Another Email Dump and look what turned up...

The leader of the Federalist Society reccommended changes in US Attorneys. Another twist in Attorneygate.

From McClatchy News:

E-mail questions if conservative group was party to plan to fire U.S. attorneys

A leader of an influential conservative legal group recommended a replacement candidate for the U.S. attorney in San Diego just days after the sitting prosecutor's name was secretly placed on a Justice Department firing list, according to a document released Wednesday.


The recommendation by the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo, came before anyone outside of a tight group in the White House and Justice Department knew about a nascent strategy that ultimately led to the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.


It could not be determined whether a short e-mail, sent on March 7, 2005, making the recommendation meant that Leo knew of the plan to fire Carol Lam or whether his message was unsolicited and coincidental.


The subject line of Leo's e-mail to Mary Beth Buchanan, then-director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, says, "USA San Diego," indicating the top prosecutor job for the Southern District of California. Lam was on the job at the time and had no plans to step down.


The text of the note reads, "You guys need a good candidate?" Leo goes on to say he would "strongly recommend" the Air Force's general counsel, Mary Walker.


Walker led a Pentagon working group in 2003, which critics said helped provide the administration with a rationale to circumvent the international Geneva Conventions banning torture in the interrogations of terrorism suspects.


Leo, the Justice Department and Walker could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. Lam declined comment.

With every email another bit of info of the conspiracy of the Republican party and the DOJ and the White House to try to fix another election.

UPDATE from Think Progress:

Buchanan will meet with House investigators next week.

FBI Chief that Backed Carol Lam Retiring?

Carol Lam , as you might know, is the fired US Attorney from San Diego. She was intrumental in the investigation of the corruption of Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Her investigation also pulled other republicans into the investigation. She also found that FBI's, Dusty Foggo, had a part in this investigation. He has since resigned.

Now San Diego FBI Cheif, Dan Dzwilewski, has announced his retirement. Dzwilewski is the one who wrote that glowing letter about Carol Lam and her department's handling of the immigration cases in the San Diego area.

Sign on San Diego has more:

San Diego FBI chief Dan Dzwilewski, who was rebuked by superiors for publicly defending ousted U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, has announced his retirement. Dzwilewski, who has been at the helm of the San Diego office since July 2003, sent an e-mail to his agents and staff Wednesday saying he planned to take a post as director of security at Sempra Energy. His last day at the bureau is to be April 30.

Some colleagues found the timing of the announcement curious. On Tuesday, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that one of his subordinates, John Pistole, told Dzwilewski that his statements on Lam were inappropriate and that he should keep quiet.

Dzwilewski had said Lam's firing was political and would adversely affect ongoing corruption cases.

So Mueller admitted that one of his subordinates asked Dzwilewski to keep quiet. For what reason? And the excuse that has been given:

However, some people familiar with Dzwilewski's plans said he was ready for a change after 27 years with the bureau and had been job hunting for months. Dzwilewski, who had held numerous assignments in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C.,
San Diego and Honolulu, had made it clear he planned to get off the FBI career
ladder and retire in San Diego, they said.

Officials declined to say whether Dzwilewski's retirement was forced as a result of his comments on Lam.

So he's been job hunting outside of the FBI and he made these comments because he knew he was leaving? Hmmm! Sounds a bit trumped up to me. The only reason he might have been job hunting, in my opinion, is because of pressure from above. After all it was under his leadership that this happened:

During Dzwilewski's tenure, local FBI agents investigated the Randy “Duke”
Cunningham bribery scandal and its spinoff cases as well as the corruption investigation involving San Diego city councilmen.

I can see a subpoena coming his way!

This just keeps pulling people in...

Now it's a Congressman that wrote a letter to US Attorney, Carol Lam, about a case she dropped.

From Raw Story:

A letter sent by a Republican Congressman to Carol Lam, former US Attorney for the Southern District of California, appears to violate the Ethics rules established by the House of Representatives, RAW STORY has learned

However, another attorney who specializes in Congressional ethics said that although rules may have been violated, there were mitigating factors.

When RAW STORY brought Issa's letter to the attention of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, they confirmed that it appeared in violation of the same ethical rules that had prompted them to file complaints against two additional Congress members earlier in the month.

