The continuum of scandals that the Crime Family is now involved in grows with each week, and often, with each day. The US Attorney scandal is made up of subsets of differing scandals: The Carol Lam clear-cut firings to protect extended members of the Crime Family; the Steven Biskupic of Wisconsin retention as a "Good Bushie" who was to make a hit on Governor Doyle in Wisconsin, but failed to pull the trigger, and only ended up ruining the career of a civil servant--even though a Daddy Bush redneck Federalist Society whore was a judge in the case; the Deborah Wong Yang of Los Angeles who switched sides on the Rep. Lewis prosecution for a payment of $1.5 million by Rep. Lewis' law-firm which has at least, now, four members of the Crime Family as Partners; and, this scandal regarding Mr Black of Guam and the Marinas Islands is a virtual who's who of Bush Crime Family members: Gonzoles, McNulty, Abramoff, Ney, Sampson, Ashcroft, and Ken Mehlman. A plethora of filthy, treacherous, lying criminals!
I. Introduction
The Fred Black firing is another of the firings that is similar to the Carol Lam firing. Since this firing happened in 2002, it has gone under the radar, relatively speaking. The story has been told in diaries here, most recently by sturmlilly; unfortunately, that diary did not gain much traction here, and with the other scandals occurring with such pace, I fear that this one will not be treated with sufficient depth.
II. Black's reasoning for his firing
Fred Black is not ordinary. He seems to be a lawyer who actually cares about Guam and its people. He seems to have an understanding of its people, its conmen, and has an understanding of the level of corruption that threatens the people of Guam. He never claimed allegiance to one party or the other because he feared that if he did so, he would lose his job to the next Administration who was of the other party.
Mr Black has not made public statements on his firing, but, we know what he has told Federal investigators, thanks to the OIG Special Report:
The OIG learned of Black’s allegations in July 2005 from Noel Hillman, at that time the Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Hillman notified the OIG that Black had recently been interviewed by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents assigned to DOJ’s investigation into Abramoff’s activities. In that interview, Black stated that he believed he had been replaced as the U.S. Attorney because of political controversy he caused in the fall of 2002 by calling for an investigation of lobbying fees that the Superior Court of Guam had paid to Abramoff. Black also alleged that he may have been replaced in order to prevent the implementation of a recommendation contained in a May 2002 security report prepared by a DOJ security specialist regarding the applicability of federal immigration law to the CNMI, which Black supported and Abramoff allegedly opposed. During the FBI interview, Black also raised various concerns regarding the appointment of Rapadas as the U.S. Attorney and the management of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Guam and the CNMI (USAO-Guam) after Rapadas’s appointment.
A quick synopsis of Black's allegations:
It is alleged that Black was demoted and replaced immediately after he secured a subpoena related to Abramoff from a grand jury investigating Abramoff’s representation of the Guam Superior Court. It is further alleged that Abramoff learned about a classified analysis of security breaches posed by CNMI’s weak immigration controls that Black requested in the wake of the attacks of 9/11 and that Abramoff used his connections with then-Attorney General Ashcroft and his then-chief of staff to suppress the report.
The lawmakers wrote today that new information supports the immigration allegations. "Since our original request, it has been reported that the immigration report was completed but never released or acted upon," they wrote. "According to a report by Bloomberg News, ‘The U.S. Justice Department never acted on a post-Sept. 11 proposal, contested by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, calling for increased federal control over immigration to the Mariana Islands. The agency reassigned the two officials who produced a 34-page report that contained the proposal, and House members of both parties who oversee the Homeland Security and Justice departments said they were never told about it. The 2002 report warns that continued local control over the Marianas’ borders will ‘seriously jeopardize the national security’ of the U.S.
