When the document dump landed and was cleaned up for searching, I decided to search the documents for my own two recently-appointed interim attorneys, Craig Morford of Middle Tennessee and James Dedrick of East Tennessee. Morford is the bigger name, so I focused on him first, and I didn't find much there. I expanded my search to Google, and I found...quite a bit.
I noticed in the document dump that Morford was appointed in October of 2006. So I looked up who the USA before him was and started nosing around to see what was up.
Cross-posted at BlueSunBelt
Preceeding Morford was James K. Vines. James K. Vines was nominated by George W. Bush in December of 2001. He was confirmed by the Senate in February 2002.
In September of 2006 he abruptly announced his resignation, in order to pursue private practice.
From the Nashville Post.
10-02-2006 12:26 PM —
The Justice Department today named Craig S. Morford to serve as Middle Tennessee's U.S. Attorney on an interim basis. He replaces Jim Vines, who left his position at the end of September.
Morford is currently First Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, and he has held various federal prosecutorial positions in Cleveland since 1987. In 2002, he headed the prosecution team in the trial of U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio) on federal corruption charges, gaining a conviction that sent the flamboyant politician to prison for an eight-year term.
I mentioned earlier that Morford was a big name. He led the court case against Traficant (remember him?), which led to websites being established against him listing his own misconduct during that trial (here and here, for starters, very amusing reads, highly recommended). Ironically, he was later assigned to investigate prosecutorial misconduct in a trial against three alleged members of a terrorist sleeper cell, a case that would eventually be thrown out as a result of the investigation.
Now let’s see what he managed to get accomplished last Fall.
From the Nashville City Paper
Last week [Dec 2006], Ford was indicted again – this time out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville – for allegedly profiteering off of the steering of TennCare contracts toward companies he consulted for.
[snip]
That is a change from years ago – when Tennessee Waltz was just being organized – when federal officials had to run the operation out of the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office, even though it was targeted at the legislature in Nashville.
[snip]
[M]any local officials say Morford deserves his share of the credit for ensuring that numerous investigations never missed a beat. As Tennessee is now learning, much of the last five years worth of legwork was aimed at catching corrupt public officials.
[snip]
"In some ways, these are the most important crimes we can investigate and prosecute because if we don’t do these, it affects the integrity of the system and it affects everything else that we do," Morford added.
[Metro Police Chief Ronal] Serpas said that in the three years he has been at the helm of the Metro Police Department, he’s seen the U.S. Attorney’s Office grow into an able partner at combating corruption.
"This is no slight on Mr. [James] Vines, but in the four weeks Mr. Morford has been here, of the three huge things that were bothering me personally, two of the three have been knocked out already," Serpas said. "Once Mr. Morford got on board, he moved quickly to bring us to where we are today, and I’m very, very appreciative of that."
What were those two things? One was Metro detective Earnest Cecil, who was accused of helping his nephew run a cocaine operation. The other was John Ford.
John Ford’s indictments as a result of the Tennessee Waltz probe were in 2005. But that didn’t seem to be nearly good enough for the powers that be.
In an interview last week, Vines said he did not believe Morford – who is best known as the U.S. attorney who cleaned up Youngstown, Ohio, which had been known for decades as the most corrupt city in America – was brought to Tennessee to fight corruption.
Even if Vines honestly didn’t believe that’s why Morford was brought to Tennessee, that’s surely what he accomplished, and the police chief doesn’t hesitate to point that out.
So far all of this seems incidental. One USA resigned to pursue private practice. Another attorney with anti-corruption credentials was brought in to finish up the anti-corruption campaign started by the first USA.
Looking at the bigger picture, though, at what else was going on in Tennessee at the time, maybe there is more to it than that.
What was going on in Tennessee in Late September and early October of 2006 that would make it important for a famous anti-corruption attorney to be brought in and put to work right away, particularly in a case involving John Ford?
Here is a hint:
SurveyUSA, 9/11/06: Ford Jr. 48%, Corker 45%
Benenson (D), 9/23/06: Ford, Jr. 45%, Corker 39%
Rasmussen, 10/1/06: Ford, Jr. 48%, Corker 43%
USA Today/Gallup (LV), 10/5/06: Ford Jr. 50%, Corker 45%
Oh, that’s right. A negro from Memphis was about to beat a good ol’ white boy from Chattanooga, potentially tipping the balance in the Senate to the Democrats.
(Nobody knew at that time that Ford would wind up losing the race on his own, without any outside help, other than the Playboy/white woman ad.)
I’ll remind you what Serpas said, in case you forgot.
[I]n the four weeks Mr. Morford has been here, of the three huge things that were bothering me personally, two of the three have been knocked out already.
In four weeks, Morford was able to do one thing that Vines couldn’t do in four years- accelerate the investigation against John Ford, corrupt uncle of Democratic Senatorial Candidate Harold Ford, Jr.
And note the timing- the Chief said in December that in the first four weeks of Morford's employment in Tennessee he "knocked out" the Ford problem. That would have been in October...yet the indictments didn't come until December. Clearly this investigation started immediately.
Did John Ford deserve to be investigated? You betcha. I’m also willing to bet that he wasn’t the only Ford investigated by Morford in October of 2006. As my Memphis friends will tell you, there is plenty of activity in the Ford family to be investigated.
This doesn't mean this appointment wasn't politically motivated. Vines wasn't investigating the Fords quickly enough to affect the 2006 elections, so they brought in corruption expert Craig Morford.
Just a reminder: Alby Gonzo was appointed 2/3/05.
That gives him plenty of time to try and affect 2006.
Kind of makes me wonder what other convenient appointments were made in those two years.