Archive for category: emptywheel

In spite of signing a plea agreement for the charge of obstructing a Senate investigation, Steve Griles is trying to get his already light 10 month sentence reduced to three months of home confinement and community service on two non-profits Griles set up himself (in a scandal, of course, in which non-profits have routinely been used to launder money). The government is not so crazy about that deal, as they explain that Griles’ lies materially affected the Senates investigation into Abramoff.

The United States submits that had defendant Griles not lied and withheld material information, the Senate Committee would not have credited the defendant’s testimony in precipitously concluding its investigation into Abramoff’ s alleged influence and access within DOl. Rather, the Senate Committee would have dug deeper and probed further and likely would have discovered the truth about the extent of Abramoff’s access to the second highest-ranking official within DOl.

The government’s response explains why they recommended such a light sentence for Griles: put simply, they haven’t figured out how Griles benefited from helping Abramoff yet.

Given the seriousness of defendant Griles’ criminal conduct, and theconsequences that flowed directly therefrom, we deem it necessary tonote the single reason why the United States agreed to recommend anon-binding "split sentence" of ten (10) months imprisonment. Simplyput, to date, the United States has uncovered no evidence thatdefendant Griles personally accepted any money or gifts from Abramoff.That said, had we discovered otherwise, the charge(s) and thesentencing recommendation would not have been so limited.

The government basically suggests the judge cannot justify a lower sentence (though of course guidelines are not mandatory), because Griles refused to cooperate.

Defendant Griles has declined the United States’ invitation tocooperate in this ongoing criminal investigation, precluding him fromreceiving a substantial assistance departure under U.S .S .G. § 5K1.1.We have thus reached the proverbial floor of the applicable advisorySentencing Guideline range and there is no basis in fact or in law todig into the basement.

I’d like to point out something about TPMM’s story on the two complaints (and do read the complaints–they’re infuriating) submitted to DOJ’s IG on Brad Schlozman.

It’s unclear if the Department’s inspector general ever pursued theallegations from the December, 2005 letter at the time. But the officecertainly is now. In a letter to the judiciary committee chairmen lastmonth, Glenn Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility counselMarshall Jarrett announcedthat their joint probe into the U.S. attorney firings had been expandedto include hiring practices in the Civil Rights Division. Schlozman has been accused of recruiting Republicans for career spots and then asking them to scrub mentions of their GOP bona fides from their resumes.

As I pointed out yesterday, it’s unclear how enthusiastically the IG is pursuing the multiple incidents of politicization in DOJ’s midst. They are now investigating Gonzales’ apparent witness tampering. They are now investigating Schlozman’s blatant discrimination. But were they? Did they?

To the credit of the IG, it intervened when Gonzales attempted to pawn the whole self-investigation off onto the OPR. But how aggressively would it have pursued these issues without the intervention of Chuck Rosenberg? And how aggressively is it pursuing them now that Rosenberg is no longer acting Read more →