III. The Bush Crime Family's reasoning for his firing
The Crime Family has spoken through Mr Kyle Sampson. During the investigation of the Black firing by the OAG, the selection process was discussed with Sampson, and I link to their summary in the Special Report into the Black firing:
The Selection Process:
After President George W. Bush was inaugurated in January 2001, his administration sought to nominate new candidates to fill the U.S. Attorneys’ positions. Kyle Sampson, who was President Bush’s Associate Director for Presidential Personnel until late September 2001 and is now the Chief of Staff to the Attorney General, described the selection process to the OIG.
Sampson said the White House asked for recommendations from political leaders in the various districts for candidates to fill the U.S. Attorney positions. The recommendations generally were submitted by U.S. Senators of the President’s party to Sampson or to staff in the White House Office of Political Affairs (OPA). If no Republican Senator represented a particular judicial district, Sampson or OPA staff contacted whoever OPA designated as the "political lead" for that district. Sampson said the White House generally sought three names for each U.S. Attorney vacancy, although it did not always receive three.
Sampson said the White House forwarded potential U.S. Attorney candidates to the Executive Office for United States Attorney (EOUSA) in the DOJ, with a request that each person be sent an online application form and be scheduled for a panel interview. According to Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, who participated in the U.S. Attorney selection process, Sampson’s request to EOUSA to send the application to an individual meant that the person had been "named as a candidate" by the White House. The candidates identified in this fashion would be interviewed by a panel that normally consisted of Sampson; Margolis; David Higbee, Deputy Associate Attorney General and the DOJ liaison to the White House; the Director of EOUSA; and Christopher Bartolomucci of the White House Counsel’s office [risser: whose profile on his bio page at Hogan and Hartsonsays, "Chris served in the administration of President George W. Bush as associate counsel to the president from January 20, 2001, to August 15, 2003. While serving in the White House, he assisted the president in matters ranging from the selection of federal judges to the consideration of pardon requests."]. Sampson described the interview as similar to a regular job interview, with part of the interview focused on whether the candidate had any issues that might arise during the background investigation. After the interviews, the panelists would rank the candidates in order of preference. According to Sampson, if there was only a single candidate, the panel would determine whether the person "me[t] the bar," meaning that the candidate met the minimum level of qualifications for the position of U.S. Attorney.
According to Sampson, the panel usually developed a consensus regarding the strongest candidate. After the panel agreed on a candidate, the panel would seek concurrence from the Deputy Attorney General and the Attorney General. If they concurred with the panel’s recommendation, Sampson would seek approval for the nomination from the White House Counsel. Sampson stated that he could not recall any occasion when the Deputy Attorney General, Attorney General, and White House Counsel did not concur with the panel’s recommendation for a U.S. Attorney.
Sampson said that after the White House Counsel approved a nomination for U.S. Attorney, Sampson would send an e-mail to EOUSA asking it to prepare the paperwork regarding the candidate for inclusion in a binder submitted to the President containing names of candidates being recommended for appointments as federal judges, U.S. Attorneys, and U.S. Marshals. Sampson said he would then discuss the U.S. Attorney candidate recommendations with the President. If the President agreed with the recommendation, Sampson would inform EOUSA that the President had expressed his "intent to nominate" the candidate pending the successful completion of the background investigation process. However, the "intent to nominate"
IV. What the Bush Crime Family wants us to know about Black's replacement
We also sought to determine what happened with the U.S. Attorney recommendation once it reached the White House. We determined that, at the time, White House Office of Political Affairs (OPA) staff member Leonard Rodriguez was assigned to handle appointment issues involving the territories, including the Guam U.S. Attorney’s position. Rodriguez said that because there are no U.S. Senators for Guam, it was unclear who would suggest potential nominees. He said he discussed the nomination with people who were "trusted sources" regarding Guam, including Sablan and Radewegan.
Rodriguez received an e-mail from Radewegan on December 11, 2001, recommending Rapadas as the candidate for U.S. Attorney. Rodriguez said that he forwarded the e-mail the same day to Sampson, the White House Associate Director for Presidential Personnel. E-mail records show that Sampson received the e-mail and forwarded it to EOUSA, also on December 11. EOUSA subsequently sent the online application to Rapadas, who completed the application on December 17, 2001.
