Gonzalez & Sr Officials Set To Quit Over Evidence Seized From Congress

Top Bush Aide at Justice Dept. Was Set to Quit

By DAVID JOHNSTON and CARL HULSE
Published: May 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, May 26 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday.

F.B.I. Searches Official's Office in Ethics Inquiry (May 21, 2006)Mr. Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress.

The potential showdown was averted Thursday when President Bush ordered the evidence to be sealed for 45 days to give Congress and the Justice Department a chance to work out a deal.

The evidence was seized by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents last Saturday night in a search of the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana. The search set off an uproar of protest by House leaders in both parties, who said the intrusion by an executive branch agency into a Congressional office violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. They demanded that the Justice Department return the evidence.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/27/washington/27inquire.html?hp&ex=1148702400&en=bdb72883b813538b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

That has legal implications and I have not heard confirmation one way or another... the obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case may not be purely ethical, but also a matter of law.

:popcorn:

could do nothing all day but make up stories to confuse everything. I think some (maybe KKK) could have that "talent" and just work at that all of the time.

if he was to leave then how would he do the WH's bidding

It would be juicy if Gonzalez turned against the administration...but I don't believe it...Nope....not falling for it...

My bet would be the real story on this is still to be discovered. Although, they are true to character in "fighting to the death" to nail a Democrat, not one of their own.

At least that's what it seems to say. Wouldn't it be better for her to sit to one side and marvel at the GOP's sudden affection for a Louisiana black man?

I think that the Repuglicans are involved in this somehow because they doth protest to loud....They only do things if it impacts them...for them to all of a sudden care about the constitutionality of separations of powers....mmmm..hmmmm something is brewing....gotta feeling it's going to be real bad for the Repugs...

Pelosi...asked for him to step down and he said no...She should make him...

The Church Commission? This has nothing to do with Jefferson or what the feebs might have found. I just ran across something about the abuses that the FBI is capable of committing-

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_digbysblog_archive.html#114867181107969231

snip>
The historical backround of political abuse of the FBI involves at least three dimensions. The first is the Bureau's subsurvience to the Presidency, its willingness to carry our White House requests without question. When L. Patrick Gray as Acting FBI Director destroyed documents and gave FBI reports to Presidential aides whom the FBI should have been investigating after the Watergate break-in, he just carried to the extreme an established practice of service to the White House. The other side of the practice was the Bureau's volunteering political intelligence to its superiors, not in response to any specific request. And the third historical dimension was the FBI''s concerted effort to promote its public image and discredit its critics.

<...>

The committee staff found in these "O" and C" files ("Official and Confidential") such special memoranda on ... all the members of the Senate Subcommittee chaired by Senator Long which threatened to investigate the FBI in the mid-1960's. Some of these "name check" reports and special memoranda contained derogatory information about his wife. The reports on members of the Long Committee were compiled in a briefing book, with tabs on each senator.

<...>

In 1965, the FBI declined a request of the Justice Department Criminal division to "wire" a witness in the investigation of former Johnson senate aide Bobby Baker. Although the FBI refused on grounds that there was not adequate security, the Criminal Division had the Bureau of Narcotics in the Treasury department "wire" the witness as a legitimate alternative. When the Baker trial began in 1967 this became known. Presidential aide Marvin Watson told the FBI that President Johnson was quite exercized, and the FBI was ordered to conduct a discrete "run-down" on the head of the Criminal Division in 1965 and four persons in Treasury and the Narcotic Bureaus, including specifically any associations with former Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

<...>

At the request of President Johnson made directly to FBI executive Cartha Deloach, the FBI passed purely political intelligence about United States Senators to the White house which was obtained as a by-product of otherwise legitimate national security electronic surveillance of foreign intelligence targets. The practice also continued at the request of Mr. H.R. Haldeman.
end snip>

Of this, Digby writes:

That is just a tiny bit of the Church Committee summary of the historical political abuses perpetrated by the FBI through the mid-70's. It was bipartisan, which is why I chose to highlight the incident with Johnson.

I am quite sure that Congressman Jefferson is nobody I want to defend (for his politics and much as his criminality.) But the FBI and the executive branch have a long sordid history of using their power for political ends. (Even Hoover never believed they could raid a congressman's office, however.)

