FULL STALL JUSTICE: Rep. Jerry Lewis Probe Rolls Backwards "prosecutor ... forced into retirement"

TPM: Stalled Lewis Probe Rolls Backwards
By Paul Kiel - September 7, 2007, 10:05 AM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004093.php

The U.S. attorney office in Los Angeles just can't seem to muster the manpower needed to investigate senior Republican appropriator Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). In fact, it seems that the Justice Department is handicapping itself.

The veteran prosecutor who'd been heading up the Lewis case has been forced into retirement.....

The Wall Street Journal reported last week (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004051.php) that budget shortages and the departure of top prosecutors from the office had caused the investigation to slow down since last fall.......

Robert Iafolla reports in the Daily Journal:

Because of civil-service rules, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. attorney's office who just recently took over the probe of Rep. Jerry Lewis must exit the office for good by the end of September, marking the third significant departure from the office's corruption unit since Lewis first came under suspicion last year...

....

Interim U.S. Attorney George S. Cardona said internal policy is designed to limit extensions. The Justice Department "extended it for important cases, but it finally got to the point that it was no longer willing to extend the temporary appointments," he said.

It's not clear from Cardona's remark why the Lewis case, which centers on whether Lewis abused his position atop the House appropriations committee, wouldn't qualify as an "important" case............

Prosecutor forced to retire
Staff and Wire Reports - 09/07/2007
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_6823557

LOS ANGELES - A veteran prosecutor assigned to the lobbying probe of Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, is being forced to retire.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Emmick, 54, took early retirement in 2004 and has returned under one-year appointments since then.

However, the Justice Department declined to renew Emmick for another year, though he said he wanted to continue work on the case.

...........


"I was under the impression I could continue to work as long as I liked" after taking early retirement status, Emmick said. "The (Los Angeles U.S. attorney's) office made requests, but DOJ said three years is enough."

......

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido - now serving eight years in prison after admitting he accepted more than $2.4 million in bribes from businessmen seeking federal contracts.

The Cunningham case spurred the ongoing probe of Lewis and his use of earmarks in connection with lobbyists and contractors.

...........

The U.S. Attorney, the G.O.P. Congressman and the Timely Job Offer
By ADAM COHEN - May 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/opinion/04fri4.html?ex=1335931200&en=9697872f8b81f953&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


There is yet another United States attorney whose abrupt departure from office is raising questions: Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles. Ms. Yang was not fired, as eight other prosecutors were, but she resigned under circumstances that raise serious questions, starting with whether she was pushed out to disrupt her investigation of one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress.

... the riskiest job in the Bush administration is being a prosecutor investigating a Republican member of Congress. Carol Lam, the United States attorney in San Diego, was fired after she put Randy Cunningham, known as Duke, in prison. Paul Charlton, in Arizona, was dismissed while he was investigating Rick Renzi. Dan Bogden, in Nevada, was fired while he was reportedly investigating Jim Gibbons, a congressman who was elected governor last year.

....

Ms. Yang says she left for personal reasons, but there is growing evidence that the White House was intent on removing her. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department staff member in charge of the firings, told investigators last month in still-secret testimony that Harriet Miers, .......

The new job that Ms. Yang landed raised more red flags. Press reports say she got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties. She was hired to be co-leader of the Crisis Management Practice Group with Theodore Olson, who was President Bush’s solicitor general and his Supreme Court lawyer in Bush v. Gore. Gibson, Dunn was defending Mr. Lewis in Ms. Yang’s investigation.

Yang denies departure is linked to that of other U.S. attorneys
By Susan Crabtree - March 05, 2007
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/yang-denies-departure-is-linked-to-that-of-other-u.s.-attorneys-2007-03-05.html


A former U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, Debra Wong Yang, dismissed questions about the timing of her departure....

Wong Yang was heading up the investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis’s (R-Calif.) ties to a lobbying firm and the millions of dollars in contracts the firm’s clients received from Congress. Wong Yang, the first Asian-American woman to serve as a U.S. attorney, left her post with Justice to become a partner at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, the law firm representing Lewis. She will co-chair the firm’s crisis-management practice group, along with Washington, D.C., partner Theodore B. Olson, a former Bush administration solicitor general.

Wong Yang said her departure was a personal decision based on financial concerns and the fact that she is a single mother, and had nothing to do with the firings of other U.S. attorneys. She also said her departure would not affect the case against Lewis in any way, ...........

She got a *really* nice signing bonus (more than $1M) to take the position, from the firm that is representing Lewis!

I don't have time to track down the links again, they might be on my journal, or google Lewis and bonus should get it.

