Panel wants to interview Buchanan on U.S. attorney firings (PA US Attorney)

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

House Judiciary Committee members have asked to interview U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, believing that she may have been consulted about preparing the list of eight federal prosecutors who were fired late last year.

Her name is one of several listed in a letter requesting voluntary interviews with U.S. attorneys -- including two prosecutors who have recently come under fire -- and with officials in the Department of Justice and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys.

The letter was sent Monday by the Judiciary Committee chair, Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., to acting Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Hertling. The committee is investigating the process of the firings, and possible politically motivated prosecutions across the country.

Ms. Buchanan, a strong supporter of the Bush administration who has been appointed to several positions within the Department of Justice during her tenure, became the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania in September 2001.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07108/778829-176.stm

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Mary Beth is definitely a Bushie.

Out of the same wool as Rick Santurom.....hope she meets the same fate.

quite a let-down. :(

Sorry to disappoint - course we here in W. PA wish they would take her down. She's the one who sent Tommy Chong to prison for his bongs - yeah that made us all safer. :sarcasm:

lots of tidbits like Blank Rome LLP,and others all with a PA connection.

They place their Party over their Country at all times, and have been fully one-sided and OBVIOUS in the Loyal Bushie-ness. Just look at their 95-5% ratio of Democratic to Republic invetsigations.

They are doggedly Soviet in their loyalty to Leader, and as unAmerican as Nazis for doing so.

In fact, I have no doubt that their 95-5% prosecution ratios (for political graft cases, although it wouldn't surprise me to see they've been also letting Loyal Bushie Comrades off the hook for murder, rape, and extortion.

Loyal Bushie Comrades and their Masters are just that lawless that it cannot be ruled out.

from March 2007

http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/2007/03/more-on-mary-beth-buchanan.html

snip

And while it's true that there are far more Democrats in power in Allegheny County, Allegheny County is not the only county in Western PA - Mary Beth Buchanan's geographic area of responsibility.

At the end of the KDKA piece Former Assistant US Attorney Tom Farrell calls for Buchanan's resignation. In today's P-G, he expands on that call:
The Bush administration's efforts to use an obscure provision of the Patriot Act to replace U.S. attorneys it deemed too vigorous in investigating Republican officials, too slow in indicting Democratic public officials or too reluctant to investigate "voter fraud" -- a euphemism for attempting to suppress the minority vote -- caused me to re-think my opinion of the fairness of Western Pennsylvania's U.S. attorney, Mary Beth Buchanan. I began to wonder why all of the recent public-corruption investigations in our region have been of Democrats.
She's "inflated law enforcement successes" by misclassifying routine immigration cases as "anti-terrorism" cases. She's repeated administration falsehoods in her defense of the USAPatriot Act, for instance falsely claiming (according to Farrell) that:
...until enactment of the Patriot Act, federal prosecutors could not obtain emergency wiretaps to prevent imminent terrorist attacks; to the contrary, a 1995 Justice Department bulletin instructed prosecutors like me and Ms. Buchanan how the pre-Patriot law could be used to do just that.


She was also politically sponsored by Rick Sanctorum according to the article..

...enter Terry Haines - who was a partner at Alexander Strategy Group
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alexander_Strategy_Group

snip

The Alexander Strategy Group (ASG), a Republican Party-associated lobbying and political strategy firm with offices in Washington, DC, and Hong Kong, was founded in 1998 by Ed Buckham, Thomas D. DeLay's former Chief of Staff, "with a huge initial contract that DeLay secured from Enron. (The group also paid DeLay's wife a salary for several years.)" <1>

On its website AG boasts that "Unlike traditional lobbying firms, Alexander Strategy Group offers an integrated suite of advocacy services that includes government affairs, strategic consulting, public relations, grassroots development, creative media, international representation, coalition building, business development and corporate/crisis communications." <2>

ASG has "worked extensively with the Executive and Legislative branches of government, been involved in numerous Presidential and Congressional campaigns, forged alliances with numerous conservative advocacy groups and worked at the highest levels of the international arena," according to a press release. <3>

On January 9, 2006, ASG announced it would be closing shop due to being "fatally damaged by publicity about the ongoing federal investigation into the affairs of" and "its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay." <4>

Mr. Haines is a Board Member of Buchanan Ingersoll...and owns shares in it..

snip

http://www.clfund.com/jsp/au_bodShow.jsp?restrictids=nu_repeatitemid&restrictvalues=2090611881251069787593548

Terry Haines
Position: Board Member

Shareholder, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, PC.

Terry Haines, a Pittsburgh native, is a Shareholder and Director of Federal Government Relations in the Washington, DC office of the Pittsburgh-based law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, PC. He has been a senior public policymaker in both Congress and the Executive Branch, and now works closely with many of the world's leading companies in the financial services, telecommunications, and high-tech sectors.

In the public sector, Terry served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services, where he was instrumental in the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley, the USA PATRIOT Act, and many other landmark laws. Terry also was chief congressional investigator into Enron/Andersen, WorldCom, and Wall Street IPO practices. Terry also served as senior counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and was appointed Chief of Staff to the FCC Chairman.

In the private sector, Terry was a partner in two Washington, DC - based public policy consulting firms before joining BI&R. He also was general counsel of the eastern division of TCI, then the nation's largest cable TV company.

Terry was a featured political commentator on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 2004 US election coverage, and is a frequent public speaker on policy and political topics in both the United States and Europe.

http://burnsdoane.com/news.php?NewsID=2030

Buchanan's Federal Government Relations Group Rises on Influence 50 List
Ranks Among the Top 20 Law Firms in the Country

March 15, 2007

Washington, DC, March 15, 2007 — Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Federal Government Relations practice appeared for the second consecutive year on The Influence 50, a list of lobby shops and law firms with the highest revenues from lobbying in 2006. The report was included in the March 12 issue of The Legal Times/Influence.

Making its debut on The Influence 50 in 2005, Buchanan jumped this year to 16th among law firms, up from 22 last year, and 25th on the combined listing of law firms and lobbying, up from 49th in 2005.

According to Ron Platt, head of the Federal Government Relations practice, the steady growth of the practice group over the last two years has played a big part in this recognition.

"When I joined Buchanan in 2004, my goal was to expand the practice and service areas we can offer clients and build a sophisticated team of professionals. I think we've done that."