http://www.cooperativeresearch.org The Center for Grassroots Oversight aims to provide the public with a means to collaborate on investigations at the grassroots level. en-us http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a022405usachart#a022405usachart http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a022405usachart#a022405usachart Kyle Sampson, the deputy chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales , sends a list of the 93 current US Attorneys to White House counsel Harriet Miers. Each US Attorney is listed in either plain type, boldface, or "strikeout," meaning a line is drawn through their name. In a follow-up email on March 2, Sampson explains that, "putting aside expiring terms, the analysis on the chart I gave you is as follows: "Recommend retaining; strong US Attorneys who have produced, managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the president and attorney general. "Recommend removing; weak US Attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors; chafed against administration initiatives, etc. "No recommendation; not distinguished themselves either positively or negatively." 'On the copy of the chart released to the House Judiciary Committee in 2009, most of the US Attorneys' names are redacted. The ones who are not redacted are listed as follows: Paul K. Charlton, Arizona (see and ): nothing; Bud Cummins, Eastern Arkansas (see and ): strikeout. Debra W. Yang, Central California: boldface. Kevin Ryan, Northern California (see and ): nothing. (Ryan's name is in a different font than the others, suggesting that it has been re-entered; it is difficult to tell from the copy of Sampson's chart if his name is in boldface or not.) Carol C. Lam, Southern California (see and ): strikeout. Patrick Fitzgerald, Northern Illinois : nothing. Margaret M. Chiara, Western Michigan (see and ): strikeout. Thomas B. Heffelfinger, Minnesota: strikeout. Dunn O. Lampton, Southern Mississippi: strikeout. Todd P. Graves, Missouri (see and ): nothing. Daniel G. Bogden, Nevada (see and ): nothing. Christopher J. Christie, New Jersey : boldface. David C. Iglesias, New Mexico (see and ): boldface. Anna Mills S. Wagoner, Central North Carolina: strikeout. Mary Beth Buchanan, Western Pennsylvania: boldface. John McKay Jr., Western Washington (see and ): strikeout. Steven M. Biskupic, Wisconsin: strikeout. Thomas A. Zonay, Vermont: boldface. 'On March 2, Sampson sends an email to Miers indicating some revisions to the chart. Heffelfinger and Biskupic have their statuses changed to "strikeout" (referenced above), and Matt Orwig, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, is listed in boldface. Miers, a Texas native, responds, "Good to hear about Matt actually." Sampson replies, somewhat cryptically and with careless punctuation and capitalization: "yes he's good. oversight by me." mtuck 2013-05-20T08:33:53+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a082203lamears#a082203lamears http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a082203lamears#a082203lamears US Attorney Carol Lam of the Southern District of California receives a letter regarding her performance on a recent EARS (Evaluation and Review Staff) assessment performed by the Justice Department. Lam's office scores significantly higher than the national average of US Attorneys' offices in a cumularite review. All seven areas scored are rated high--receiving either a 4 or a 5 on a five-point scale. Lam's office received "best practices" recognition in several areas, including office management. Lam is praised for her "proactive" work in implementing the department's anti-terrorism policies, her vigorous pursuit of corporate fraud cases, and her office's work to dismantle and disrupt gang organizations in her district. According to the report, her office's "Coyote Prosecution Program, which targets alien smuggling foot guides, has been exceedingly successful." And her office's focus on technology-related crimes is appropriate for her district. mtuck 2013-05-20T08:33:36+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a081308bcpraisetg#a081308bcpraisetg http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a081308bcpraisetg#a081308bcpraisetg US Attorney Bud Cummins of the Eastern District of Arkansas writes a letter of appreciation to Timothy Griffin, the research director and deputy communications director of the Republican National Committee. Griffin recently served as a Special Assistant US Attorney in Cummins's office. Cummins writes that "you performed at the highest level of excellence during your time here ... served the office extremely well," and "indicted more people during your time here than any other AUSA. You were a real workhorse, and the quality of your work was excellent." He praises Griffin for planning, organizing, and implementing "an awesome" Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program, a Justice Department initiative focused on reducing gun violence in American communities. "I am not aware of a better PSN program in the country," he writes. "You should be pleased to know that our PSN program was highly recognized and commended in a recent department evaluation" . mtuck 2013-05-20T08:33:14+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a091906gavoterid#a091906gavoterid http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a091906gavoterid#a091906gavoterid Georgia's controversial state voter identification law, which was touted by Bradley J. Schlozman, the Justice Department's head of the voting rights section, as not being discriminatory towards minority voters , is declared unconstitutional by Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr., who said this law "cannot be." The law, pushed through