"CREW will be sending an ethics complaint to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct regarding Rep. Issa’s letter to former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam," Naomi Seligman Steiner, the group's Deputy Director, confirmed to RAW STORY this afternoon.

Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-CA) spokesman Frederick Hill told RAW STORY he wouldn't comment on a complaint he had not seen.

"You want me to comment on something that hasn't been filed and you can't send me?" Hill wrote in an e-mail.

CREW's complaint concerns a letter written by Rep. Issa to Lam on Feb. 2, 2004, seeking information concerning the release of and dropping of a case against Antonio Amparo-Lopez, whom the letter alleges was "a known alien smuggler with a long criminal record."

"I respectfully request that your office provide me with information about the facts surrounding [Amparo-Lopez's arrest] and, if applicable, the rationale behind any decision made by your office to decline or delay prosecution of Mr. Amparo-Lopez or any other action that may have contributed to his release," Issa then wrote.
The full letter, a signed copy of which was provided to RAW STORY by Rep. Issa's office, can be accessed at this link.

This is snowballing. I am sure there is more to come.

Was Fired Attorney, Carol Lam, targeting the White House?

To refresh your memory, Carol Lam was the US Attorney that prosecuted Randy "Duke" Cunningham. And Ms. Lam was targeting former CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and House Appropriations Committee Chairman, Jerry Lewis (R-CA). But there is belief that she also targeted the White House, specifically the office of the VP. Think Progress and the LA Times has more on this.

From Think Progress

But there is evidence to believe that the White House may also have been on Lam’s target list. Here are the connections:

– Washington D.C. defense contractor Mitchell Wade pled guilty last February to paying then-California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes.

– Wade’s company MZM Inc. received its first federal contract from the White House. The contract, which ran from July 15 to August 15, 2002, stipulated that Wade be paid $140,000 to “provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney.”

– Two weeks later, on August 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht for $140,000 for Duke Cunningham. The boat’s name was later changed to the “Duke-Stir.” Said one party to the sale: “I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that…Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it — all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away.”

– According to Cunningham’s sentencing memorandum, the purchase price of the boat had been negotiated through a third-party earlier that summer, around the same time the White House contract was signed.

To recap, the White House awarded a one-month, $140,000 contract to an individual who never held a federal contract. Two weeks after he got paid, that same contractor used a cashier’s check for exactly that amount to buy a boat for a now-imprisoned congressman at a price that the congressman had pre-negotiated.

So the right thing to do would be to follow the money. Where did Mitchell Wade and his company MZM get this money? Let's now go to the LA Times via the CREW web site:

Fledgling Firm Takes Off

MZM Inc. was incorporated in 1993 but had not posted any revenue as late as 2001. Still, the company began paying for Cunningham's expenses, according to court documents. In November 2001, a company check for $12,000 paid for three nightstands, a leaded-glass cabinet, an antique washstand and four armoires.

In December 2001, a $50,000 company check was sent to a mortgage banker, who in turn made out a check to Cunningham for the same amount. In January 2002, the company's American Express card was used to purchase a leather sofa and a sleigh bed for Cunningham.

In all, more than $100,000 in cash and furnishings were given to Cunningham even before MZM had posted its first revenue.

Although MZM had no experience with government contracts, the General Services Administration in May 2002 placed the company on a list of approved information technology service providers, a key step for the company to get business from federal agencies.

The first contract, worth $140,000, came from the White House — to provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney.

Enter the Vice President. Remember the first contract was worth $140,000 and came from the office of the Vice President.

Two weeks later, on Aug. 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht, later christened "Duke-Stir," for $140,000, according to court documents. Cunningham used the yacht, docked at the Capital Yacht Club, as his home in Washington — and the scene of parties for lobbyists and others.

The money and gifts MZM gave Cunningham were a small price to pay for the ultimate prize. In September 2002, the General Services Administration signed a so-called blanket purchase agreement with MZM totaling $250 million over five years.

Under the agreement, specific computer services for the Pentagon would be contracted to MZM without competition.

Such contracts are typically used to expedite routine ordering of such things as office supplies, but in recent years they also have been used to buy sophisticated equipment and services from specialized technology companies.

"It just makes no sense," said Keith Ashdown, vice president for policy at the government watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "How does someone with little experience get a blanket contract?"

This will be interesting to follow.