I hope like hell someone is investigating this.
From Monica Goodling's
prepared statement before the House Judiciary Committee on May 23, 2007:
...
Prior to December 2006, the Office of the Attorney General played a role in selecting individuals appointed under the Attorney General's name to serve as Immigration Judges and members of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
...
Around the time I became White House Liaison in April 2005, Mr. Sampson told me that the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)
had provided guidance some years earlier indicating that Immigration Judge appointments were not subject to the civil service rules applicable to other career positions.
.....
At some point in the later part of 2006, questions arose regarding the personnel rules applicable to Immigration Judgeships and positions on the BIA.
Hiring on Immigration Judges and BIA positions was frozen in December 2006 after the civil division expressed concerns that the civil service rules might apply.
.....
http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/GoodlingII070523.pdf Page 6-7So if Goodling was "provided guidance some years earlier" that there were relaxed rules that could be used with immigration judges (civil service), that means that this was going on when Ashcroft was the AG and Gonzales was WH counsel. (Ashcroft left on February 3, 2005 and Gonzales took over as AG. Convenient, huh?) And these shadowy immigration judgeship appointments went on for several years until the DOJ's Civil Division strenuously objected, leading to a hiring freeze at DOJ in late 2006? That about sums it up. Someone put the brakes on Gonzales and his contacts with the WH in slipping in these appointments.
The question that begs asking is
Who authorized this unwritten directive concerning the hiring of civil service positions? Was it coordinated through Gonzales/Card/Rove at the White House? Was this an end-run around Ashcroft's authority? Similar to the end-run around acting AG James Comey when Gonzales and Card raced to Ashcroft's sickbed and tried to coerce him into signing off on the warrantless wiretapping?
We are told that this directive was never written, according to Goodling's lawyers (Thanks to
TPM) (Maybe it's still on the shadow e-mail servers, if it originated in the White House...) Someone really needs to investigate this.
According to Goodling's attorney:
Today, Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd stated that the Department had “located no record of an Office of Legal Counsel opinion advising that Immigration Judges may be appointed on the basis of political considerations or that civil service laws do not apply to such appointments.”
Ms. Goodling is aware of the fact that the Office of Legal Counsel never issued a formal opinion on the matter, and she did not suggest otherwise in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
Hmmmm, yet another reason to keep things *off the record*, huh Gonzo?
So, if these Immigration Judges were being stacked in the courts, via relaxed rules "several years before" Monica Goodling burst onto the scene as a fresh trainee via Barbara Comstock, who was the master planner behind this? Why does Karl Rove come to mind....
All of this brings me to another question....
The immigration judge in Texas who just released terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to walk free is a 2003 Bush appointee. What role did that play in her ruling to set him free? Was she given her appointment without the proper vetting process just like the others??
Yep, the judge who just freed Posada Carriles is a loyal Bushie.Judge Kathleen CardoneBiography:
Birth: 1953
Year Service Began:
2003Appointed By: President George W. Bush
Education State University of New York at Binghamton
St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio
Legal Practice: Private
Judicial: 388th Judicial District Court in El Paso
Family Court Master
383rd Judicial District Court in El Paso
Current Memberships: Developed and Founded the El Paso County Domestic Relations Office
http://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/gen_info/judges/cardone.asp I hope someone is cracking down on investigating these grievous implications on the rule of law in this country. This administration has dismantled it internally, from its very core.
Is this not yet enough to arrest and indict this administration?
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