the Georgia legislature by Governor Sonny Perdue (R-GA) and state Republicans in order to fight what they call persistent voter fraud , says that forcing citizens to pay money for a state voter identification card disenfranchises citizens who are otherwise qualified to vote. The state voter ID would require what the law calls "proof of citizenship." Many poor and minority voters lack birth certificates, some because they lack the financial means to obtain them and others because they were born in a time and area in which birth certificates were not routinely issued. Rosalind Lake, an elderly and visually disabled voter, brought a lawsuit against the state because she says she is unable to drive and would not easily be able to obtain such an ID. Even though the state offered to deliver an ID to Lake's home, her lawyer, former Governor Roy Barnes (D-GA), says others in her position would not be given such an offer. "We have a low voter participation," he says. "We're going to make it more difficult?" Under earlier law, Georgia voters could submit any of 17 types of identification to prove their identity. The new law poses one voter ID that would require a birth certificate. Perdue and others have cited information showing that 5,000 dead people "voted" in the eight elections preceding the 2000 elections, but Barnes notes that those votes were all cast by absentee ballots, which would not be affected by the new law. Barnes says, "This is the most sinister scheme I've ever seen, and it's going on nationwide." The law was already rejected by US District Judge Harold L. Murphy, who likened it to Jim Crow-era legal restrictions designed to stop African-Americans from voting. The Georgia General Assembly rewrote the law to remove the $20 fee for its acquisition, but Murphy refused to lift his injunction against the law. Bedford rules that the law places an unwarranted burden of proof on voters. "Any attempt by the legislature to require more than what is required by the express language of our Constitution cannot withstand judicial scrutiny," he says. mtuck 2013-05-15T19:15:46+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a112505schlozmanclaim#a112505schlozmanclaim http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a112505schlozmanclaim#a112505schlozmanclaim Bradley Schlozman, the head of the voting rights section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division (CRD), writes an op-ed published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution alleging that the newspaper is guilty of "confus[ing] and misrepresent[ing]" the facts surrounding his office's approval of a controversial Georgia voter identification statute . The voter ID law has been criticized as being discriminatory against minorities and being designed to suppress minority voting. Schlozman says that the newspaper's publication of a leaked internal memorandum from his office was unfair, as it "was merely a draft that did not incorporate the analytical work and extensive research conducted by all the attorneys assigned to the matter." He goes on to accuse the paper of failing to report that the memo "did not represent the recommendation of the veteran career chief of the Civil Rights Division's voting section, to whom preclearance approval decisions are expressly delegated by federal regulation." Schlozman says that the voter ID law is "clearly not racially retrogressive within the limited scope of the Voting Rights Act," and denies that demanding a number of identification papers from minority voters has ever been shown to have "any adverse impact on minority voters." Data in the leaked memo showed that a significant proportion of African-American voters would be prevented from voting by the voter ID law; Schlozman writes that "corrected data ... not incorporated in the leaked memo ... indicate that African-American citizens are actually slightly more likely than white citizens to possess one of the necessary forms of identification." He concludes: "Attorneys of the voting section have worked diligently to enforce voting laws and have achieved concrete, measurable advances for a record number of minority voters. We are enormously proud of this accomplishment." The Georgia voter identification law will be overturned by a federal court as illegal and discriminatory . mtuck 2013-05-15T19:14:35+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a030505berendtrove#a030505berendtrove http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a030505berendtrove#a030505berendtrove The Seattle Times reports that Washington State Democrats believe the White House is behind the efforts to force a recount in the November 2004 governor's race. Christine Gregoire (D-WI) defeated Dino Rossi (R-WI) after a recount gave Gregoire a narrow victory . Since then Rossi and Washington State Republicans have demanded new recounts or even a new election . In January 2005, they filed a lawsuit to overturn the election results, alleging voter fraud tainted the vote . The FBI and US Attorney John McKay have investigated the allegations of voter fraud and found them groundless (see and ), though state Republicans have been displeased with those findings . As the lawsuit wends its way through the courts, Democrats tell reporters that the evidence being brought to bear by state Republicans in the lawsuit is worthless. One party attorney says their list of alleged illegal voters would end up as toilet paper "in an outhouse on Blewett Pass" on the mountain highway route that leads to the Chelan County courthouse, where the case will be heard. However, solicitations sent by Washington State Democratic Party chairman Paul Berendt say the White House, led by deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, is