-Hoot

of interest's cronies?

I can't believe the corruption we are dealing with. I really don't.

Yes, there are "appearances of impropriety" in taking a huge lump payment to switch teams, but remember, who would do something about it? Gonzo!!

No really. You put something like this on the Oprah show and you'll see the women come unglued. I guarantee that no one who doesn't look for this stuff, even realizes how thin the wall is between the regulators and the people they regulate.

No shit it hasn't been on Oprah. Hmmmm, got Oprah's email?

-Hoot

Miers weighed Yang’s firing according to Sen. Feinstein
By Susan Crabtree - April 23, 2007
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/miers-weighed-yangs-firing-according-to-sen.-feinstein-2007-04-23.html


Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers discussed firing ex-U.S. Attorney Debra Yang, .... Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) charged in a hearing last week. ... during the questioning of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales late in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Feinstein flatly stated that Miers had discussed “whether to remove Debra Yang from Los Angeles.”

A Feinstein spokesman indicated ... Miers ... did not respond to repeated questions to elaborate. .....

Yang will co-chair the firm’s crisis-management practice group.... Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Fuchs, Yang’s colleague at the Los Angeles U.S. attorney’s office, also has joined her at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. Yang and Fuchs have recused themselves from working on Lewis’s defense.

Fuchs did not respond to The Hill’s queries. ....

....Yang argued that her departure would not affect the case against Lewis .....
“The investigation would never be delayed or affected in any way because of my departure,” she said. “We had 260 attorneys in that office.”
......

Guarding each other's back?

The co-conspirators circle is growing smaller as more corrupt individuals are ousted from government. But look at who replaces whom as this happens and you see who the insiders of the circle are.

committing their votes to Bush for any crazy idea he plans to float?

He is no longer the lobbyist working the opposite side from Carol Lam, he is in the White House advising Bush and sleeping in Rove's bed.

WSJ: GOP Rep Should Be Sweatin' Indictments
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002570.php


By Paul Kiel - February 14, 2007, 11:26 AM The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117139057560107470.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us) notes that, given the torrent of detail (http://www.citizensforethics.org/filelibrary/021307wilkesmichaelsindict.pdf) in yesterday's indictments (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/wilkes-foggo/?resultpage=1&) against Brent Wilkes, those lawmakers other than Duke Cunningham who were uncomfortably close to him should be feeling mighty uncomfortable right about now:

The indictment and its details would seem to heighten the risk to other members of Congress still under investigation; Mr. Wilkes also had dealings with several of them. A separate federal criminal investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis, the California Republican who until January 2006 was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is continuing in Los Angeles. Prosecutors in that case are looking at Mr. Lewis's relationship with Mr. Wilkes, which included campaign contributions from Mr. Wilkes and associates and the hiring by Mr. Wilkes of a lobbying firm founded by one of Mr. Lewis's closest friends, former Rep. Bill Lowery.

Did Calif. Prosecutor See The Purge Coming?
By Paul Kiel - March 2, 2007, 12:41 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002664.php

Laura Rozen (http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/005735.html) raises a good point. Three of California's four United States attorneys resigned in two months.

Relationship with Bill Lowery and Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White
http://www.beyonddelay.org/summaries/lewis.php

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)

.............

Rep. Lewis has a close relationship with lobbyist and former Congressman Bill Lowery, and his lobbying firm, Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White (“Copeland Lowery”). As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Lewis has approved hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for Mr. Lowery’s clients. In exchange, Mr. Lowery, his partners and their spouses contributed $480,000 to Rep. Lewis’ campaign committee and Future Leaders PAC between 2000 and 2005, often giving the maximum contribution allowed under law.

Copeland Lowery’s staff includes Letitia White, who joined the firm in 2003 after working in Rep. Lewis’ office for 22 years, most recently as a staffer to the Appropriations Committee.

At Copeland Lowery Ms. White, who became known as “K Street’s Queen of Earmarks,” quickly built a client list of two dozen defense firms that were seeking earmarks.

Jeffrey Shockey, another staffer for Rep. Lewis until 1999, also left to join Copeland Lowery. Mr. Shockey stayed with the firm for six years before returning to Capitol Hill in January 2005, for a second stint with Rep. Lewis as deputy staff director of the Appropriations Committee. To compensate for Mr. Shockey’s drop in income, Copeland Lowery paid him nearly $2 million in departure payments and hired his wife, Alexandra Shockey, as a subcontractor.

.................

House Appropriations Chairman Is Facing Federal Investigation
By Charles R. Babcock - May 12, 2006; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051101881.html


The Justice Department has begun investigating the activities of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, focusing in part on his dealings with a lobbying firm that hired some of his former staff members, sources familiar with the inquiry said.