When we asked Rodriguez why Rapadas was recommended to the White House by Guam officials and why he forwarded the name to EOUSA as a candidate, Rodriguez said he could not specifically recall the discussion s he had with the people he consulted about the nomination, but that in general the discussions concerned whether a candidate would fall in line with the President’s philosophy. Rodriguez stated that Rapadas was viewed as someone who would be strong on law enforcement. Rodriguez said that he was not aware at the time of any allegations about Abramoff’s relationship with the government of Guam, and that he did not recall any discussion of a Guam or CNMI security report during the process of soliciting recommendations for a U.S. Attorney candidate for Guam.
Rodriguez denied that Abramoff or the CNMI immigration issue played any role in his decision to forward Rapadas’s name to EOUSA as a candidate for the U.S. Attorney position. However, Rodriguez told the OIG that he kept Abramoff aware of information relevant to Guam, including potential nominees for the U.S. Attorney position. Rodriguez said he did so at the behest of Ken Mehlman, the White House Political Director, who "recommended or suggested that I reach out to make Jack aware" of issues related to Guam.
Rodriguez estimated that he exchanged a total of five e-mails with Abramoff regarding Guam. Rodriguez said he recalled sending one e-mail to Abramoff stating that Rodriguez would be the point person on the U.S. Attorney nomination and if Abramoff had any issues or concerns that he should bring those to Rodriguez’s attention. However, Rodriguez stated that Abramoff did not supply any candidate names or provide him with any input into the Guam U.S. Attorney nomination. Rodriguez said he does not recall Abramoff ever contacting him regarding the U.S. Attorney position. Rodriguez stated that when he contacted Abramoff, it was generally to pass on information relevant to Guam, such as the name or names of people under consideration for U.S. Attorney, although not all the e-mails he sent to Abramoff related to the U.S. Attorney position. Rodriguez said that the communications with Abramoff about Guam issues was one-sided. Rodriguez description of these communications was confirmed by our review of Abramoff’s e-mails.
According to the Washington Post, "Rodriguez...caught the eye of White House political guru Karl Rove during the early days of George W. Bush's 2000 presidential bid... After Bush won the presidency in 2000, Rodriguez moved into the White House political affairs office to work alongside Rove and Ken Mehlman, the current RNC chairman. Rodriguez oversaw the southwest, U.S. territories and a few states in the Midwest before leaving the administration in early 2003 to form his own company and serve as a consultant to Bush's 2004 reelection effort."[emphasis added throughout section].
V. What the Bush Crime Family does not want you to know
Jack Abramoff, Guam, and Fred Black
This story, because it broke before Gonzogate, was skipped over, for the most part. The Nation wrote about, as did the Boston Globe; the former have renewed their request that it be re-opened in an article in this week's edition. Similarly, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) who have done so much fine work on these various scandals, has recently asked for the investigation to begin anew.
The Nation in 2006:
The Guam story begins in February 2001, when there was legislation before Congress to create a Supreme Court on the island territory, to be above the existing Superior Court. Judges on that court, who wanted to retain the powers of the island's traditional highest court, asked Howard Hills, a lawyer from California, to hire Abramoff to fight the bill. Abramoff's success in blocking higher wage standards in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI)--where workers are paid $3.05 an hour to make clothes bearing "Made in USA" insignia--had given him a reputation there as an influential lobbyist. Hills, Abramoff and Superior Court Judge Alberto Lamorean subsequently reached an agreement at Abramoff's Capitol Hill restaurant, Signatures. At the time Abramoff, a former member of George W. Bush's transition team, was a $750-an-hour lobbyist with access to the highest levels of the Republican Party.
