This is going to be short and sweet. (No, the CA- 04's Congressperson on Indictment Watch™, John Doolittle, (R, Republic of Sierra Dominion Deutchland) did not resign yet. But Brent Wilkes' did not have a good day in court yesterday. Wilkes, on trial for fraud, money laundering, and bribing a public official, a past benefactor of Doolittle's DOD earmarks, watched his famous lawyer get tossed by the judge on the case!
And in even more amazing news, the same judge says, based on information provided by the US Attorney in Sacramento's investigation, that there is no further need to investigate supposed "leaks" in former US Attorney Carol Lam's office, who indicted Wilkes just days before being forced out of office and replaced.
More below the flip, and the significance... hat tip to TPM Muckraker, http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/... who broke this earlier today.
{ For background on how Wilkes and Doolittle were financially intertwined, see http://www.signonsandiego.com/...
Between 2002 and 2005, Wilkes and his associates and lobbyists gave Doolittle's campaign and political action committee $118,000, more than they gave any other politician, including (Duke) Cunningham.
Doolittle's wife Julie collected 15% of each political contribution as a "fundraiser's fee." }
Now for the latest news:
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/...
July 10, 2007
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO –" Mark Geragos, the high-profile lawyer for indicted Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes, was removed from the case by a federal judge yesterday because he refused to go through a background check that would allow him to see classified information.
The decision by Judge Larry A. Burns could delay the scheduled Oct. 23 trial for Wilkes and Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, his childhood friend and formerly the third-highest official in the CIA.
The evidence in the case involves a large amount of classified information. A law passed by Congress in 1980 governing how such sensitive information should be handled in trials requires anyone who wants access to it to undergo a background security check. Geragos refused to do so."
Los Angles based Geragos, well known celebrity defense attorney for clients such as singer Michael Jackson, shoplifter actress Winona Ryder, and murderer Scott Peterson, had presented the judge with a catch- 22 situation. Judge Burns, in a May hearing, said he would not order Geragos to undergo the background check, but he had to agree that meant he might not be able to access classified information without it. Geragos, however, wanted access to all possible evidence on behalf of his client Wilkes. Prosecutors for the government said that meant the only way they could follow the Classified Information Act was then to have Geragos agree to the background check.
At the hearing yesterday, July 9, Geragos said he wasn't going to submit to a background check "under any circumstances." Judge Burns, after multiple fruitless entreatries for him to reconsider, then removed attorney Geragos from the case and ordered Wilkes to find a new lawyer by July 23.
Brent Wilkes, who was charged in this case as a co conspirator along with CIA #3 man Dusty Foggo, then lamented he was not sure if he could afford a new lawyer.
In a previous hearing on April 2, attorney Geragos tried to get the case dismissed, claiming former US Attorney for southern California Carol Lam had leaked secret grand jury information to the MSM press before the indictment in order to sway public opinion in order to pressure the Department of Justice to hurry up and indict before Lam was forced out of office back in mid February. Geragos apparently has never produced any evidence to back up that attempted smear on Carol Lam. Lam, whom successfully prosecuted Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, was allegedly fired on being "too soft on immigration problems and illegal alien prosecutions" in her district.
Congressman John Doolittle, who has been under investigation by the DOJ for over a year regarding his role in the Abramoff scandal, back in his CA- 04 district after his narrow squeaker of a victory over Democratic rival Charlie Brown, in his town hall appearances in February and April, repeatedly clung to the same theme, saying in his prepared speeches to rather incredulous audiences of constituents that the number one problem in this country was "illegal immigration" and trying to ignore the Iraq War issue. Subsequently, we learned from Congressional hearings and dailykos email analysis of document dumps on the Attorneygate Purge matter that the ersatz reason US Atty Carol Lam was told she was being let go in December 2006, provided by Attorney General Gonzales' aides, was that they were accusing her office of being "soft" on illegal immigration. Yet study of Lam's professional record proved otherwise. While in Lincoln, formerly one of the fastest growing towns in the nation, I heard Doolittle, nicely on playbook, refer to certain towns in California as "sanctuary cities." (deport all Democrats?....) In May, Doolittle, after the famous April 13th FBI raid on his house in Oakton, VA, while he was headed to the casino in Oroville, CA, took to a new tact in the breeze blowing thru his credibility, claiming he was a victim of "leaks" in the media which were fueling an unfair prosecution which was destroying his "innocent reputation." Tom Delay, the ex Texas congressman and disgraced Majority Leader, whose wife, Christine, also worked for the same Abramoff related lobbyists, Alexander Strategy Group, that Julie Doolittle worked for, was saying the same things. { See my previous diary, Still here, but Gone Leakin'. http://www.dailykos.com/... } At the time I wrote that I noted to myself that on May 14 Geragos, also on the public "the leaky boat is sinking my client theme", was scheduled to go to a trial hearing with his leaky premise that Carol Lam was performing a cheap tabloid type trick to get his client indicted, and I wondered how that was going to float.
Now we know. It sunk. Like a brick.
My speculation is that Geragos knows things he shouldn't, already, and is loathe to have that aspect of his life publically revealed by a background check, because he could be found to be legally in trouble, or compromise current or past clients. But that's just speculation.
But this shows the Judge is not going to tolerate any private sector type theatrics from Attorney Geragos any more when it comes to seeking the truth and not good cablevision stories.
And it may show yet another reason the arch conservative Doolittle this past week suddenly seems to be at least mouthing a desire to see American troops "pulled off the front lines" in Iraq. That story about why they canned Carol Lam's got more legs than a centipede.