One source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said subpoenas have been issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

...........

Recent news accounts have outlined the close relationship between Lewis and former representative Bill Lowery, whose lobbying firm, Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, specializes in seeking earmarks ........

John Scofield, a spokesman for Lewis, said that the chairman and Lowery, a former House member from a neighboring Southern California district, are "very good friends."

...............

Close ties make Rep. Lewis, lobbyist Lowery a potent pair
By Jerry Kammer - COPLEY NEWS SERVICE - December 23, 2005
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20051223-9999-lz1n23lewis.html


Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands (left), has built a potent friendship with former colleague and lobbyist Bill Lowery.
WASHINGTON – From powerful positions on the House Appropriations Committee, California Rep. Jerry Lewis has greenlighted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for clients of one of his closest friends, lobbyist and former state Congressman Bill Lowery.

..........

The Lewis-Lowery relationship, however, is remarkable for the closeness and mutual dependence of the powerful appropriations chairman and the ambitious lobbyist, who served together on the appropriations committee from 1985 until Lowery left Congress in 1993. They've even exchanged two key staff members, making their offices so intermingled that they seem to be extensions of each other.

"Word is getting around that if you want to be close to Jerry Lewis, it's a good idea to be close to Bill Lowery," said a former Capitol Hill insider who asked not to be identified, saying he "cannot afford to make an enemy out of the chairman of the appropriations committee."

Lowery declined to be interviewed ...........

What will Jerry Lewis put on the Auction Block next?
http://www.dccc.org/gopauctionhouse/members/JerryLewisCA-41.html

HOW LEWIS RESPONDS TO HIGH ENERGY PRICES

* Rep. Lewis voted against cracking down on the oil and gas industries price gouging.
* Rep. Lewis voted for the GOP energy bill that gave billions to oil, gas and nuclear industries.
* Big oil and gas industries have given Rep. Lewis $124,650. Any surprise?

............

TIES TO DISGRACED FORMER CONGRESSMAN RANDY "DUKE" CUNNINGHAM
Lewis has taken:

* $5,000 from MZM, the corporation whose founder Cunningham pled guilty to accepting bribes from.
* $3,000 from MZM founder Mitchell Wade, whose purchase of Cunningham's home for a hugely inflated price was recognized as a thinly-veiled bribe.

CREW FILES DOJ COMPLAINT AGAINST REP. JERRY LEWIS
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/19065

9 Jan 2006 // Washington, DC - Earlier today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and a possible contender for House Majority Leader. The complaint asks the Attorney General to have the Public Integrity Section initiate an investigation into the relationship between Rep. Lewis and lobbyist Bill Lowery and Mr. Lowery’s firm, Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White.

A recent story in the San Diego Union-Tribune asserts that Rep. Lewis, as Chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has approved hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for Mr. Lowery’s clients. In apparent return, Mr. Lowery, his partners, and his firm’s clients have donated 37% of the $1.3 million that Rep. Lewis’s political action committee has received over the past six years.

................

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, urged Attorney General Gonzales and Public Integrity Chief Noel Hillman to immediately commence an investigation into the Lewis/Lowery relationship, stating, “it is a little Duke Cunningham mixed with a lot of Jack Abramoff: Rep. Lewis doles out earmarks a la Cunningham and Mr. Lowery plays Abramoff, offering an unending stream of campaign contributions.” Sloan continued, “Corruption in Congress does not end with Tom DeLay or Jack Abramoff. There is not just one scandal, but a host of unethical activities that need to be investigated.”

CREW is seeking a Department of Justice investigation, in part, because the House Ethics Committee has abdicated its responsibility to police and investigate the conduct of Members of the House of Representatives ....

Bush spokesperson said no GOPers with ethics scandals will run in 2008
4 September 2007
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/30031


Well this is interesting:

Ed Gillespie, President Bush's counselor and a former chairman of the Republican Party, acknowledged that ethical scandals have hurt the GOP. He predicted that by 2008, the party "will not have candidates who have any kind of ethical considerations that will be a concern to the voters."

Does this mean the GOP is going to prevent Ted Stevens and Pete Domenici from running for re-election? What about Jerry Lewis and John Doolittle, among others, in the House?

=======Comments=========

:spank:

K&R

They don't even bother concealing their criminality, not even a little bit.

They rely and the fear and apathy and stupidity of the Imperial Subjects of Amerika, not to mention our collective moral cowardice, just as Hitler did with his German Bushies.

