Lam Was Fired To Shut Down Foggo Inquiry

by Steve

Can we please dispense with the nonsense that the sackings of the federal prosecutors were simply the result of personnel-related issues? It is becoming clearer with each passing day that these attorneys were sacked for purely political reasons.

The U.S. attorney in San Diego notified the Justice Department of search warrants in a Republican bribery scandal last May 10, one day before the attorney general's chief of staff warned the White House of a "real problem" with her, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

The prosecutor, Carol S. Lam, was dismissed seven months later as part of an effort by the Justice Department and the White House to fire eight U.S. attorneys.

[snip]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a television appearance yesterday that Lam "sent a notice to the Justice Department saying that there would be two search warrants" in a criminal investigation of defense contractor Brent R. Wilkes and Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who had just quit as the CIA's top administrator amid questions about his ties to disgraced former GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

The next day, May 11, D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, sent an e-mail message to William Kelley in the White House counsel's office saying that Lam should be removed as quickly as possible, according to documents turned over to Congress last week.

The White House wanted the Wilkes/Foggo investigation shut down as soon as possible, because it leads directly into the senior levels of the Bush Administration. Feinstein and Schumer both know this.