Mike Malloy just spilled the beans and then their is this information. I'm seriously scared here because the FIX could be in. Please tell me I'm just being tin foil here and they didn't fix the Abramoff scandel already!!!!! Crossposted from
firedoglake
Last year BushCo. was trying to get Timothy "Tyco" Flanigan through Senate confirmation to replace Comey as the number two in the Justice Department, but Flanigan got cute at his hearings and Specter hated him. There was much speculation that Flanigan would get a recess appointment last summer and as Bush's old Skull-and-bones crony be in the perfect spot to oversee Patrick Fitzgerald, but that didn't happen.
It gets worst.
Here is the real slap in the face.
Bush did give a recess appointment to Alice Fisher as Chief of the Criminal Division. On Wednesday, right smack in the middle of the Hurricane Katrina disaster when the country wasn't looking. (Comey eventually shot them all the finger on his way out the door and appointed the ethical David Margolis to oversee Fitzgerald.)
There was concern even with the Patriot Act as well by Leahy
Leahy also expressed concerns about Fisher's "views on checks of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act and her opposition to the Act's sunset provision; her participation in meetings in which the FBI expressed its disagreement with harsh interrogation methods practiced by the military toward detainees held at Guantanamo, and her ideas about appropriate safeguards for the treatment of enemy combatants." Leahy was also concerned about "reports that she has had ties to Congressman Tom DeLay's defense team" and "also to know what steps she to take to avoid a conflict of interest in the Department's investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and possibly Mr. DeLay."
Look at what Fishers past Job was
Fisher is a career Republican who in her former job was registerd as a lobbyist for HCA, the healthcare company founded by Bill Frist's father. Her appointment was also controversial due to the fact that like her boss Abu Gonzales, Fisher has no trial experience and with Comey gone there would be no senior member of the Justice Department who was an experienced criminal prosecutor. But Senatorial oversight was dispensed with and BushCo. continued on its Brownie-esque rampage to replace experience with cronyism.
More here about Michael Chertoff connection with Fisher
Fisher, a protégé of Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff's, will replace outgoing chief Christopher Wray.
From 2001 until 2003, Fisher, 38, served as Chertoff's deputy in the Criminal Division, overseeing major fraud and terrorism cases. However, unlike Chertoff and Wray, Fisher has never served as a federal prosecutor.
Can anyone research just how close Fisher is to Tom Delays defense team? I just ran across this little text and know nothing about it. Is this the same Alice Fisher?
Small little bit of text in link here
Hillman's new boss will soon be Alice Fisher, who is widely respected but also a loyal Republican socially close to DeLay's defense team.
I'm going to do more research and am also looking for input from others.
I maybe getting over my head on this but there is a even larger Tom Delay connection to Alice Fisher check this out invovling the redistricting of Texas. This part maybe nothing, but it did catch my eye.
An Investigation of the Department of Justice's Actions
in Connection with the Search for Absent Texas Legislators
Moschella then e-mailed Edward Whelan, the Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Moschella copied Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher and Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, both of the Criminal Division, on the e-mail. In the e-mail, Moschella described his conversation with DeLay's Counsel and asked whether "the Department has the legal authority to assist the Texas House's Sergeant-at-Arms enforce the 'arrest' warrant issued to bring certain Texas State legislators back to Texas to vote." The e-mail stated that the Counsel had already spoken to U.S. Attorney Sutton, whose opinion was that the Department did not have authority to intervene. The e-mail asked that something be turned around in a "couple of hours" and suggested that "we give them a preliminary read with the caveat that their [sic] are substantial issues to consider."
In response to the e-mail, Fisher called Moschella on the telephone. She told the OIG that her response to Moschella was that the Criminal Division is not involved in enforcing warrants - that is the responsibility of the USMS. She referred Moschella to Associate Deputy Attorney General Paul Murphy, who handled USMS issues for the Deputy Attorney General's Office. Fisher said she told Moschella that "this is not something the Department should be getting involved with."
Whelan told the OIG that after he received the e-mail from Moschella, he sent a follow-up question to Fisher and Chertoff, asking if they knew of any federal criminal violations that had occurred in the Texas legislator case. They did not respond to Whelan's e-mail. He told the OIG that he thought that any idea of the DOJ getting involved in this matter struck him as "wacko." He said he presumed that Moschella was just checking, and that Moschella felt the same way he did.