Purged Prosecutors Update

The continuing rash of developments in the Purged Prosecutors case:

• Adam Cohen takes a lot at the possible criminal violations of the DoJ's conduct. People who focus on the particulars of whether or not Carol Lam or David Iglesias were pushed out for political reasons neglect that Alberto Gonzales and members of his staff willfully lied to Congress, which is against the law. In addition, if Lam and Iglesias and the others were taken out to get them to stop investigating Republicans or to punish them for failing to indict Democrats, that's akin to witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

• The LA Times has a good roundup of the Lam case, and makes the point I've been making for a while, that there's not a lot of daylight between the investigations of Duke Cunningham and Jerry Lewis:

Lam spearheaded the case against Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the former Republican congressman from Rancho Santa Fe who pleaded guilty to bribery and income tax evasion. He was sentenced in March 2006 to eight years and four months in prison.

In a broadening of the Cunningham investigation, Feinstein said, Lam turned her sights on two of the former lawmaker's associates: Brent R. Wilkes, a Poway-based defense contractor, and Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, a top CIA official who abruptly resigned May 8. The two men, friends from childhood, were roommates at San Diego State University, served as best man at each other's wedding and named their sons after each other.

Feinstein said that on May 10, Lam "sent a notice to the Justice Department saying that there would be two search warrants sent in the case of Dusty Foggo and a defense contractor. The next day, an e-mail went from the Justice Department to the White House."

The May 11 e-mail was from D. Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, to White House Deputy Counsel William Kelley. "The real problem we have right now with Carol Lam … leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her four-year term expires," it said.

Sampson, who resigned last week, may also have been referring in the May 11 e-mail to a report that morning in the Los Angeles Times concerning a parallel investigation by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), then the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and Bill Lowery, a former GOP congressman from San Diego who after leaving Congress founded a successful lobbying firm — one of whose clients was Wilkes.

The Los Angeles investigation, an outgrowth of the Cunningham case, focused on the close relationship between the two men, who had served together on the House Appropriations Committee. Clients of Lowery's lobbying firm had been awarded millions of dollars in earmarks authorized by Lewis, The Times reported, and members of Lewis' staff had been hired by Lowery's firm, where they worked as lobbyists for several years and then returned to Lewis' staff.

There's more here, detailing all of the similarities and the same names that kept popping up in the case. Lewis might be in Redlands, but Lowery and Wilkes and Foggo and all the dirty dealings were in San Diego, and so Lam's office would have to be involved. Meanwhile there are links between Wilkes, Foggo, Mitchell Wade and the office of the Vice President. No defense contractor is in a vaccuum, their tentacles are spread throughout the Republican Party. An investigation that was persistent could find all of those threads.

• Patrick Leahy is vowing to issue subpoenas to compel White House officials to testify to the Judiciary Committee in the case. Leahy said, "I want testimony under oath. I am sick and tired of getting half-truths on this... I do not believe in this, we'll have a private briefing for you where we'll tell you everything, and they don't." I don't think Rove et al. will be able to outrun these; if they try it will set up a Constitutional showdown.

• Chuck Schumer is so sure that Gonzales will be out of office soon that he put forward a short list of AG candidates that would be confirmable. For his part, Gonzales has less than half of Congressional Republicans willing to support him, so Schumer's boast looks pretty right on.

• David Iglesias was so bad at handling election fraud cases that he was selected by the Justice Department to run seminars on how to handle election fraud cases.

• This timeline of the Carol Lam firing includes something interesting:

February 17, 2005: Mistrial declared in first Medicare fraud trial against San Diego's Alvarado Hospital, after jury fails to reach a verdict. U.S. Attorney Carol Lam suggests a retrial is likely.

Would failing to get a conviction on a Medicare fraud case raise the ire of the White House? I'm going to do some digging on this.

• Oh, and there's going to be a major document dump tonight. More to read. Hoo-rah.

"The Real Problem We Have With Carol Lam" Is Political

Bingo. As I suspected.

Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent an e-mail that said Lam needed to be fired, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday.

Feinstein, D-Calif., said the timing of the e-mail suggested that Lam's dismissal may have been connected to the corruption probe.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse denied in an e-mail that there was any link.

"We have stated numerous times that no U.S. attorney was removed to retaliate against or inappropriately interfere with any public corruption investigation or prosecution," he wrote. "This remains the case and there is no evidence that indicates otherwise."

