitrust DAAG). Higbee left DOJ in May of 2005; did they begin their â€plan†at that time?
Also note he was a legal fellow for SJC in 1996…and that he’s both George Mason and BYU alum. One more for the Mormon Mafia. [link] Are they hiding him because he tracks back to Orrin?
Ok, I didn’t have time yesterday, but it doesn’t appear that anyone has yet picked up on what I take to be potentially a significant item in the new documents. It on p. 23 of the pdf, and it’s an email from Harriet Miers to William Kelley from January 16, 2007, which comes in the middle of an email chain that includes DoJ folks and WH folks deliberating on how to respond to criticism from senators and questions from the media, specifically whether to go somewhat negative. As emptywheel notes, Miers is skeptical of the wisdom of going negative at that point. But the potentially significant item is that she contemplates bringing â€the Chief†into deliberations over whether to go negative:
I am quite surprised that we would engage on whether a personnel action on a Presidential appointment is justified for the reasons I have earlier stated. We can see what the Chief thinks.
So is â€the Chief†President Bush? Is Miers saying they can ask Bush what do with regard to the USA issue? If so, did she ask him? What did he say? At that point, later in the chain, they stick with Miers’ instinct not to go negative – was this all her doing, or did she consult Bush – and if so, was Bush consulted again when the decision was made to go negative?
Or is â€the Chief†Bolten?
Emptywheel said…â€The panic there is that Domenici told Gonzales to his face at least once that he wanted Iglesias fired. The clique had been telling people that Gonzales didn’t have such a conversation on the phone–but they were parsing, bc they knew about this meeting, but were (as we see) panicking bc they couldn’t find the date.â€
I agree, Marcy….but what troubles me is that the conversation implies that the two (Beach and Sampson) previously had access to the file in question, but now, for some reason, do not. Again, could have been a simple and temporary system glitch that prevented their access, or something else. Were they able to retrieve the file later??? Or was the file â€AG POTus 2005†gone for good?
For example….if the worker bees at Fielding’s office needed to retrieve documents responsive to a subpoena, would they block the access of customary users of the system in order to identify those documents? Or would they simply just do searches and fire up the printer? IANAL, and I don’t really know how one goes about identifying and securing documents related to a subpoena, but locking people out seems weird….if that’s what actually happened.
This is very fishy to me.
EW — is Higbee in the redactions on page 17?
And I’m afraid I’m not up on this part, but Sampson mentions traveling to NM with AG in same email dd. 09-JAN-06, on that same page 17; do we already know that Domenici told AG to fire Iglesias when AG traveled to NM?
Also wonder now, what with the BYU/G.Mason connection whether Higbee was involved in the PatActII reformulation.
Agh. Sorry, EW, I just went back and re-read your update, you already mentioned that it was Higbee on pg. 17.
So…are they hiding Higbee himself, or are they hiding content that could be found if â€higbee†was a search criteria?
Like any more confirmations about Domenici and Gonzales in re: Iglesias?
Jeff,
The other possibility is that the Chief is Rove.
cici414,
That interchange is very interesting. It’s been obvious from previous document dumps that AG Outus2005 was an Exchange account for Gonzales and that Beach was a delegate on the account (that means he could send and recieve email, schedule meetings, etc.). It appears now that Kyle Sampson was also. I think that is significant. I have to dash off to a meeting, but I’ll have more later on the technical details.
EW:
Let me correct myself. Thank you for the Schlozman posting. Specifically, has anyone posted a breakdown state by state of election fraud cases (like ACORN) and Republican corruption cases during the 2004 and 2006 elections and then interjected USAJ’s history into the mix? In Ohio, Gregory White (USAJ) knew about the Noe ivestigation three weeks before the election and did nothing. However, he took action against ACORN before the election. Has anyone looked at â€rewarding†of USAJ’s who â€performed well†during the elections? Ohio AJ’s did have wonderful help from the sec state Blackwell. Has anyone studied the â€swing†states and the voter fraud + Rep corruption cases? I am coming across different kinds of timelines but nothing that is state by state. Has anyone looked at the districts state by state to see where the vote was close? Have those USA’s been on the original 30 list? I think Schlozman did head up a national voter fraud drive and it looks from prelim research, it was done in districts where polls projected close votes. Gregory White and Gregory Lockhart still hold their positions in Ohio. The new Ohio Sec State, Jennifer Brunner, has been going after Blackwell for illegal activity during his tenure.
William Ockham — very interesting; means there could be another identity that hasn’t been disclosed, like an email account that is not labeled with a particular person’s name. I’ve been wondering why these people never used distlists, but maybe they only had to copy an account…can’t wait for more feedback.
Also meant to point out that a commenter at FDL checked Lexis-Nexis for any reference to a trip by AG to NM the week of 06-JAN-06 and came up with nothing. He is speaking out about immigration within the week (see Dobbs on CNN referring to AG’s comments), but no location specified.
Also on pg. 17 — Bessie L. Meadows was the Confidential Assistant to USAG Reno; has she been the same for USAG’s office under Gonzo? Why would she not have more responsive emails…?
EW I found this â€David A. Higbee to Serve as Chief of Staff and Deputy Assistant Attorney Generalâ€, â€â€¦for the Antitrust Division†LInk to the article is http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/publi…..203070.pdf
Here’s his current practice bio
http://www.worldservicesgroup&…..8;group=17
Agh, that’s it, I’m done, I just realized I made a stupid mistake, AG and Sampson traveled to Mexico City and not NM week of 06-JAN-06. Would be nice to see their travel itineraries for that period to see if they had a stop in NM, though.
