Here's trouble for a US Attorney that wasn't fired

First Minnesota, the 3 lawyers that quit the US attorney's office, now Wisconsin. the US Attorney in Wisconsin is Steven Biskupic and let's look what's happening with him.

From the Carpetbagger:

Last year, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D), seeking a second term, was considered relatively vulnerable by the Republican establishment. The GOP had successfully recruited then-Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) to be their gubernatorial candidate, they cleared the field so he could get the nomination, fundraising was brisk, and some early polling showed Green within striking distance.

Right around the time that Green officially became the GOP nominee in Wisconsin, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic brought charges against a top official in Doyle’s administration, accusing the state purchasing supervisor of corruption. Were the charges politically motivated? It’s hard to say for sure, but consider how quickly a federal appeals court dismissed the charges yesterday. (thanks to reader D.D. for the heads-up)

Federal judges Thursday ruled that former state purchasing supervisor Georgia L. Thompson was wrongly convicted of making sure a state travel contract went to a firm linked to Gov. Jim Doyle’s re-election campaign and freed her from an Illinois prison.
The three-judge panel in Chicago acted with unusual speed, ruling after oral arguments by Thompson’s attorney and the U.S. attorney’s office.

During 26 minutes of oral arguments, all three judges assailed the government’s case, with Judge Diane Wood saying at one point that “the evidence is beyond thin.”
During a news conference later Thursday, Doyle, a former state attorney general, said the three judges did an “extraordinary thing” by entering an order finding Thompson innocent and ordering her immediate release.(emphasis added)

I’ll spare you the minutiae of the case, but here’s the story in a nutshell: Thompson, who was originally hired under Doyle’s Republican predecessor, awarded a state contract to Adelman Travel, which became controversial because two of the company’s officers had donated the state maximum to Doyle’s re-election campaign.

There was no evidence that Thompson personally profited from the contract and nothing to suggest she approved the contract for political reasons. Biskupic brought charges anyway and managed to win a conviction, which was thrown out swiftly yesterday.

The article also has a list of suspicions of other US Attorney's. Check it out here.

This is like a rolling stone that is gathering moss and growing and growing. Who's next

UPDATE: From Faithful Progressive:

Paul Krugman has said that the biggest scandal in the hyper-partisan Bush/Gonzales US Justice Department is with the US Attorneys who are still in office, and not with those who were fired. That's quite a claim, given that some like David C. Iglesias were apparently fired for refusing to file trumped up political charges against Democrats. Was this deeper scandal a factor in a shocking turn of events today in Wisconsin--when a thin "corruption case" was reversed by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals? Democratic State Senator Bob Jauch appears to think so.

Sen. Bob Jauch noted, "In overturning her conviction, the court has not only acknowledged the absence of evidence presented at trial, but has also concluded that election year politicking has no place in our courts."

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.