Updated Title: Saturday Morning USA Scandal News - Rove and Immigration Judge Edition
Sat May 26, 2007 at 07:59:16 AM PDT
Good morning, campers. I saw this story last evening on TPMuckraker and wanted to bring it to folks' attention but I'd already diaried and that diary had already sunsetted...sunk below the horizon line of purview.
TPMuckraker Article
I don't know about you, gentle reader, but I've become a scandal junkie. I hunger for scraps and pieces of news and evidence because I consider the path through oversight to be the quickest and most expedient path toward ridding ourselves of the metastatic criminality that has spread through every aspect of the federal government. One of the people who planned for years to birth and spread this rot is Karl Rove. The problem is, he has been like Fog Man...there's been so much deceit, such profound smoke that it's been difficult to find anything to hold onto. Finally, an email has been uncovered that may be cause to expand the enquiry into his direct role.
More over the orange rapids...
The email is from Tim Griffin, one of Rove's former aids and a pernicious political operative with close ties to Monica Goodling. Griffin is best know for contratemps with voter suppression and caging issues in Arkansas. (Exactly the kinda guy one would expect Rove to want as a replacement for Bud Cummins, a highly respected and effective USA.) In the e-mail, Griffin discusses his appointment (using the now notorious Patriot Act provision which allowed replacement without Senatorial confirmation). Griffin also discusses his dealings with Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) The e-mail (bates stamp 0AG000001733) was part of Monica Goodling's May 22, 2007, document dump, found here, toward the very end:
Goodling's Documents
Here's an excerpt from Paul Kiel's article which discusses the e-mail at length:
Responding to the email, Michael Teague, spokesman for Sen. Pryor, wondered how many other contacts Griffin had with Rove. "This is just an email. Was he calling him every day?"
In fact, the email was only produced by the Justice Department because Oprison of the White House counsel's office had forwarded it on to Monica Goodling at the Justice Department, who forwarded it to Kyle Sampson the same morning. Despite requests from Congress, the White House has not produced any emails related to the firings.
Sampson's and Oprison's appearance in the email raises an additional question.
On February 24th, just eight days after the email, the Justice Department wrote in a letter to Congress that the department wasn't aware of Karl Rove playing "any role" in the decision to appoint Griffin. The letter was drafted by Sampson and signed off on by Oprison of the White House.
According to Kiel's article, David Iglesias, one of the few and the proud who was also fired for refusing to obey Bushist pressures to pursue spurious voter fraud claims, has found this link to be highly inappropriate.
So, fellow scandal junkies, while not necessarily substantive red meat in itself, this e-mail is the first evidence showing that Rove was in the loop at least with one of the new Bushist replacement USAs and Rove. Here's hoping that this will be a small piece of evidence that is large enough to pry open the bunker doors of the WH RICO conspiracy. Feel free to discuss and to use this diary to discuss and/or analyze other material from the May 22, 2007 doc dump, or any other aspect of this case, should you be inclined.
UPDATE: The immigration judge practices are beginning to cause their own stink. The LA Times has a story regarding the lack of any conceivable reason for the appointments other than being a loyal Bushist operative. While this should probably be part of another diary, or perhaps I should revamp the title of this one, I didn't want the story to go unnoticed during weekend festivities and observances.
The new jurists include a former treasurer of the Louisiana Republican Party, who was a legal advisor to the Bush Florida recount team after the 2000 presidential election. There is also a former GOP congressional aide who had tracked voter fraud issues for the Justice Department, and a Texan appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush to a seat on the state library commission.
One thing missing on many of their resumes: a background in immigration law.
These lawyers are among a growing number of the nation's more than 200 immigration judges who have little or no experience in the law they were appointed to enforce.
LA Time: New Immigration Judges Lack Immigration Experience
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