Domenici was clearly in Washington the last week of Jan ’06, but it would also be nice to narrow down when he might have been in his home district and in D.C.; my gut tells me they had a face-to-face in the week in question.
Bmaz wrote:
â€This is incredibly complex stuff, with people’s lives, and the justice systems of entire states and regions in the balance, and they treat it like they are changing out the lunch line monitor in a grade school.â€
The Post-Realists have no need to consider such mundane matters; they have moved beyond that point in history where the appropriate use of political power was to provide good governance for the citizens. Power is now a commodity and its possession must be demonstrated conspicuously if the individuals who hold it are to derive the satisfaction that comes from possessing rare and precious goods. Post-Realism treats the world like a video game where holding political power is akin to holding cheat codes. It’s an extreme form of nihilism where human needs vis-a-vis man vs. nature are simply assumed; the consequences of any human action are solely political, affecting the â€video game†but otherwise meaningless. No tragedy resulting from natural disaster is too great that it cannot be rendered inconsequential (politically) through the careful application of power such that the plebeian observers come to deny the event, or at least they deny any responsibility on the part of those who hold power. It is not just their universe of values that is so foreign as to make their behavior incomprehensible, their entire world view is simply outside what you would consider possible.
Do not think that these people are like normal criminals who are knowingly parasitizing those who play by the rules. They have denied the rules that you take for granted, therefore they do not see themselves as breaking the law, or the norms, or any other standard expectation of social behavior. Therefore it is impossible to present any evidentiary discovery that will finally cause them to admit that the jig is up. They have cheat codes that allow them to change the rules in real time, which they will do. Unless non-political power is brought to bear upon these Post-Realists (i.e. physical violence), it is difficult to see any way to remove them from the political landscape, and impossible to see any way to rehabilitate them. The problem, of course, goes much deeper than the capricious toying with the lives of USAs, despite the grave implications that such moves have on so many citizens. Representative democracy depends critically upon a shared agreement among citizens about physical reality; representative democracy is in big trouble.
Ken Muldrew – I can’t say I am ready for physical violence; but cannot dispute anything else you said.
Nor me, but the force of law is, of course, only credible when backed up by the threat of physical violence (even if that is just being frogmarched into a prison). So take it as a very general sort of physical violence.
â€D Higbee†can only be a nom de plume for Digby! A traitor in our midst!
Jeff,
Upon further review, I think the â€Chief†is Josh Bolten. Kelley’s response is to ask if Miers wants him to talk to Joel. I’m guessing that Joel is Joel Kaplan, Bolten’s deputy director.
Yo, bmaz, you can leave the â€Physical Violence†to me
I’m kinda qualified to deal with that
I’m always prepared for physical violence, just take a swing at me and find out …
David Higbee was involved with Kyle Sampson in what HeyThereItsEric believes was a â€test run†for the USA massacre — the dumping of USA Fred Black from his position in the Guam/CNMI office.
http://www.epluribusmedia.org/black_timeline.html
From that timeline, 12/18/2001:
DOJ records reflect that the DOJ panel interviewed Rapadas on December 18, 2001, one week after Sampson sent his name to EOUSA as a candidate for the Guam U.S. Attorney’s position. … The interview panel for Rapadas consisted of Sampson, Margolis, [DOJ Deputy Associate Attorney General and White House Liaison David] Higbee, [Associate Counsel to the President H. Christopher] Bartolomucci, and Ken Wainstein, then the Director of EOUSA.
From the timeline, 9/24/2002:
On September 24, 2002, EOUSA submitted a memorandum to DOJ White House Liaison Higbee summarizing the Rapadas background investigation. The memorandum stated that all the law enforcement agencies recommended appointment, flagged the derogatory information contained in the background investigation, and summarized other results of the investigation.
Where are the others today, and did they play a role in the 12/7/2006 massacre?
Don’t forget that Dan Dzwilewski was head of the FBI’s Honolulu office, which oversaw operations in Guam and CNMI, and would have been part of any investigations re Black and/or Rapadas, as the timeline indicates. Dzwilewski, having moved to head the FBI’s San Diego office, spoke out for Carole Lam and got squeezed out. Did he know too much?
wanderindiana — yes, exactly. I linked in the next thread above a cached copy of the OIG’s report on CNMI/Guam, in which Higbee and Sampson feature prominently. Talking out of my sleep deprived backside, since Higbee had been questioned extensively about the USA selection, interviewing, appointment process in re: Guam, I suspect that Higbee with Sampson may have been instrumental in pushing the change to the PatAct to allow appts without Senate confirmation; the intent would have been to avoid the mess that Higbee went through during the OIG’s investigation into Frederick Black’s termination. But now to draw in the sketchily dotted lines…
Klynn- In response to your question about an analysis of so-called voter fraud cases not being pursued and USAs that survived, yes someone has put a nice comprehensive one together. It clearly supports the case of USAs surviving who followed Gonzalez’ agenda (voter fraud, porn, election biasing). My problem is I’m new to this and have no idea where I read it other than I followed it from a link starting at Salon, maybe Glenn Greenwald writings? Sorry I can’t give you more.
That’s David Higbie, formerly of the Associate Attorney General’s Office in the Bush II first term, who served as White House Liaison in the AG’s Office (together with Susan Richmond) under Ashcroft, prior to that position being held by first Jan Miller and then Monica Goodling. Regular correspondents, one and all, with Scott Jennings and Sara Taylor types in the WHPO.
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