...But the bigger issue is something that someone wrote in an email a couple of days ago: This Republican Justice Department, led by a lifetime Bush loyalist and good friend to Karl Rove now has every Democratic strategy memo that ever came across Congressman Jefferson's desk. Trust 'em?

in his freezer. The other side attacks your weakness and discovers your strengths, then attacks them too.

Pre-indictment (innocent until...., and all) Pelosi has done everything right as regards a member of her caucus. He's been removed from ethics, and asked to step down from the rules cmte.

I'm not saying Pelosi should throw him in prison or mete out a judicial punishment.

Of course he's innocent until he cops a plea. But tell that to the guys making attack ads for November.

"Isn't it time we cleaned House in Washington D.C.? (shaky cam travels through dirty house, into kitchen, up to refrigerator door) Shouldn't we get rid of Democrats who hide foreign bribes in their freezers? Democrats talk about a culture of corruption. Well, at least they walk the talk. Vote for a brighter future. Vote for congressmen who will help President Bush restore dignity to Washington. Vote Republican."

Pelosi and the rest of the Dem caucus should ask Jefferson to leave, publicly disavow any support of him, shun him, insult him in public, put a "kick me" sign on his back, issue his pay in pennies, take out ads against him, link him to the corrupt Republicans in the Congress and keep it up until he is gone.

No one in the Democratic party is defending Jefferson at all. And I'd LOVE an ad like that. We can trot out one repub after another talking about how Cunningham is such a great guy, saying that DeLay will keep his leadership position and be vindicated, along with photos of Abramoff at the WH.

No repub in the country would dare link up with Ol' 29 Percent in a campaign ad anyway.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Just keep that Democratic bad guy in the spotlight. Now the story is other than Jefferson, but at the same time they talk about he story that is now beyond Jefferson, Jefferson's name will be prominent in the background needed to set up the telling of each staged chapter.

This is just pure, unmitigated, unrepentent BULLSHIT

This is a manufactured crisis.

The press doesn't seem to be biting yet, knock on wood.

Ninety grand in a freezer is a much simpler image to use in attack ads on Democrats than anything the Republicans have served up to our side. It's simpler than hurricanes, WMD inspections, Abramoff bribes, you name it.

This is a killer issue because it's so simple. Ninety grand in a freezer. It'll give the rest of Congress to the GOP.

All we have to do is springboard off of that with things like this:

Republicans and their cronies have been stealing ninety-thousand dollars a minute since they came into power, for years on end.

All the freezers in America wouldn't hold the cash Republicans have taken.

The Republicans had the FBI illegally raid a Democrat's office so they could find one person who took one ten-millionth as much as Republicans have been stealing. (That's how thieves that don't believe in the Constitution prove that they aren't the bad guys.)

etc.

his last. Abu Gonzo would NEVER resign....he made a stink so * could look presidential and come up with a compromise that made him look capable of logic....ha!

All of this corruption in DC...DeLay, Abramoff, Frist...and this poor guy, Jefferson, is now front and center...and from LA...the land of hurricanes.

And Hayden's nomination vote....no noise about that. It's like the KGB has taken over our country. GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

So quit already.

...like he actually solved the problem.

Why is Gonzales all of a sudden concerned about ethics? Unethical behavior never bothered him before.

"The potential showdown was averted when President Bush ordered the evidence to be sealed for 45 days..." There must be SOMETHING IN THAT MATERIAL that would incriminate the Bush regime....now George has given them 45 days to get rid of whatever they need to get rid of....or....to USE the information they obtained to secretly threaten other members of Congress....or firm up their case against Jefferson. They needed that material for some reason.

(And Gonzales....after his phony threat, even gave Georgie an opportunity to look like he was in charge.:banghead:

this is very dangerous

Good grief, how can we defend a guy with 90 grand in his freezer? How can it be so hard for politicians to understand politics? Why would we make peace with Denny Hastert to save one corrupt Democrat or one meaningless and arcane separation-of-powers protocol when there's an entire herd of corrupt Republicans hiding behind that protocol?

And why are we letting a corrupt Democrat steal the headlines from that herd of corrupt Republicans?

Like the "quaint" Geneva Conventions? :eyes:

You forgot to answer my question: Who's defending him?

out about him. Anyone have any suspicions that it is a set up? Has he said anything about it?

