Sampson Contradicts Alberto

by Steve

Alberto: I didn’t participate in the decisions to sack the federal prosecutors.

Kyle Sampson: Uh, not so fast. Not only that, Alberto attended FIVE meetings on the subject.

Unfortunately for Sampson, Dianne Feinstein just undermined his credibility and made him out to be a liar also.

Listening to the distinctions between the various stories, you get the impression that Gonzales wanted to shield himself from harm by making Sampson the scapegoat for allegedly not keeping him and his senior deputies informed on his discussions with the White House.

Sampson for his part throws a flag on that, and says the senior deputies and Gonzo knew all about the 2-year discussions with the White House. In essence, Sampson is saying that Gonzo is lying to save himself. Monica Goodling was a part of this effort, and wants now to keep from saying something dangerous. And then Sampson, being the good little Stepford warrior that he is, curries favor with the White House by asserting that the King can do whatever he wants anyway, in an argument straight from the Cheney Imperial Presidency bible.

Yet the third camp here seems to be the McNulty group of senior staffers and the career attorneys inside Justice, who are pissed at both of the first two camps for destroying and politicizing the department, and lying to them all about what they and the White House were planning all this time, and the real reasons why they were doing it.

And what you are left with is an inoperative DOJ, full of disgruntled staff with stories to tell.