This is exactly what I brought up last night in my running commentary with rightie blogger Patterico over this subject. His claim was that Lam couldn't have been targeted for political reasons over the Rep. Jerry Lewis investigation because the USA for Los Angeles executed the subpoenas for Lewis, not Lam. It's simply not credible to me to suggest that the Lewis and Cunningham cases weren't connected (they involved all the same people) and that there was no coordination between the SoCal USAs, but I brought up that the the CIA/Brent Wilkes/Hookergate thing was a far bigger story at the time than the Lewis investigation anyway. Porter Goss had resigned only 6 days earlier, and Foggo only a couple days after that. It would be far more troubling to the White House and the Justice Department to have an independent US Attorney like Carol Lam snooping around a government agency under the executive branch. And given that the DoJ has admittedly lied to Congress in the course of this probe, I don't find their protestations worth much of anything.

It was obvious that any USA who took down a sitting Republican member of Congress would be a target: just open your eyes and look at how this White House treats any disloyalty. Lam was targeted for dismissal before the Cunningham investigation began, true, supposedly for immigration cases, but we know that she was reprimanded about that and changed her ways, and that Will Moschella at the DoJ agreed that Lam was cooperating with Administration policy and prosecuting a requisite number of cases in that department. He either lied to Feinstein in that Aug. 23 letter, or he lied later, to Congress, when he said that immigration cases were indeed the problem and the reason for the firing.

It's just clearly suspicious, and arguing one small aspect of the story to knock it down will be insufficient. You have to look at the whole picture.

I Love The Smell of Rolling Tanks in The Morning

...smells like money:

When Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes heard that the United States was going to go to war with Iraq, he was ecstatic, say several former colleagues.

“He and some of his top executives were really gung-ho about the war,” said a former employee of his now-defunct firm ADCS Inc. “Brent said this would create new opportunities for the company. He was really excited about doing business in the Middle East.”

He was especially excited about the prospect of damaged tanks and aircraft and a shortage of ordnance and dead soldiers and Iraqis... 'cause you, that'd all have to be REPLACED!

Allow me to advocate for something that will never happen. All defense work should be nationalized, budgeted modestly and scrutinized year over year, and irrelevant or obselete programs should simply be dismantled. The inevitable outcome of a private defense industry is that war is advocated as a means to prop up the economy. And private contractors will use all illegal means at their disposal to get a jump on the competition. We now have war cheerleaders in the private sector, bribing public officials (as they have for decades) and ensuring that the stance of the country is belligerence. I think George W. Bush said it best yesterday is a little-remarked-upon but brutally honest portion of his press conference.

"Money trumps peace."

When the Iraq war began in 2003, Wilkes redoubled his efforts to woo politicians and officials in the Pentagon and CIA.

“He was trying to build a business in the Middle East and needed support from some politicians,” said a former employee, who asked not to be named for fear of being drawn into the court case. “It was one of the things (the top executives of ADCS) were really excited about.”

Wilkes' plan to deliver water to Iraq began in the summer of 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion. At the time, CIA operatives in Iraq were relying on contractors in Kuwait and other friendly countries to supply them with bottled water, first-aid kits and other provisions.

Wilkes had little obvious experience ferrying goods overseas, especially to a war zone. But he wanted the CIA supply business to go to his holding company, Group W. He was aided by Foggo, who was then a logistics officer in Frankfurt, Germany, overseeing CIA purchases throughout Europe and the Middle East, including Iraq.

It doesn't matter if it's water or the B-2 Bomber. The point is that an economy predicated on the war machine (and take a look at some manufacturing sector numbers to see the proof of that) must have war to feed itself.

"Money trumps peace."

Incidentally, some House Democrats are working to keep Carol Lam, the prosecutor who brought about the Wilkes-Foggo indictments, and who is being forced out of her job as US Attorney by the Justice Department, on the case as an outside counsel. They sent a letter to Attorney General Gonzales today.

Carol Lam's indictments of Foggo and Wilkes underscore the importance of last week's request and the need for an explanation of why these diligent public servants were dismissed. It is vital that U.S. Attorneys be able to prosecute wrongdoing free from political pressure. We are pleased that the Department of Justice has also agreed to brief members of the House Judiciary Committee on the dismissals of Carol Lam and other U.S. Attorneys. We look forward to further details regarding the date for that briefing and your response regarding the request to appoint Carol Lam as an outside counsel to finish the Cunningham and related investigations.

This won't happen for a simple reason.

"Money trumps peace."

UPDATE: So do hookers.

