Two days ago, LeftWingNut posted a diary which informed dKos readers that former Deputy Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles had received a target letter from the Justice Department, indicating he might be soon indicted for lying about his relationship with the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff (see WaPo1, WaPo2, or NYTimes for details.) I was rather surprised to see the diary slide off the page with only a few comments, as this may be the first breach of the dam in the biggest corruption scandal Washington has seen in many years.
As I mentioned, Steve Griles was Deputy Secretary of Interior. But what does that actually mean. Below is the heirarchy of the department (source: Wikipedia):
Griles was the number two man at Interior below Secretary Gale Norton. The position is generally referred to as the "Chief Operating Officer" of the department. As such, Griles had oversite of most day-to-day activities of the department responsible for one-fifth of the land in the U.S., much of which is leased out to mining, oil and gas, livestock, and forestry industries every year. The appointment of Griles in 2001 was viewed by most environmentalists as the fox watching the henhouse; until joining Interior, Griles was an industry lobbyist, whose clients included the National Mining Association, Sunoco, Chevron, Edison Electric Institute and Arch Coal. Griles was not a novice at Interior, however; like his boss, Gale Norton, Griles had served at Interior in the Reagan Administration, under the tutelage of the infamous James G. Watt.
Griles, like Norton, was placed in Interior in order to facilitate new Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Plan. Both came out of the "Wise Use" movement, and sought to remove almost all restrictions on the 500 million acres of federal land governed by Interior. Of the documents still being withheld from FOIA requests of the Cheney Energy Plan development process are dozens a number from Griles' and Norton's offices.
However, Griles' legal problems are not, overtly at least, related to his central duties at Interior, e.g., the oversite of federal land leases and reform of the Indian Trust Fund. Instead, he will most likely be indicted for lying to Congress, specifically the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, about his relationship with Jack Abramoff. Griles' connection with Abramoff appears to have been facilitated by Italia Federici, a former campaign aide to Gale Norton who assumed control of Norton's non-profit, CREA (Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, previously known as the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates), which she purportedly founded in Colorado in 1997 with friend Grover Norquist. (In 2000, Federici's Washington home address was listed as the same as Norquist's.)
Last year, I posted a diary on the connection between Abramoff, Interior and the Indian Trust Fund case, which Kos kindly front-paged. Since that time, I've learned much, much more about Griles, Federici, Norquist, CREA et al., and how in the grand scheme of scandals, Abramoff is merely a footnote. (If you have a huge chunk of time, you can read all about it here, at Wampum.)
I was expecting for months now that Griles was high on the indictment list, and was thrilled to hear about the target letter earlier this week. However, my joy turned to apprehension yesterday as I ran across new information. First, was the inclusion in the WaPo story that Sue Ellen Wooldridge, assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources at the Justice Department since 2005 had turned in her resignation this week. I knew Wooldridge had moved from Interior, where she had been Norton's Deputy Chief of Staff and Interior Department solicitor. What I didn't know was that Wooldridge, a California native, and Griles were romantically involved. From the WaPo:
With the prospect of Griles's indictment, a senior Justice Department official -- who Interior employees said has been dating Griles -- tendered her resignation this week.
Steve Griles left the Interior Department in early 2004. Woolridge was appointed as solicitor, chief lawyer for the department, in June, 2004 (a Bush recess appointment.) Woolridge was nominated for the Justice Department in June, 2005, at the same time Griles came under scrutiny in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings for his role in the growing Abramoff scandal. The same time that the case was being forwarded to the Justice Department, where the Assistant Attorney General (Environment and Natural Resources Division) might have significant oversight duties (or at a minimum, significant insite into where the case was going.)
The second piece of information which rained on my parade I found at Indianz.com's blog, In the Hoop. The post, dated January 7th, featured this screenshot from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee:
As one can see, according to staff at SIAC, the Democrats never took control of the Senate on January 4th (either that, or they had inside information on Sen. Joe Lieberman's joining the Republican caucus (officially, that is.)) But while In the Hoop's coverage was somewhat humorous (we Indians have a rather twisted sense of humor when it comes to federal goings-on), my apprehension grew when I visited the SIAC website and found this:
Griles is purportedly being indicted in regards to statements he made before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings in the fall of 2005. The transcripts and video of those hearings are housed at the SIAC website, and are now unavailable to the public (excluding Abramoff-philes like me who have already downloaded all the docs.)
Then, I remembered a certain event from earlier this week; an event that was linked to the Abramoff scandal, not specifically to Griles, probably because the WaPo hadn't yet reported the target letter. Remember this?
White House, Secret Service signed deal to keep visitor logs from public
Agreement, made during Abramoff scandal, kept under wraps until court arguments.
By Pete Yost
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, January 06, 2007
WASHINGTON — The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.
The Bush administration didn't reveal the existence of the memorandum of understanding until recently. The White House is using it to deal with a problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.
In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration's lawyers used the memo in a legal argument aimed at overturning the judge's ruling. The Washington Post is suing for access to the Secret Service logs.
The five-page document, dated May 17, declares that all entry and exit data on White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, it states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
So why is the WaPo seeking access to Cheney's visitor logs now? Why is Sue Ellen Wooldridge being formally investigated by the grand jury? (And why did the WaPo's John Heilprin include that important detail in his story, while his colleague Susan Schmidt did not?) Who's responsible for the apparent coup d'etat of Republicans on the SIAC? How is this all related to the scandals at Mineral Management Services and the Indian Trust case, particularly now that the Native American Rights Fund has filed a new lawsuit (for Tribal, versus Individual trust accounts), a lawsuit which could once again force industry lessors to open their books to account for billions in missing royalties?
Are all of these just mere coincidences, or is the lid about to blow?
For the first time in many months, I now have more questions than answers regarding Griles, Norton, CREA and Abramoff (and where they all intersect.) I'd love to hear from other Abramoff-philes and Cheney Energy Plan experts - what do you think is going on?