Between February 2001 and July 2002, the Superior Court paid Abramoff $324,000 in lobbying fees, funneling the money in $9,000 increments through Hills to avoid disclosing that Abramoff was the beneficiary. The arrangement caught the eye of Frederick Black, the acting US Attorney on Guam since 1991. "He'd been there a long time," said Lee Radek, former head of Justice's Public Integrity Section, of Black. "I liked him. He had a good reputation." A retired district court judge appointed Black on a temporary basis, but lack of a replacement, his reputation for integrity and his high conviction rate kept him in the post.
...
Fred Black was the acting US Attorney in Guam between 1991 and 2003. In November 2002, Black began investigating a contract between Abramoff and Guam's highest court and asked for DOJ's assistance. Since Black's communication happened to raise serious questions about the integrity of a high-level federal official who was being renominated to his post, Justice passed the information on to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales.
A grand jury, convened by Black, subpoenaed the Abramoff contract on November 18, 2002. The next day the Bush Administration announced that Black would be replaced as US Attorney and demoted him to Assistant US Attorney, after twelve years on the job. His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, had close ties to the Guam Republican Party, including the support of Abramoff and another lobbyist with access to Karl Rove.
The Boston Globehighlighted the firing as well in 2005:
The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to the subpoena. It demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.
A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.
The timing caught some by surprise. Despite his officially temporary status as the acting US attorney, Black had held the assignment for more than a decade.
The acting US attorney was a controversial official in Guam. At the time he was replaced, Black was directing a long-term investigation into allegations of public corruption in the administration of then-Governor Carl Gutierrez. The probe produced numerous indictments, including some of the governor's political associates and top aides.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) from 2005:
The acting U.S. attorney was a controversial official in Guam. At the time he was removed, Black was directing a long-term investigation into allegations of public corruption in the administration of then-Gov. Carl Gutierrez. The inquiry produced numerous indictments, including some of the governor's political associates and top aides.
Black also arranged for a security review in the aftermath of Sept. 11 that was seen as a potential threat to loose immigration rules favored by local business leaders. In fact, the study ordered by Black eventually cited substantial security risks in Guam and the Northern Marianas.
Abramoff, who then represented the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, alerted his clients in a memo about the expected report and warned: "It will require some major action from the Hill and a press attack to get this back in the bottle."
Earlier this year – over two years after Mr. Black attempted to initiate an investigation – Guam Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks commenced a separate investigation into Mr. Abramoff’s secret lobbying on behalf of the Guam courts. Ms. Brooks’ office is reviewing 36 payments of $9,000, totaling $324,000 made to Mr. Abramoff and paid through a middleman, California lawyer Howard Hills.
VI. Where we are today: In a desert, trying to find where all the dead bodies are buried by the Bush Crime Family
The Nation has a new piece this week, written by Ari Berman:
The apparent purging of Black at Abramoff's behest demonstrates the clout the lobbyist wielded at both the DOJ and the White House. Then-White House political director Ken Mehlman, the recent chairman of the Republican National Committee, told White House official Leonard Rodriguez, a protégé of Karl Rove, to "reach out to make Jack aware" of all Guam-related information, including candidates for US Attorney, according to the IG report.
In May 2002 Abramoff used his influence to kill a risk-assessment report of Guam and the neighboring Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), requested by Black, that called for federalizing immigration laws on the islands, a move that might have jeopardized the influx of cheap labor to CNMI and Abramoff's $1.6 million lobbying contract with its local government. Abramoff learned of the report from John Ashcroft's then-chief of staff, David Ayres, whom he hosted at a Washington Redskins game. "We'll hope that higher ups will take some time to squash this," Abramoff wrote. Sure enough, the report never came out, and the DOJ demoted its author, regional security specialist Robert Meissner.
