Prosecutor purge raises questions

By: North County Times Opinion staff - | Wednesday, March 14, 2007 9:45 AM PDT ∞

Our View: White House involvement in ouster of Carol Lam, others demands greater scrutiny

So the plot thickens in Washington in the great U.S. attorneys purge of 2007. It's still too early to say precisely why eight federal prosecutors were forced to resign in the last two months, including San Diego's Carol Lam. But we do know that several top officials in the Bush administration haven't been honest in their statements about how and why the attorneys were ousted.

North County has a dog in this national fight: Lam successfully pursued former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty on Nov. 28, 2005, to congressional corruption on an unprecedented scale. But Duke wasn't the only big fish Lam landed. One co-conspirator, defense contractor Mitchell Wade, pleaded guilty; another alleged co-conspirator, Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes, was indicted last month; and Wilkes' buddy, CIA bigwig Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, was indicted in a widening circle of alleged corruption.

On Tuesday, we learned that the Bush administration target on Lam's back may have predated the Cunningham investigation. E-mails released by the House Judiciary Committee revealed that then-White House counsel Harriet Miers suggested that President Bush fire all 93 U.S. attorneys in February 2005. Instead, Justice Department chief of staff Kyle Sampson ---- who resigned Tuesday ---- began preparing a shorter list of U.S. attorneys to purge. Among others, he identified Lam as an "ineffectual manager and prosecutor" who "chafed against Administration initiatives" and didn't show the proper "loyalty" to the White House.

We don't yet know what "initiatives" Sampson was talking about ---- and we urge Lam to share what she knows ---- but the official spin has been that Lam failed to prosecute enough border-related and gun-related crimes to suit the White House.

For years, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, has been making noise about pushing Lam to prosecute more cases of immigrant smuggling. Last summer, Sen. Dianne Feinstein was singing a similar tune: She expressed concern about Lam's office appearing to "lag behind" in border-related prosecutions in a June letter to Attorney General Albert Gonzales. Feinstein, now one of the Democrats crying foul about the U.S. attorneys purge, must consider the mirror when searching for the villains behind Lam's ouster.

But the response Feinstein received on Aug. 23 from Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella doesn't square with the official spin. Moschella made a pretty convincing case that Lam's office was taking immigration prosecution seriously. Half of her attorneys were working immigration cases, Moschella wrote; far more defendants were receiving far longer sentences for immigration-related prosecutions than in previous years; the number of prosecutions of immigration-related crimes had doubled from 2004 to 2005; and Lam's office had vigorously pursued corrupt Border Patrol agents.

In December, Lam forced guilty pleas out of top executives of the Riverside-based Golden State Fence Co., exactly the kind of workplace enforcement that has become a staple of appeals for tighter border security.

As to Issa's oft-repeated claim that Lam was neglecting human smuggling cases, Moschella wrote that the number of such cases Lam's office prosecuted rose 33 percent between 2003 and 2005.

On March 6, this same Moschella told the House Judiciary Committee that Lam's ouster had been "performance-related," that her gun prosecution numbers "were are the bottom of the list," and that her border-related prosecutions "didn't stack up." Similarly, White House adviser Karl Rove repeated the critique of Lam's "neglect" of border crimes in a speech Friday.

But the more we learn about this purge, the more inconsistencies we find. Take Rove, for instance. Also on March 6, a White House spokeswoman said flatly that Rove "wasn't involved in who was going to be fired or hired." But the e-mails released Tuesday revealed that the Justice Department's Sampson asked that Miers take his list of targeted attorneys and "circulate it to Karl's shop." What's more, earlier e-mails indicate that Rove nixed Miers' idea to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys.

If you still think the ouster of Lam and seven other U.S. attorneys is the simple equivalent of the routine replacement of federal prosecutors that happens with each new administration, you haven't been paying attention. Read the e-mails released Tuesday. Listen to the harsh criticisms of Gonzales and his Justice Department from even Republican members of Congress.

We know that Lam wasn't finished with her investigations ---- she sprinted to get the Wilkes and Foggo indictments completed on her watch ---- and we repeat our plea that her successor pick up the scent.

Something stinks here. We need more answers ---- more honest answers ---- from Lam, from congressional investigators, and most important, from the White House.

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Media and the Dems wrote on Mar 14, 2007 2:53 AM:get over it. The President has the authority to fire any and all U.S. attorneys. Clinton did it by firing all when he became President. This is a non issue "issue".

Ron wrote on Mar 14, 2007 3:40 AM:She serves at the pleasure of the President, and she didn't pursue smuggling and other border related cases, which hastened her removal. With both Issa and Feinsein complaining to the White House about Ms. Lam, I think it's pretty even between Republicans and Democrats. She obviously needed to go, and get someone who would pursue these cases more robustly.

Skip wrote on Mar 14, 2007 4:35 AM:LOL Alright Democrats! Let's fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzales! The highest ranking Hispanic in the United States! Lam was fired for her poor performance on the Border? This politics stuff is getting more confusing every day.

Frank wrote on Mar 14, 2007 5:55 AM:Since when does this editorial board care about the truth? ESPECIALLY a board that is so buddy-buddy with the likes of Jack Orr?

Oceansider wrote on Mar 14, 2007 7:19 AM:That a political adviser to the President (which is the EXECUTIVE branch) could suggest or encourage a hit list on the JUDICIAL branch of government should be of serious concern to everyone in this country. Or did we somehow eliminate the separation of powers rule during the last six years. The current administration in the White House is now not just plainly incompetent, corrupt, arrogant and criminal, it can now be seen for what it truly is: evil.

Pluto wrote on Mar 14, 2007 8:02 AM:I saw Issa on TV last night, and he was uncharacteristically outraged because Congress had been lied to by the White House about the firings. He vehemently insisted that Congress would find out who instructed the witnesses to lie, and that those people would be made to resign, no matter how high up.

That Wasn't a Dream wrote on Mar 14, 2007 9:17 AM:Issa could have played his outrage on John Stewart and looked the part of a congressman miffed at executive hubris -- how dare the administration lie to congress! But it's been going on for so long that one might be grateful that Issa finally wakes up.

John wrote on Mar 14, 2007 3:12 PM:Issa upset with the whitehouse? Noooooo. The one correction I might suggest to this excellent editorial is that we don't just have a dog in this fight... we have a snake too. Since Issa was one of the politicians selected to brief the media, I can't help but wonder what he knew and when he knew it.

PR Dude wrote on Mar 14, 2007 3:13 PM:There's no such thing as bad publicity. Issa is loving it - TV spots and all.

Ripley wrote on Mar 14, 2007 5:15 PM:Believe it or not - The Bush Administration is destined to be featured in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most scandals, fumbles and bungles in American history.

GUISEPPI - wrote on Mar 14, 2007 6:56 PM:? As soon as you hear the mantra ?They serve at the pleasure of the president?, you know you are about to hear a legalistic exculpation for abuse of public trust and responsibility. Certainly public officials have the legal authority to abuse in many arenas, including pre-emptive war. To divert attention from the gravity of the abuse, Alberto Gonzales offered a weak mea culpa ?I acknowledge that mistakes were made here? and immediately pinned the rap on Harriet Miers, former White House counsel, and on his own top aide D. Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned yesterday. This fancy political side-stepping tells us something. Not even a fool would believe Gonzales and Karl Rove had nothing to do with the firings. What is important here is not that Bush had the authority to fire the attorneys, but the REASONS for which they were fired: To bring yet another part of the government structure under the political thumb of the president. This is an assault against the Constitution and our system of separation of powers to avoid the move toward totalitarianism. I applaud the NC Times for its editorial.

Right Choice wrote on Mar 14, 2007 7:20 PM:… Should Carol Lam have gone after some of the “illegal” aliens, or after the BIG CROOKS at the top? All in all, considering the results, I have no doubt Lam made the right choices. Cunningham and his gang of crooks did more damage to law and order than a few aliens. ROT seeps down a lot faster than it creeps up. If Lam had been given more assistants, perhaps she could have solved ALL the criminal problems in San Diego County. BRAVO, CAROL! The work you did continues to roll forward even after your departure. Ya done good, m’lady.

Reardon wrote on Mar 14, 2007 7:26 PM:Six? Six? I would be interested in the NCT republishing their comment on the previous administration firing 93 federal prosecutors on one day. This administration is a piker! 93 is a record that can only be tied because, at least when the Clinton Administration fired 93 federal prosecutors -- that is all there were! I wonder what the NCTimes had to say about that?

Reardon wrote on Mar 14, 2007 9:53 PM:Correction -- the Bush administration fired eight federal prosecutors...and the Clinton administration did not fire ALL of the federal administration. They only fired 93 of 94 federal prosecutors. Janet Reno has a great deal more to answer for than does Gonzales, but she is not going to be called...and Gonzales is. Democrats say that politics is being played. In Washington? I am shocked.

Jonus wrote on Mar 15, 2007 5:28 AM:Whenever the current (incompetent) administration is (again) on the defense, just shift the blame to the dems. Isn't this the line that the christian/sinner uses ("the devil made me do it")?

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