pushing the GOP lawsuit. Berendt's letter warns of "guerrilla tactics" by "right-wing attorneys" and "extremist operatives" who are "meticulously crafting a case to unseat Christine Gregoire." Berendt stands behind the letter, saying: "[W]e believe this, too. We believe that Rove is in regular contact with people here." Rossi spokesperson Mary Lane confirms that the Rossi campaign is regularly updating the White House on the case, saying: "They're interested in what's going on. ... We talk to them about it." However, "[t]here's certainly no Karl Rove pulling strings." White House spokesperson Ken Lisaius says no one in the Bush administration is involved in the lawsuit, telling a reporter: "As reluctant as I am to comment on an inflammatory fund-raising piece, those are just not the facts. The White House is not directing any sort of strategy for the Rossi campaign and to suggest otherwise is to suggest someone is not very well informed." Berendt points to the Rossi campaign's use of Washington, DC, attorney Mark Braden as chief counsel; Braden spent 10 years as chief counsel to the Republican National Committee. Berendt says his party uses local attorneys. He also cites Rove's 1994 involvement in the case of an Alabama state Supreme Court election, in which Rove fought for a recount claiming that the election had been "stolen." The Times writes: "There are parallels to the current dispute here over the governor's election. In both cases, Republicans held a news conference with the parents of a military voter to question whether overseas ballots were handled properly. Republicans in both states filed a lawsuit that named a long list of public officials as respondents. Both held rallies; business groups financed media campaigns." Rove's candidate eventually won . Berendt says that Rove was also behind failed attempts to force recalls of Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed and Democratic King County Councilman Dow Constantine. Berendt writes, "We know what they're doing, and we're going to tell the world that it's the Bush team, with the Bush tactics, and Karl Rove pulling the strings that's trying to defeat us." mtuck 2013-05-15T19:13:32+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a03032405dojreqirregwash#a03032405dojreqirregwash http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a03032405dojreqirregwash#a03032405dojreqirregwash The Justice Department is sent a letter, apparently via surface mail, that, according to a department control sheet, "request[s] an investigation into the voting irregularities and the certification of the Washington State 2004 election" . The sender of the letter is redacted from the control sheet. The letter is marked as received on March 10. On March 15, the letter is referred to the Civil Rights Division "for component response," and referred to several other bureaus within the department, including the Offices of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General. The Civil Rights Division sends a reply on March 24, 2005. The reply is not included in the documents later released by the Justice Department. mtuck 2013-05-15T19:13:15+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a022805comeyryan#a022805comeyryan http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a022805comeyryan#a022805comeyryan Deputy Attorney General James Comey expresses his concerns with US Attorney Kevin Ryan (see and ) to Kyle Sampson, the deputy chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the person in charge of the Justice Department's planned purge of US Attorneys. On his initial list of US Attorneys, Sampson labeled Ryan as "strong" and did not list him as ripe for ousting (see and ). Comey tells Sampson that he considers Ryan a weak performer based on the documented morale problems in the office. Other Justice Department officials such as Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis and Executive Office for US Attorneys chief Mary Beth Buchanan share similar concerns with Sampson around this time. Comey tells Sampson that he knows Buchanan's office is concerned about Ryan and is working with Margolis to address the problems. mtuck 2013-05-15T19:12:55+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a941095rovehooperalasc#a941095rovehooperalasc http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a941095rovehooperalasc#a941095rovehooperalasc The Business Council of Alabama (BCA), an organization made up of state Republicans and business figures, hires political consultant Karl Rove of Texas to help elect a slate of Republican candidates to the Alabama Supreme Court. Alabama's Supreme Court has been comprised of Democrats for over a century. However, Rove worked to get a slate of Republicans elected to the Texas Supreme Court a few years ago, and the BCA feels he can do the same thing in Alabama. Of the four Republican candidates for the high court, the most important is retired Judge Perry O. Hooper, an icon among Alabama Republicans. He runs against Democratic incumbent Ernest "Sonny" Hornsby. Until now, judicial races in Alabama have been what Atlantic Monthly reporter Joshua Green will later call "low-key affairs," with almost no campaigning and judicial candidates often just passing the seats from one to the next. Democrats often ran unopposed for the positions. Rove brings a harsh, confrontational strategy, characterizing Democrats as pawns of trial lawyers and telling voters tales of outrageous verdicts. Rove has Hooper and the other candidates focus on a single case, that of a wealthy Alabama doctor who sued the car manufacturer BMW after discovering that his new car had been damaged by acid rain before delivery and repainted, diminishing its resale value. The