Bush Fired Abramoff Prosecutor Black, Ended Investigation in 2002!!

[Dems Will Win]

An early administration attempt to cover for Abramoff?
This from today's LA Times ...

A U.S. grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor and the inquiry ended soon after.

Aug 07, 2005 -- 12:24:03 PM EST

The article goes on to explain that the Superior Court in Guam hired Abramoff to lobby against a bill under consideration in Congress which would have placed the Superior Court under the authority of the island's Supreme Court -- which certainly sounds like a sensible approach (the bill later passed). Perhaps because of the oddity -- to say the least -- of an inferior court hiring lobbyists to secure its independence from a superior (or in this case, Supreme) court, the Superior Court arranged for a cut-out from Laguna Beach, California, an attorney named Howard Hills.

More details from the Times ...

The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to a copy obtained by The Times. The subpoena demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, release records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.

A day later, the chief prosecutor, U.S. Atty. Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.

...

Abramoff, who then represented the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, alerted his clients in a memo about the expected report and warned: "It will require some major action from the Hill and a press attack to get this back in the bottle."

It is of course important to remember that all of this happened before the scandals began to erupt around Abramoff. Thus it would have been before he became so radioactive that the White House began to wash its collective hands of him. Note that the article suggests Karl Rove's direct involvement in the choice of Black's replacement.

http://auctionhouse.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/7/12243/56304

[texpatriot2004]

1. * shut it down WHAT ARE THEY HIDING? NM

[IChing]

2. They are hiding their house of cards

from the winds of justice.

[texpatriot2004]

3. Great picture...look it's the GOP Congress and the * Admin nm

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. pattern is so obvious.

Hide the Energy meeting papers/gag Sibel Edmonds, and now this.

Republicans are criminally inclined.

[ClassWarrior]

10. Good question tex. Visualize IMPEACHMENT.

NGU.

[Independent_Liberal]

11. That's right! Visualize Chimpeachment!

:)

[texpatriot2004]

13. Got it. Impeachment is in my minds eye. n.t

[ms liberty]

4. How odd - I remember reading about this at the time (probably here!)...

but until now I'd forgotten about it, and that it was Abramoff.

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. So much corruption, so many names, hard to remember them all. n/t

[Usrename]

8. Like memorizing an encyclopedia

Can't think of a law they haven't broken.

[Al-CIAda]

6. R&K

[happydreams]

9. Sounds alot like Archibald Cox firing in Watergate.

Abramoff is the big tamale that will cause a tectonic shift in politics in this country. IMHO.



Nixon Forces Firing of Cox; Richardson, Ruckelshaus Quit
President Abolishes Prosecutor's Office; FBI Seals Records

By Carroll Kilpatrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 21, 1973; Page A01

In the most traumatic government upheaval of the Watergate crisis, President Nixon yesterday discharged Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus.

The President also abolished the office of the special prosecutor and turned over to the Justice Department the entire responsibility for further investigation and prosecution of suspects and defendants in Watergate and related cases.

Shortly after the White House announcement, FBI agents sealed off the offices of Richardson and Ruckelshaus in the Justice Department and at Cox's headquarters in an office building on K Street NW.

An FBI spokesman said the agents moved in "at the request of the White House."

Agents told staff members in Cox's office they would be allowed to take out only personal papers. A Justice Department official said the FBI agents and building guards at Richardson's and Ruckelshaus' offices were there "to be sure that nothing was taken out."

Richardson resigned when Mr. Nixon instructed him to fire Cox and Richardson refused. When the President then asked Ruckelshaus to dismiss Cox, he refused, White House spokesman Ronald L. Ziegler said, and he was fired. Ruckelshaus said he resigned.

Finally, the President turned to Solicitor General Robert H. Bork, who by law becomes acting Attorney General when the Attorney General and deputy attorney general are absent, and he carried out the President's order to fire Cox. The letter from the President to Bork also said Ruckelshaus resigned.

These dramatic developments were announced at the White House at 8:25 p.m. after Cox had refused to accept or comply with the terms of an agreement worked out by the President and the Senate Watergate committee under which summarized material from the White House Watergate tapes would be turned over to Cox and the Senate committee.

In announcing the plan Friday night, the President ordered Cox to make no further effort to obtain tapes or other presidential documents.

Cox responded that he could not comply with the President's instructions and elaborated on his refusal and vowed to pursue the tape recordings at a televised news conference yesterday.

[radio4progressives]

12. Has anyone noticed that PBS News Hour NEVER covers these stories?

Ever since the drum beat for the war in Iraq began three years ago, I had begun to become acutely aware of the bias in television broadcast "news" coverage in favor the Bush administration policies. But what stunned me, is that even though i knew PBS didn't cover all issues, i hadn't realized how pro-bush they actually were.

Now of course, everyone who has been paying attention to right wing bias in the MSM is fairly aware of bad the sistuation is with commerical and public news broadcasting. And now a lot of people are aware of the scandalous co-optation that PBS vis a vis CPB board of directors with the appointment of Bush Administration Tomlinson and other lesser known were put there to assert conservative pov in the news casting.

The irony is Bush administration never needed to appoint their flackys because PBS was already biased toward a conservative point of view as is evidenced with their lack of coverage of all stories that shine the light on corruption in Washington.

Even the CIA Leak case they didn't covered until AFTER the indictments against Libby were handed down, and then it was given the barest minimum - just the facts and little if any analysis that i can recall.

