-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: January 14, 2007 2:47:07 AM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Bush Administration "Purge" of Attorneys Who Prosecute GOP
Corruption
Anti-Corruption US Attorney asked to step down
By Kelly Thornton and Onell R. Soto
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070112-9999-1n12lam.html
San Diego Union-Tribune, January 12, 2007
The Bush administration has quietly asked San Diego U.S. Attorney
Carol Lam, best known for her high-profile prosecutions of
politicians and corporate executives, to resign her post, a law
enforcement official said.
Lam, a Bush appointee who took the helm in 2002, was targeted
because of job performance issues – in particular that she failed
to make smuggling and gun cases a top priority, said the official,
who declined to be identified because Lam has yet to step down.
Lam has had high-profile successes during her tenure, such as the
Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery case – but she alienated herself
from bosses at the Justice Department because she is outspoken and
independent, said local lawyers familiar with her policies.
When she took over, Lam made it clear that she planned to focus
less on low-level smuggling cases in favor of public corruption and
white collar crime, which would mean fewer but more significant
prosecutions.
Lam declined to comment yesterday.
Several prosecutors in Lam's office and many defense lawyers said
yesterday that they were unaware of her impending dismissal, and
were universally shocked by it.
“It's virtually unprecedented to fire a U.S. Attorney absent some
misconduct in office,” said criminal defense attorney Michael
Attanasio, a former federal prosecutor.
“This office has clearly made a priority of investigating and
prosecuting white collar offenses and has had occasional success
doing so,” he said. “One would think that would be valued by any
administration, even if it meant fewer resources were devoted to
routine and repetitive border crimes.”
Lam, 47, has been criticized by members of the Border Patrol agents
union and by members of Congress, including Vista Republican
Darrell Issa, who accused her office of “an appalling record of
refusal to prosecute even the worst criminal alien offenders.”
But even some of Lam's legal opponents said the supposed reasons
she is being forced out are perplexing.
“What do they want her to do, lock up Mexico?” said Mario Conte,
former chief of Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc. Conte, now a
professor at California Western School of Law in downtown San
Diego, said every prosecutor walks a tightrope.
“I'm sure that Carol, in her role, is simply not able to
accommodate everybody's desires of what they think the U.S.
Attorney should be doing in this district.”
Her most prominent case involved Cunningham. The former Rancho
Santa Fe congressman is in federal prison, and indictments of
others connected to the case may be forthcoming. Her office is also
prosecuting Francisco Javier Arellano-Félix, a suspected Mexican
drug kingpin, who is in federal custody in San Diego facing charges
that could lead to the death penalty. Two San Diego city councilmen
were convicted of corruption charges by Lam's office, but a judge
reversed the jury's verdict for one of the men.
Lam spent almost a year personally prosecuting a national hospital
chain that she said used complex agreements to pay off local
doctors in return for referrals. That case ended in a mistrial.
But under Lam, the overall number of prosecutions has plummeted.
In 2001, the year before she took over, federal prosecutors in San
Diego and Imperial counties filed 5,266 cases, while in 2005, the
office prosecuted 3,261 cases, according to statistics compiled by
the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse
University from federal reports.
Of the 2001 cases, 2,419 were related to immigration, while that
number stood at 1,641 in 2005. Although the number of cases dropped
significantly in 2005, a higher percentage were immigration-related
– 50 percent in 2005 compared with 46 percent in 2001.
Most of the other prosecutions were drug cases, with 2,294 filed in
2001 and 1,290 in 2005.There were 14 weapons cases in 2001, and
eight in 2005.
Some in the defense community were glad to hear there may be change
at the U.S. Attorney's Office.
“She has shown a certain tunnel vision in her prosecutions and has
exercised an appalling lack of discretion in terms of the
individuals she has targeted for prosecution and the classes of
crimes that she has chosen to direct her resources at,” said
criminal defense attorney Geoffrey C. Morrison, who represented a
defendant in the City Hall corruption case prosecuted by Lam's office.
“Having somebody with a more broad-minded approach and a greater
sense of fairness and justice will do the legal community a
tremendous justice,” he said.
Lam, a career prosecutor, former Superior Court judge and political
independent, sent an e-mail to her staff late in the afternoon in
which she neither confirmed nor denied that she was asked to step
down. She told attorneys not to let speculation interfere with
their work.
She also told them not to speak to reporters about the subject, but
to refer calls to her spokeswoman, according to a recipient of the
e-mail who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.
U.S. attorneys are usually appointed by the president and require
Senate approval. They typically serve the same term as the
president that appointed them, and are replaced when a new
president is elected.
However, a provision in the Patriot Act that was revised last year
allows the Attorney General to appoint interim U.S. Attorneys for
indefinite terms when vacancies arise, without Senate confirmation.
Filling interim vacancies had been the responsibility of the
district court.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., criticized the Bush administration
yesterday for “pushing out U.S. Attorneys from across the country
under the cloak of secrecy.”
“We don't know how many U.S. Attorneys have been asked to resign –
it could be two, it could be ten, it could be more. No one knows,”
she said in a statement.
Feinstein said the administration was abusing its executive power
by trying to circumvent the Senate confirmation process. She and
two colleagues proposed legislation yesterday torestore appointment
authority to the district court when a vacancy occurs and an
interim leader is needed.
Lam is one of several prosecutors who have either resigned under
pressure or been told to leave in recent months.
New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias is among those who have
announced they are stepping down.
“I was asked to resign,” he said. “I asked (why) and wasn't given
any answers. I ultimately am OK with that. We all take these jobs
knowing we serve at the pleasure of the president.”
H.E. “Bud” Cummins, who left the post of U.S. Attorney in Little
Rock, Ark., wouldn't say whether he was asked. His replacement, J.
Timothy Griffin, was an Army prosecutor who worked in the White
House and for the Republican National Committee. Arkansas'
senators, both Democrats, have criticized the way in which he was
selected because it did not require Senate approval.
It's not the intent of the Justice Department to avoid the
confirmation process, and the department is committed to working
with senators when making a nomination, a department spokesman said.
Of 11 U.S. Attorney vacancies since the Attorney General gained the
authority to make the appointments in March 2006, the Bush
administration has nominated four people and interviewed seven
others, all of whom are expected to complete the confirmation
process, said Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
“In every case, it is a goal of this administration to have a U.S.
Attorney that is confirmed by the Senate,” Roehrkasse said. “It is
wrong for a member of Congress to believe that this is in any way
an attempt to circumvent the confirmation process.”
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