trial revealed that BMW had done this many times before, and rewarded the doctor with $4 million in punitive damages. Alabama Republican political consultant Bill Smith, trained by Rove, will later say: "It was the poster-child case of outrageous verdicts. Karl figured out the vocabulary on the BMW case and others like it that point out not just liberal behavior but outrageous decisions that make you mad as hell." Hooper and the other judicial candidates campaign relentlessly throughout the state, harping on the case as an example of "jackpot justice" perpetuated by "wealthy personal-injury trial lawyers." (Green will write that Rove coined those phrases and will use them effectively in other races and other areas.) Rove is also successful at convincing conservative Democrats to abandon their traditional support for Democratic candidates and vote for his Republican candidates. Rove also uses targeted, nuanced language to attract conservative voters. His candidates attack "liberal activist judges" and present themselves as "people who will strictly interpret the law and not rewrite it from the bench." A Rove staffer will later explain that the term "activist judges" motivates all sorts of people for very different reasons. Green writes: "If you're a religious conservative, he said, it means judges who established abortion rights or who interpret Massachusetts's equal-protection clause as applying to gays. If you're a business conservative, it means those who allow exorbitant jury awards. And in Alabama especially, the term conjures up those who forced integration." The staffer continues, "The attraction of calling yourself a 'strict constructionist' [as Rove has his candidates label themselves] is that you can attract business conservatives, social conservatives, and moderates who simply want a reasonable standard of justice." Rove highlights the fact that the Democratic justices routinely solicit campaign donations from trial lawyers, while downplaying the Republicans' solicitations from business interests. He airs one particularly damaging "Dialing for Dollars" television ad, depicting a lawyer receiving an unwanted telephone solicitation from an actor portraying Hornsby. The ad implies that Hornsby will intervene on a case the lawyer has pending. The ad draws considerable attention and criticism, and is featured on NBC ''Nightly News''. The campaign has the desired effect, and the race begins to tighten. Rove escalates, filling the airwaves with negative ads in the last two weeks of the campaign. When the results are tallied from the November 9 election, Hornsby wins the race for chief justice by an unofficial tally of 304 votes. Rove immediately calls for a recount. A former Rove staffer will later say: "Karl called the next morning. He said: 'We came real close. You guys did a great job. But now we really need to rally around Perry Hooper. We've got a real good shot at this, but we need to win over the people of Alabama.' ... Our role was to try to keep people motivated about Perry Hooper's election and then to undermine the other side's support by casting them as liars, cheaters, stealers, immoral--all of that." Rove successfully obtains the recount, and places campaign workers in each of the polling places to observe the counting, harass the election officials, and find evidence of "voter fraud." Some legitimate errors are uncovered, such as a probate judge in one county erroneously excluding some 100 votes for Hooper, and voting machines in two other counties failing to tally all the votes. Rove spreads false stories throughout the state about poll watchers being threatened with arrest, probate judges locking themselves in their offices and refusing to meet with campaign workers, votes being cast ''in absentia'' on behalf of comatose nursing home patients, and Democrats caught in a cemetery writing down the names of dead people in order to cast votes for them by absentee ballot. On November 12, Hooper declares in a press conference, "We have endured lies in this campaign, but I'll be damned if I will accept outright thievery." By November 21, the unofficial tally has Hornsby ahead by only nine votes. Hornsby's campaign fights to include some 2,000 late-arriving absentee ballots that had been excluded, and the campaign goes public with the claim of a man who says his son, serving overseas in the military, is in danger of having his absentee ballot not counted. A Rove staffer will later say: "The last marching order we had from Karl was: 'Make sure you continue to talk this up. The only way we're going to be successful is if the Alabama public continues to care about it.'" Initially, a judge rules that the absentee ballots should be counted, and Hooper and Rove, knowing the absentee ballots will give Hornsby the votes he needs to win, take the case to federal court while Rove shellacks the state with advertisements accusing Hornsby of trying to steal the election. The Hooper campaign files lawsuits against each and every probate judge, circuit clerk, and sheriff in Alabama, alleging discrimination. The Alabama Supreme Court, stocked with Democrats, orders the absentee ballots to be counted, while the federal court continues to consider the matter. In October 1995, a federal appeals court rules that the absentee ballots cannot be counted, and orders Alabama to certify Hooper as chief justice. Hornsby's campaign appeals to the US Supreme Court, but the high court refuses to overturn the verdict. With the absentee ballots discarded, Hooper wins the vote tally by 262 votes. Hooper will later tell a reporter, "That Karl Rove was a very impressive fellow." mtuck 2013-05-13T19:30:10+02:00 http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a010905sampsonloyalbushies#a010905sampsonloyalbushies