But I've been looking to the News Hour for coverage on the Abramson scandal finding none. Even the Duke Cunningham scandal was barely mentioned in a report following his public confession, but not covered at all until then.

I do not recall a single story reported on the Abramoff/Scanlon story on any of these stations.

Today i caught a segment on CNN featuring the Rolling Stone/Bramdon piece on the man who first made the case for war - Rendon, that was posted here a couple of weeks ago. Blitzer's interview with Bramdon was on the heals of this weeks new revelations of the DoD/Pentagon's disinformation/propaganda media operations in Iraq.

It's just amazing to me. I looked to find a telephone number for the producers of PBS News Hour in order to call and ask for an explanation but of course there is no telephone number made available on their website. I'm sick to death of unaccountable, broadcast news organizations. Thank goodness there's FAIR and Media Matters to help get their attention - but sometimes i just feel like responding as a ordinary citizen and not necessarily as an activist.

But it appears there is no other way. I think it might be useful to have contact information of the major news media operations archived here at DU so that we access it as a group of concerned citizens or individuals.

Every week that goes by, is at least one more scandals that give reason to Impeach Bush. The stories are dug up and posted here, but there's rarely any real follow through to get these pieces in the MSM or to get these stories amplified in the MSM once we do manage to succeed. We have to have real telephone numbers, and effective organzing around these stories.

Cuz, it's not just the MSM (although that's vital) we have to hammer the Democratic Party elected officials to get on these stories and investigations.

I didn't mean to digress from the actual story posted here - it just brings to mind how these bastards should have been prosecuted and convicted for so many crimes, I've lost count.

[paineinthearse]

14. Hello, this is NOT news. See John Conyers letter from August

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2030534

August 23, 2005

Honorable Glenn A. Fine
Inspector General


United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 4322
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Inspector General Fine:

We write to request that the Office of the Inspector General conduct an investigation into the November 2002 demotion of former Acting United States Attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Frederick A. Black. We are troubled by an August 7, 2005, report in the Los Angeles Times that suggests this demotion was politically motivated (enclosed).1

At the time U.S. Attorney Black was demoted, he was supervising a grand jury investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff and conducting an ongoing investigation into possible corruption within the Government of Guam. U.S. Attorney Black had been serving as the Acting United States Attorney for more than 10 years when he was demoted. The timing of President Bush's decision to remove and replace U.S. Attorney Black is questionable and warrants an investigation.

The Los Angeles Times reports that in 2002, lobbyist Jack Abramoff entered into a secret agreement with Guam Superior Court officials to lobby against a court revision bill then pending in the United States Congress. For his lobbying efforts, Mr. Abramoff was reportedly paid with thirty-six $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role in working for the Guam Superior Court. These transactions were the target of a federal grand jury subpoena issued on November 18, 2002, which required the Guam Superior Court Administrative Director to release records involving the lobbying contract. It was on November 19, 2002, that President Bush announced he was demoting U.S. Attorney Black. The federal grand jury took no further action in the Abramoff investigation.

The Los Angeles Times also reports that at the time U.S. Attorney Black was demoted, he was directing a long-term investigation into allegations of public corruption in the Government of Guam. This inquiry produced numerous indictments, including some of the top officials in the government. The Los Angeles Times reports that an extensive effort by lobbyists connected to the Government of Guam is responsible for U.S. Attorney Black's demotion. In May 2003, U.S. Attorney Black was replaced by Leonardo Rapadas who had been recommended by the Republican Party of Guam. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist, said he carried that recommendation to Karl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, in early 2003. Since taking office, U.S. Attorney Rapadas has excused himself from the ongoing public corruption case involving the Government of Guam because he is the cousin of one of the key targets of the investigation.

Again, we are troubled by the circumstances that surround the demotion of former Acting U.S. Attorney Black and request than an investigation be conducted. The Department of Justice should be concerned that a federal prosecutor was possibly removed from his position as a result of lobbying efforts by those he was investigating for public corruption. We appreciate your prompt consideration of this matter. Please reply through the Judiciary Committee Democratic office, 2142 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 (tel:[phone]; fax: [phone]).

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.
Member of Congress

Madeleine Z. Bordallo
Member of Congress

cc: Hon. William E. Moschella
Assistant Attorney General

Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman, U.S. House Comm. on the Judiciary

[quaker bill]

15. Has anyone looked into the "Cruises to Nowhere Act" of 1999?

I haven't seen much on this, perhaps you have.

At any rate, both the US House and FL Legislature were working on Republican led measures to heavily restrict or prohibit these operations in the year before Abramoff made the Sun Cruz deal at what appears to have been a fire sale price.

At about the same time he became a partner in Greenberg Traurig, a powerful Tallahassee Lobby/Law firm. It seems like he could have been working legislative levers to drive down the selling price.

I note that both proposed measures died shortly after Abramoff bought Sun Cruz...

I have heard about the Sun Cruz guy ending up dead...

Anyone got a source on this?

[Vinca]

16. On the surface, this seems incriminating as hell.

Wasn't Delay somehow involved in the Mariana Islands? This case has so many twists and turns you need a play book.

[sellitman]

17. Ok folks....where is the outrage nationally?

Oops silly of me to ask. :sarcasm:

This story will never make it off the DU web site and onto the front page news.

:banghead: