Thursday, March 29, 2007

Reviews Are In (5:43 pm)

… of the Senate Judiciary Committeee testimony from Kyle Sampson.

Video of Keith Olbermann’s commentary is posted at Crooks and Liars.

Dana Milbank for WaPo reports:

“I can’t pretend to know or remember every fact that may be of relevance,” he warned at the start — and he wasn’t kidding. He used the phrase “I don’t remember” a memorable 122 times.

It may have been a tactical effort to limit his risk of perjury, but Sampson displayed the recall of a man who recently fell off a ladder.

“Since the 2004 election, did you speak with the president about replacing U.S. attorneys?” Leahy asked.

“I don’t ever remember speaking to the president after the 2004 election,” he said. (He later remembered that he had.)

AFP reports “US attorney general approved firing prosecutors: ex-aide”:

“The decision makers in this case were the attorney general and the counsel to the president,” the administration’s former official lawyer Harriet Miers, Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath.

Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev for McClatchy report:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came under more pressure Thursday to explain his role in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, after his former top aide said the attorney general was far more involved in the ousters than he has acknowledged.

In seven, often tense, hours of testimony, former chief of staff Kyle Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Gonzales was aware of the plan from the outset, was briefed at least five times over the past two... read more

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Henry Sends A Dear Karl Letter (1:34 pm)

Jesse Lee at The Gavel reports that

[f]ollowing yesterday’s hearing regarding allegations of misconduct at GSA, the Oversight Committee has sent a letter to Karl Rove to learn what other agencies received political presentations and whether federal agencies or resources were used to help Republican candidates.

Additionally:

A second letter was sent to White House Counsel Fred Fielding asking him for information and a briefing regarding White House e-mail policies, citing the new revelations that White House officials have been conducting official business using nongovernmental e-mail accounts.

Text of the letters at the link.

posted by Brian Zick | 2 comments

Kyle Sampson’s Testimony (6:45 am)

Today’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee by Kyle Sampson, recently ex-chief of staff to Attorney General Albertao Gonzales, is being covered by TPM Muckraker, with posts including video clips: here, here, here, and here.

Christy at firedoglake has been live blogging the hearings: part 1, part 2, part 3.
update: part 4
update 2: part 5.

update: More video at TPM Muckraker:
Feinstein Questions Samspon on Lam Firing here
Sampson Didn’t Think of “Perception Problem” here
Schumer Questions Sampson about Gonzales Remarks here
Sheldon Whitehouse Questions Sampson about His Experience here

update 2: Yet more videos at TPM Muckraker:
Sampson Explains Rove’s Role in U.S. Attorney Nomination here
Sampson Suggested Removing Fitzgerald here
Sampson Testifies about Conversation with Gonzales about Iglesias here
Specter Questions Sampson on Avoiding the Senate here
Sampson Admits Lam Was Never Confronted on Immigration here
Sampson Claims DoJ Didn’t Consider Corruption Investigations here

update 3:
Sampson: If I Had It To Do Over…. here

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

White House Okayed Lie to Congress by Attorney General’s Chief of Staff (2:04 pm)

Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker reports on emails exchanged between Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales’ now-ex chief of staff, and Christopher Oprison, associate counsel to the President.

And the new document dump shows that the response came from none other than Chris Oprison. In this February 23rd email from Sampson to Oprison, Sampson explicitly acknowledges Oprison’s sign off (on the White House Counsel’s Behalf) on the false statements contained in the letter.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

The “I Don’t Recall” Defense (7:57 am)

Jesse Lee at The Gavel reports on the GSA hearings in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Smear Artist Gerth Stalking Hillary Again (6:45 am)

Rush and Molloy for the NY Daily News report that a book about Hillary is in the works, penned by dishonest hack Jeff Gerth, the “reporter” who launched the Whitewater fishing expedition. Gerth’s accounts purposefully misrepresented events and failed to note the proof of no impropriety which existed, as determined by the Resolution Trust Corporation after it had thoroughly investigated complaints (from an aggressively partisan Republican) before Gerth ever began to write about the failed land deal.

Joe Conason and Gene Lyons thoroughly debunked the corporate press corps’ trumped up crusade againt the Clintons; Lyons provided a particularly detailed criticism of Gerth’s hack work in his book “Fools for Scandal.”

Gerth was also responsible for trumping up hysterical allegations against Wen Ho Lee, for which the NY Times later apologized.

via Kate Redburn at TPM Cafe

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

Fifth Amendment Girl Goodling On Phone Call with Domenici About Purged Prosecutor Iglesias (6:27 am)

AP reports:

Goodling was involved in an April Sixth, 2006, phone call between the Justice Department and New Mexico Republican Senator Pete Domenici.

via Josh Marshall

posted by Brian Zick | 2 comments

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Human Cost of Immigration: Report by the Onion News Network (8:56 pm)

The Onion News Network’s Jean Anne Whorton looks at how immigration has affected one former corporate executive.

via Norm at onegoodmove