http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a010905sampsonloyalbushies#a010905sampsonloyalbushies Justice Department lawyer Kyle Sampson responds to an email from White House deputy counsel David Leitch regarding the proposed firing of some or all of the nation's 93 US Attorneys . Sampson confirms that he has spoken with White House counsel Alberto Gonzales about the proposal "a couple of weeks ago" . Sampson delineates his "thoughts" to Leitch in four points. He notes that while US Attorneys serve at the "pleasure of the president," they generally serve four-year terms. (Sampson is aware that all 93 US Attorneys have been informed that they will not be asked to resign as President Bush's second term commences--see --and is also aware that Gonzales and White House deputy counsel Harriet Miers are discussing replacing some or all of the US Attorneys--see and .) It would be "weird" to ask them to leave before their terms are complete. Sampson goes on to note the "historical" practice of allowing US Attorneys to complete their terms, even if there is a party change in the administration; he does not mention that the incoming 1992 Clinton administration, and the incoming 2000 Bush administration, both asked all or almost all 93 US Attorneys to leave without regard to completing their terms (see and ). Sampson then writes that "as an operational matter, we would like to replace 15-20 percent of the current US Attorneys--the underperforming ones. (This is a rough guess; we might want to consider doing performance evaluations after Judge [Gonzales] comes on board.) The vast majority of US Attorneys, 80-85 percent, I would guess, are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies, etc., etc. Due to the history, it would certainly send ripples through the US Attorney community if we told folks that they got one term only (as a general matter, the Reagan US Attorneys appointed in 1981 stayed on through the entire Reagan administration; Bush 41 even had to establish that Reagan-appointed US Attorneys would not be permitted to continue on through the Bush 41 administration--indeed, even performance evaluations likely would create ripples, though this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing)." Sampson predicts that "as a political matter ... I suspect that when push comes to shove, home-state senators likely would resist wholesale (or even piecemeal) replacement of US Attorneys they recommended." However, he writes, "if Karl [Rove, the White House political chief] thinks there would be policitical [sic] will to do it, then so do I." The original email seems to come from another aide in the White House Counsel's Office, Colin Newman, who told Leitch that Rove "stopped by to ask you (roughly quoting) 'how we planned to proceed regarding US Attorneys, whether we were going to allow all to stay, request resignations from all and accept only some of them, or selectively replace them, etc.' I told him that you would be on the hill all day for the judge's hearing, and he said the matter was not urgent." Leitch responded by forwarding the email to Sampson with the comment, "Let's discuss." Newman's email is dated January 6, and the reference to "the judge's hearing" seems to refer to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales's contentious hearing on the Geneva Conventions before the Senate Judiciary Committee on that date . In the 2008 investigation of the US Attorney firings by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General , Leitch will say that he has no recollection of discussing the matter with Sampson, Rove, or anyone else. He will leave the White House Counsel's Office shortly after this email exchange. In 2009, Miers will testify that she does not recall specifics of these discussions. She will say: "I don't have a recollection of that, but it wouldn't surprise me if that happened, that would be some general discussion of, well, we have the Justice Department saying we have a certain number that we feel should be looked at and that that is better because it doesn't create the upheaval that removing all of the US Attorneys would have. I think the original discussion did not involve the kind of plan, as that term has been used, that eventually evolved." At this point, Miers will say, the idea of firing a large number of US Attorneys on the same day had not been discussed. The Justice Department, she will say, would make the decisions as to whom, if anyone, should be terminated, not the White House. Asked specifically about Rove's Office of Political Affairs (OPA), she will say that it would merely play a consulting role in the process: "I did ask that they assist, in the areas where there might be removals, the location of sources for recommendations. And so the political office was as it is called; they had the political piece." The Counsel's Office would not ask OPA for recommendations of replacements for the ousted US Attorneys, she says: "We would turn to them for identification of the sources that you could go to and ask for people to be considered. You wouldn't turn to them and say tell us who we ought to recommend." However, "if they had a preference for, someone, they would state it so that they certainly had input." In 2009, Rove will deny ever seeing the email or discussing the matter with Sampson, and will say, "The implication that somehow this was addressed to me and I somehow received it is inaccurate." Miers claims no memory of Rove ever attending a Judicial Selection Committee meeting to discuss the removal of a specific US Attorney. She will recall discussions of the removal of US Attorney David Iglesias by OPA members, including Rove. mtuck 2013-05-13T05:18:21+02:00