On or about August 15, 2003, at approximately 6:30 p.m., [Wilkes] provided [Cunningham] and assorted other guests with a dinner served on a private lawn outside the Hapuna Suite [approximately $6,600 per night at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel on the Island of Hawaii]; which consisted of Seafood Gyozas of Kona Lobster, shrimp, scallops, seared hawaiian snapper, "Manoa" lettuce leaves, and an open bar featuring fine wines;

On or about August 15, 2003, at approximately 11 p.m., Prostitutes "A" and "B" and their "driver" arrived at the Hapuna Suite. Persuant to [Wilkes'] instructions, an ADCS [Wilkes' company] employee escorted the prostitutes into the Suite and paid the driver $600 in cash;

On or about August 15, 2003, after approximately 15 minutes in the suite, [Wilkes] and [Cunningham] escorted Prostitutes "A" and "B" upstairs to separate rooms. At approximately midnight, Wilkes tipped Prostitute "A" $500 for the services;

Sweatin' To The Indictments

TPM Muckraker has the details on what the Wilkes-Foggo indictments mean for California's Republican delegation in Congress. I expect the legal fees to increase.

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.

Lewis is likely to be the first to drop as a result of the criminal proceedings yesterday. Lowery and him had a quid pro quo relationship that Wilkes knows all about. In particular, a deal to restore funding for the F-22 fighter jet only after Wilkes' company received a defense contract to digitize military documents in the Panama Canal Zone looks very fishy.

Lewis has already spent nearly a million dollars in legal fees during pending investigations.

Dominoes

It went down to the wire, but soon-to-be ex-US Attorney Carol Lam was true to her word, as she indicted Dusty Foggo and Brent Wilkes today.

The CIA's former No. 3 official and a defense contractor were charged Tuesday with fraud, conspiracy and money laundering following an investigation that sent former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison.

A federal grand jury returned 11 counts against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, executive director of the CIA until he resigned in May, and his close friend, San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes.

The charges said that Wilkes reserved an office for Foggo near his executive suite in December 2002, and offered Foggo a high-paying position.

Wilkes allegedly paid for Foggo and his family to join Wilkes and his family for a vacation in Scotland in August 2003, paying $12,000 for private jet flights, $4,000 for a helicopter ride to play golf and $44,000 for a stay at an estate.

In the fall of 2003, Foggo allegedly arranged for one of Wilkes' companies to be a middleman in selling bottled water to the CIA. In December of that year, Wilkes introduced Foggo at a party at Wilkes' Poway, Calif., headquarters as a future executive.

Wilkes paid $32,000 for Foggo to join him on a vacation to Hawaii in December 2003 and January 2004, the indictment charges.

Foggo and Wilkes, both 52, allegedly made illegal money transfers of $815,000 in government contract funds from a Virginia shell company to Wilkes' companies.

Foggo and Wilkes can each be punished by up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Wilkes was charged with 25 counts in a separate indictment, including money laundering and bribery.

As I've mentioned, this is the beginning of the road to root out all the corruption in the California Republican Congressional delegation. Wilkes is tied in to practically every sleazy official in the state (and guess what, he was co-chair of Arnold's 2003 campaign). He's looking at 40 years hard time unless he pleads out and gives up someone higher up the ladder. John Doolittle, Duncan Hunter and Jerry Lewis must be calling Cape Canaveral from some of those astronaut diapers right about now.

Incidentally, this is likely to be Carol Lam's last official act as a US Attorney, as she was caught up in the Great Prosecutor Purge of 2007. While the initial word was that the firings were performance-based, a McClatchy report turned out to contradict that.

Although the Bush administration has said that six U.S. attorneys were fired recently in part because of "performance related" issues, at least five of them had received positive job evaluations before they were ordered to step down.

Administration officials have been forced to defend the firings in recent weeks after critics raised concerns that well-respected, competent U.S. attorneys known for their independence were being removed to make way for handpicked candidates who'd be less likely to buck the White House [...]

A Justice Department official who spoke on behalf of the administration said the dispute might simply be a matter of "semantics."

"Performance-related can mean many things," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because the Privacy Act bars officials from discussing personnel decisions. "Policy is set at a national level. Individual U.S. attorneys around the country can't just make up their policy agenda."

That's hilarious. "You see, when we say 'performance,' it doesn't necessarily mean the performance of the attorneys thmselves, it could mean the Bush Administration's performance!"

One of the attorneys who got a good review? Carol Lam. Because she actually prosecutes crimes. Like the crimes of Dusty Foggo and Brent Wilkes.

Stay tuned.