Showing posts with label us attorney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label us attorney. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
House Democrats are set tomorrow to bring in private sector lawyers -- at a cost of up to $225,000 over the next nine months -- to help committee staff investigate the Bush administration.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, has drawn up a contract with Washington law firm Arnold & Porter for help in his investigation of the firing of eight federal prosecutors last year, according to an unsigned copy of the contract obtained by The Washington Times.
Republicans denounced the move as "scandal-mongering."
"It doesn't take a quarter-million dollars and an army of lawyers to conclude that U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, unless you're a Democrat with a political dog-and-pony show to produce," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
"If the goal is to distract from the fact that Democrats have no long-term agenda, they're going to need an outside PR firm, not lawyers," Mr. Kennedy said.
Yeah, $225,000 is a great deal of money to be spent investigating the President's Justice Department to investigate attorneys possibly being fired for political reasons including for not timing prosecutions with elections in New Mexico.
Whitewater cost $60,000,000. We learned that the President lies about sex, and that Monica Lewinsky doesn't swallow or use a dry cleaner often. But that investigation was legitimate and so cost affordable.
This fine citizen Brian Kennedy works for the Boner. The Boner of course supported the impeachment of Bill Clinton, refused to call for Bob Ney's resignation even after Ney admitted taking bribes, and was famous for passing out checks on the house floor from tobacco lobbyists, when a bill killing the subsidy was under debate.
The congressman knows ethics. He apparently teaches his staff well too. The point that continually comes to my mind is hypocrisy. The Republicans investigated Socks the cat for fuck's sake. They investigated the Clinton's Christmas card list. They spent 140 hours on that, 12 hours on Abu Ghraib for those keeping score.
Will the media just simply call them on this crap once? One time is all I am asking. If it was ok to investigate Bill Clinton to the tune of tens of millions of dollars for bullshit, why is it a waste of money to spend $225,000? I know the answer already.
It's Ok If You Are A Republican.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Intriguing article from McClatchy with the details about allegations that an investigation into Charles Taylor was quashed due to pressure from the John Ashcroft DOJ. Taylor owns Blue Ridge Savings & Loan, a bank headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.
Four years ago in Asheville, N.C., a lawyer filed a document that contained a scandalous accusation: The U.S. attorney general had intervened in a local bank-fraud case and prevented investigators from questioning one of Congress' most powerful members, Rep. Charles Taylor.
But many in the western part of the state recall a particular case a few years back that was handled quietly in the North Carolina mountains, when a pair of lawyers thought that Taylor, a North Carolina Republican, ought to be questioned over a loan-fraud case that involved the bank he owns.
"Essentially the question is, `Why was he not interrogated? Why was he not interviewed?'" asked Forrest A. Ferrell, the lawyer who leveled the charges in 2003. "He knew about it all and should've at least been interrogated about it."
There were suggestions that Charles Taylor approved the loans himself, knowing they were fraudulent but he was never interviewed even though he owned the bank. Lingering questions remain as to why he was never questioned.
Charles Taylor also was the first American to own a bank in Russia. There are questions about who is parteners are in that operation. Taylor would do "fact-finding" missions to Russia, and conduct personal business all on the dime of his campaign, and the taxpayers according to allegations. Thank goodness Heath Shuler beat him in November.
This is serious business here. Taylor was accused by the Wall Street Journal of putting in earmarks to help his businesses, and threatened to sue. Two examples were funding a park in front of the main branch of his bank, and another was building a road that ran next to a parcel of land he owned. The guy is a crook who hasn't been caught yet is all.
He likely isn't the only one here who got "protection" from the DOJ. I don't know what kind of an agenda the democrats can accomplish when they will be so very busy investigating all the crooked things done by this administration.
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