And just like the German Bushies, the Imperial Subjects of Amerika have not yet once disappointed Fuhrer Bushler.

It is easy to give Hitler's Nazism a special category for their genocide, but that extreme is not required to fit into the authoritarian genre of fascism.

The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
Free Inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org/fi/
Spring 2003; 5-11-03

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:


1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing ........

................

Doolittle: "I Am Running Again. Period."
By Paul Kiel - September 7, 2007, 5:37 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004108.php

Did you think that little things like a federal investigation, a crowd of Republican challengers and dismal poll numbers would keep Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) from running for reelection? You were wrong.

============================
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/09/doolittle_attacks_critics_as_w.php
Doolittle Attacks Critics As Chief of Staff Faces Grand Jury
ERICA WERNER
AP News - Sep 07, 2007 16:58 EDT


Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., denounced his GOP critics as "weasels" Friday even as his chief of staff appeared before a federal grand jury ....

Doolittle also told reporters on a conference call Friday that he believes the Justice Department's long-running probe "borders on harassment."

.....

Doolittle's chief of staff, Ron Rogers, spent an hour and 20 minutes before a federal grand jury at U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Friday. His appearance came two days after Doolittle's scheduler and deputy chief of staff appeared before the same grand jury.

California Rep. Jerry Lewis to seek re-election to a 16th term, putting speculation to rest
By Erica Werner - AP - Aug 31, 2007
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20070831-0914-lewis-lobbyingprobe.html


WASHINGTON – GOP Rep. Jerry Lewis of California announced Friday that he'll seek a 16th term, putting to rest speculation that he would retire in the wake of a federal lobbying probe.

“My constituents send more of their hard-earned dollars to Washington than they ever get back,” Lewis said in a statement. “The least I can do is to continue to fight to see that federal programs help pay for roads, school projects, water resources and economic development in the fastest-growing region in the nation.”

.........

Lewis was the chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee until Republicans lost control of Congress last year. He is the top Republican on the spending panel.

His talent at securing federal dollars for his inland Southern California district brought him unwanted scrutiny last year when federal prosecutors in Los Angeles began probing ..............

FROM: The State Secrets (Public Corruption) Exception = "Bush Admin... is corrupt to its innermost core"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1786897

EXCERPT: ........ the Bush Administration appears to be evolving a truly novel version of the state secrets exception. In each of these (4) cases, a state secrets defense is being interposed for the purpose of blocking the disclosure of claims of gross corruption surrounding public contracts. Why are these matters state secrets? That indeed is the riddle. The Government says they can’t tell us. Apparently if they told us, they’d have to kill us to prevent further exposure of the state secrets.

One of these cases emerges in the pages of yesterday’s Reno Gazette-Journal (http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/NEWS01/708300347/1321/NEWS):

...............

Prosecutor in Rep. Lewis probe cites rules, not politics in exit
September 7, 2007 - By BEN GOAD - Washington Bureau
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_lewis08.3e33a5a.html

A federal prosecutor tapped to help revive the criminal probe involving Rep. Jerry Lewis said Friday his impending departure, though unwelcome, is more likely prompted by bureaucracy than politics.

Michael Emmick said he was asked this spring to get involved with the investigation -- after he learned his current one-year appointment at the U.S. Attorney's Los Angeles office would probably not be renewed......

Emmick, who has worked for the Justice Department for 25 years, took early retirement in 2004. Since then, he has returned in one-year appointments.

He said he was aware of Department of Justice policy to limit the number of such appointments to two or three for a prosecutor in his situation, but he requested to continue his work in hopes that an exception would be made.

"The DOJ stuck to their guns," he said.

Officials from the Justice Department in Washington and the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles did not return calls seeking an explanation of policies about personnel moves. ...............

The noble Bush Just-Us Department doing this?

Stunned into silence...

Rumored AG Pick Likely to Get Opposition
By Paul Kiel - September 10, 2007, 11:48 AM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004115.php

Ted Olson is "leading the pack" as the administration's likely next attorney general, Roll Call reports (http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_23/news/19890-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS).

Olson would be a tough sell. After all, most Democrats, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) opposed Olson when he came up for confirmation for solicitor general in 2001 (he passed 51-47). The memory of Olson's role as a lawyer for Bush in the 2000 recount imbroglio was fresh. And Olson's history as a member of The American Spectator's board of directors during the so-called "Arkansas Project" in the 90's, when the magazine, backed by millions from millionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, set to ending Clinton's presidency by scandal, also became a major issue.

...........

Olson has spent the last several years as a partner at his old firm, Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher, where he continues to represent Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who's under federal investigation for appropriations funny business.