At the time, Meissner's boss was then-US Attorney for Eastern Virginia, Paul McNulty, who has since risen to become Deputy Attorney General and a key player in Gonzales's embattled DOJ. A longtime Republican operative who served as spokesman for House Republicans during Bill Clinton's impeachment--and never tried a case before becoming US Attorney--McNulty now stands accused of misleading Congress about the reasons for the eight US Attorneys' dismissals.
Meissner discussed his risk-assessment report with McNulty on multiple occasions and told several colleagues he believed McNulty helped suppress the report and curtail his career. "Bob told me he thought McNulty had everything to do with it," says one colleague of Meissner's in the Bush Administration with knowledge on Guam matters. Says another colleague, "McNulty was kind of the fireman at Justice. He was the guy trying to run around and put a lid on things that could become political, especially with Abramoff."
McNulty may have also intervened in the IG's investigation of Black's removal. According to sources close to the investigation, when Black contradicted Administration testimony, he was told by IG investigators, "That's not the scope we were given by DAG"--at the time, McNulty. McNulty's office declined to comment, and the IG's counsel, Cynthia Schnedar, says, "The conclusion we reached was a fair and appropriate one."
Sampson and McNulty were close to the heart of the Guam affair, but it's unlikely they were operating as rogue agents. Indeed, contained in the IG report is a startling admission. Sampson told the IG that after receiving permission from the DAG, AG and White House counsel to replace a US Attorney, "he would then discuss the US Attorney candidate recommendations with the President." After the Attorneygate scandal broke, Bush contradicted this, claiming that he "never brought up a specific case nor gave [Gonzales] specific instructions."
Say what you will about the Democrats and its leadership--I know I have!--but, simply having the majority and the power of the subpoena is the only way that this scandal would have any relevance; if not for the Gonzogate scandal being uncovered by Senator Feinstein because of Carol Lam, this rather relevant portion of the entire criminal enterprise that we know as the Bush Crime Family would have gone unnoticed.
Fortunately, two Democratic congressmen, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) have written a letter to Chairman Conyers, Chairman Leahy, Chairwoman Sánchez, and Chairman Schumer:
In October 2005, and again in January 2006, we and others asked the Attorney General to appoint an outside counsel to determine whether Black was replaced by the Bush Administration in November 2002 because he was conducting a criminal investigation of Abramoff and his clients, and because he favored insular area policies that Abramoff and his clients opposed.
As we wrote to Attorney General Gonzales, it is clear that Abramoff was given ample and, in our view, improper opportunity to weigh in with the Justice Department, and that the White House sought his counsel. Newspaper reports and leaked emails indicated that Abramoff had used his influence in the Justice Department to remove the Acting U.S. Attorney, and had worked to gain knowledge of and attempt to prevent the release of a classified review of Guam and CNMI immigration laws commissioned by Black. In one email, Abramoff explained that he had found out about the classified immigration report when "we had the COS of the Justice Department in our box at today’s Redskins game."
...
The Inspector General’s June 2006 report found that Abramoff – who described the Acting U.S. Attorney as a "total commie" and told his colleagues that "We need to get this guy sniped out of there" – had weighed in and attempted to influence the process of replacing the U.S. Attorney. However, the report concluded that the replacement of the Acting U.S. Attorney had not been improper.
At the time, we viewed the replacement of the Acting U.S. Attorney as an example of the overly zealous and improper, if not illegal, conduct by the now disgraced and convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.
In light of more recent revelations about political interference with the work of other U.S. Attorneys, however, it is necessary now to re-examine the case as it may represent the beginning of a pattern of behavior by some members of Congress and officials in the Bush Administration to politicize the work of U.S. Attorneys and to quash their independence.
We encourage you to include this earlier incident in your ongoing work. As you know, Jack Abramoff worked closely with the Bush Administration and Congress to distort insular area policy; that matter was never appropriately investigated by this body.
Tags: Jack Abramoff, G.W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales, John Aschcroft, Paul McNulty, Ken Mehlman, Fred Black, Kyle Sampson, Bob Ney, Christopher Bartolomucci