Call me slow: I just now realized Abramoff is being investigated by ...

[TechBear_Seattle]

Call me slow, but I just realized that Abramoff is being investigated by people with a vested interest in hushing up as much as possible about his criminal activities. The best analogy I can think of is: a rooster is under investigation for keeping the coop unlocked, and the critters doing the investigation are the weasles who benefited from having free access to the eggs.

Is there any realistic chance that justice will be served?

[Atman]

1. No.

:shrug:

[liberalnurse]

2. Okay, I'll do it.

YOU ARE SO SLOW! To my delight, there are actually legitimate prosecutors still out there! :hi:

[MADem]

JAMES COMEY

He is the deputy at the Justice Department, and he is our BEST HOPE.

COMEY is called "Cuomo" by Bush, because he refused to sign off on the NO FISA wiretaps. It's why Andy Card went to intensive care to try to con Ashcroft (AG at the time), in enormous pain and heavily sedated, into going along with it. When he wouldn't play, they just did it anyway.

COMEY appointed FITZGERALD.

Gonzalez was WH counsel when this shit went down, so he has to recuse his lying, unethical ass.

COMEY is a careerist with INTEGRITY, and he is the weakest link so far as BUSHCO is concerned. He's like Elliot Richardson without the drinking problem.

[kentuck]

8. I thought Comey left?

for the private sector?? Is he still in the Administration?

[Missy Vixen]

9. He's now general counsel for Lockheed Martin

However, I'd like to believe that there are people like him throughout the DOJ, or I couldn't get out of bed in the morning.

Julie

[MADem]

10. He knows what he knows, though

They'll have to kill him to shut him up!

And on edit--he appointed MARGOLIS to manage Fitzy before he left for Lockheed...so they'll have to kill HIM, too!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/08/12/national/w144056D49.DTL&type=printable

And Comey's putative replacement, Timmy Flanigan, used to WORK for Jack Abramoff, so if that asshole even gets confirmed, he is an "auto-recuse."

In early 2003, Timothy Flanigan was Abramoff’s day-to-day supervisor. Among the work his team did for Tyco International, Abramoff listed lobbying the White House. http://www.juiceenewsdaily.com/index.php/2006/01/04/who-is-jack-abramoff/

And Fisher is already under scrutiny, and will likely have to recuse as well:
Fisher is a Republican who in her former job was registerd as a lobbyist for HCA, the healthcare company founded by Bill Frist's father. Her appointment was also controversial due to the fact that like her boss Abu Gonzales, Fisher has no trial experience and with Comey gone there would be no senior member of the Justice Department who was an experienced criminal prosecutor. But Senatorial oversight was dispensed with and BushCo. continued on its Brownie-esque rampage to replace experience with cronyism.

...Staring down the twin barrels of the Abramoff and DeLay investigations, Bush's urgent insistence on having Fisher in there does not bode well. Imagine the shock and horror of BushCo. after James Comey testified that "I don't care about politics. I don't care about expediency. I care about doing the right thing" and it turned out the guy actually meant it. I really have a hard time imagining that they took Fisher off the hot seat, bypassed the Senate approval process and then jammed her into a critical spot without feeling some comfort that she would not, indeed, turn into another Comey.

Maybe she is a total straight shooter who will do right by everybody involved. But if that's the case she should step aside, recuse herself and let other people within the Justice Department who are not tainted by conflicts of interest handle this one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/flippin-jack-and-heckuva_b_13243.html

I doubt the Congress will give her a long lead; more like just enough rope to hang herself, especially given HER connections to DeLay (cited in the above link) and all the shit hitting the fan. She is gonna have to tread very carefully, if at all. It's just too target-rich from an media/investigative perspective.

[havocmom]

3. On the up side: It is a multi departmental effort

Let us remember that the top may well be a tool, but the worker bees in government are mad as hornets about the way they are being abused and portrayed. Some worker bees are loyal to the nation and Constitution, not the current set of suits. Trust in worker bees to keep humming along and throwing monkey wrenches into the machine. There are a lot of really pissed off public servants. Count on the fact that there are honest, nobel people in places the suits cannot ferret out.

There will be more whistle-blowers. That is why the junta keeps trying to kill the messengers. They know the messengers are their achilles heel. And the messengers will keep coming.

[MADem]

Doublepost, sorry

[MADem]

6. It would not surprise me, frankly if Comey, and even Ashcroft, were

sources for that NYT piece about the FISA business. Ashcroft left in a hurry, remember, and I think it wasn't just his health (unless maybe he was concerned about his immortal soul) that caused him to leave.

They'd better be careful about who they investigate, and how hard they lean on reporters to find out sources of this FISA leak investigation, because it could come back to really bite them in the ass. And if they were so damn concerned, why did they "negotiate" with the NYT to HOLD that story a year ago, but only NOW want heads to roll? The only thing that has changed is that the story was printed--they KNEW about the leaks way back when.

Imagine John "Let the Eagle Soar" Ashcroft getting on TV and telling EVERYTHING he knows??? It could get ugly as hell!!! The right wing cognitive dissonance alone would be a sight to see!

[Missy Vixen]

13. firedoglake has posted a great article from the New York Observer

regarding what's currently going on in the Southern District of New York's US Attorney office.

http://www.observer.com/finance_newsstory1.asp

>A high rate of turnover is a fixture of the office, as senior prosecutors with low pay (compared to the private sector, at any rate) on high-profile cases either burn out or make the money move.<

The Southern District of New York gave us James Comey and Patrick Fitzgerald. They're also currently experiencing an exodus of personnel into the private sector.

Of course, this is my opinion, but it would be almost impossible for anyone to turn their back on a $700K - $1,000,000 FIRST YEAR starting salary out of that office and into the private sector...:scared:

Julie
president for life of the PFEB

[Uben]

4. Justice?

That is soooo 20th century! Think terra! We hafta have the tools we need to track down these terraists! Look, Jack Abramoff is a true patriot. His efforts have championed our war on terra.
He'll most likely receive the Medal of Freedom for his efforts.....after the pardon, of course.
/rant

[Lexingtonian]

5. Sometimes

things are straightforward and the people involved know that hushing any of it up will be a far greater crime and mark on them than revealing all of it.

Not everyone is corrupt or dishonorable. In a sense, to suspect everyone by association is to have assimilated, to have submitted to the corrupted and dishonorable oneself. That is the virtue of the presumption of innocence.

[MADem]

Sorry--my mouse sucks, it doubleclicks (dupe)

[MADem]

7. I think Jim Comey could end up being the man of the year, frankly n/t

[EVDebs]

11. The Dept. of Justification is the new name for DOJ

Dems just didn't get the memo; only R's run the show in 'old DC' now. You're not slow. We're all naive for still believing our old civics classes about 'checks and balances' ! There were only checks...and those were payoffs; there were balances, but now those are all deficits !!

[dogman]

12. The Prosecutor was a recess appointment by *.

She was Chertoff's protege in charge of terrorism investigations. He has already been cut a really good deal so it doesn't look good. That's usually how Bushco does things.