A Bush-purged, torture memo writer-controlled FBI--or any FBI, given its history, but especially THIS FBI--is fully capable of manufacturing evidence, manufacturing charges and going on phony raids. I've suspected they did the raid to set a precedent (along with many other precedents they are setting) to be able to raid Congressional offices on mere allegations of crime, after the Democrats take over, if they do, in the fall. Other precedents they've set: preventing a member of Congress from entering Congress, for "security" reasons (McKinney), in violation of explicit language in the Constitution forbidding this; interrogating members of Congress on their knowledge of Bush junta crimes (threatened, or in progress--not sure); writing codas on bills passed by Congress, saying Bush decides whether the laws applies to him and his junta or not; openly, arrogantly ignoring many laws passed by Congress (on torture, spying, secrecy, you name it). The Jefferson raid seems part of a series--to see how far they can eliminate Congress' lawmaking powers, erode its rights and privileges, and degrade its equality as a branch of government.

So, if that's what they are up to, then they needed an excuse for the first raid. They probably won't bother with an excuse for the next one. And I'm wondering: Why would this tape they apparently have of Jefferson's bribe money have been released to the press? It's evidence, isn't it? Evidence like that released to the press would taint any jury from DC to Hawaii. If the evidence convinced a judge to issue a warrant (did a judge issue a warrant?), then what is the point of releasing it to the press, except to smear Jefferson, to make political hay, and, perhaps importantly, to make the raid widely noticed (as a precedent). Is this proper, releasing such evidence to the press?

Secondly, is Jefferson that stupid, accepting big cash from strangers and keeping it around in his fridge? Or is he suffering from mental illness/stress? (I know I might be, living and working in the context of the Bush junta--these are damn scary people.) It just seems so......set up, so made to order.

Abramoff, Cunningham, Coingate, dozens of scandals, including even bigger ones boiling beneath the surface (Cheney/Halliburton, f.i.)--the Republicans/Bushites are beset with corruption. Not to mention Traitorgate. And this comes along, so perfectly designed to change the newsstream...

I'm very, very suspicious of anything a Bush-controlled agency says or does. They're getting the courts packed with Bushites, too, so we can't really trust anything judges do any more either. And we certainly can't trust the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. They're lapdogs--and sometimes patsies--for anything the junta wants them to promulgate.

I think we should be very slow to jump to conclusion about Jefferson. I saw the Diebold/Bushite cabal take down our good Secretary of State in Calif, Kevin Shelley, on completely bogus corruption charges. This makes me highly attuned to potential Bush junta 'black ops.' It was so egregiously unjust and wrong. Blatant lies about him, in a concerted media, legal and fed election commission assault. God, it was ugly. And the CA Dem leaders hid under their chairs--fearful of a takedown of themselves, I suppose--those who aren't just plain corrupt on electronic voting. The whole thing was deeply shocking to me.

Don't believe everything you read--is the lesson I learned from that terrible event. Really, really don't believe. ASSUME that what you are reading in the corporate press is a goddamned, baldfaced 100% pack of lies, and work backwards. Is ANY of it true? How can it be verified? Where is it really coming from? What is REALLY going on?

who knows what the truth is considering this administration

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Gonzales is a conniving traitor, and Paul McNulty (as part of the Florida recount) is no better.

And when did McNulty get promoted, btw? I notice that he's front and center in the last week or so, and has been promoted from U.S. Attorney in the rocket docket to Deputy Attorney General.

would YOU put it in the freezer?

Is anyone that STUPID? I don't believe the story in the first place, too obvious, too easy to find, too useful as a sound bite, image, future ads, etc..

Looks like a PR Sting with dollops of psyops to me..

I ain't buying it - FBI is directed to Raid a Congress critter's office, destroy a DEM during a Culture of Corruption scenario, then the Repigs scream and STICK UP for a Dem, when it' THEY who stand to gain with so many of them on the deck for a nice juicy Abramoff OUTING as crooks..

So they demand a PROTOCOL for this, let's not have FBI guys raiding us and having it end up on TV during the election cycle..

How fucking Convenient.

that FBI raids don't violate the separation of powers as long as they only raid Democratic offices. All the usual weak-kneed Dems will agree to avoid constitutional crisis, chaos, getting off their knees, or whatever weasel words they can think of at the time (unless there are "extraordinary circumstances," of course).