As Rove Testifies About Firings At Justice, Why Did DoJ Fire Whistleblower? (Seligman Case)

[KoKo]

(This is so bizarre it's impossible to make sense of)

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As Rove Testifies About Firings At Justice, Why Did DoJ Fire Whistleblower?

Andrew Kreig

DC journalist and attorney


New questions are surfacing about political intrigue at the U.S. Justice Department after former White House political strategist Karl Rove provided his long-awaited responses to House Judiciary Committee staff Tuesday about allegations that he pressured prosecutors to target Democrats nationally.

Few details have emerged about Rove's questioning on such topics as the 2006 dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys for political reasons.

By remarkable coincidence, however, the Justice Department separately confirmed Tuesday that it has fired Alabama whistleblower Tamarah Grimes. She was the top in-house paralegal for the prosecution team that won corruption convictions in 2006 against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat, and HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.

Grimes later provided her Justice Department superiors and Congress with evidence that the rights of the defendants were violated. Siegelman and Scrushy cited her revelations heavily in their motions since June 26 for a new trial based on new evidence.

In an interview today for this article, Grimes alleged a bone-chilling conspiracy to frame the defendants for political gain. She says her experiences opened her eyes to parallels outside Alabama and to the ruinous consequences for federal government employees of protesting injustice.

"No one helps you," says Grimes, who adds that she was browbeaten with threats of false criminal charges by her superiors and investigators alike. She says Congress needs to enhance protections for whistleblowers to prevent wrongdoing by government officials.

Justice Department spokesman Tracy Schmaler responded, "The Department takes seriously its obligation under the whistleblower law, and did not violate it with regards to the termination of this employee. For privacy reasons, it would be inappropriate to comment any further on this personnel matter at this time."

In related news Tuesday, Alabama's senior Democratic Congressman Artur Davis denied reports that he seeks to extend the term of Republican U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, Grimes's boss in the state's Middle District, in order to win Republican and business support for his 2010 campaign for governor.

Addie Whisenant, the congressman's press secretary, said any suggestion that Davis wants a Republican is "absolutely absurd." She said that the state's two Republican Senators, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, have blocked the congressman's nominations of Democrats. Whisenant declined to say why Republicans can block Presidential appointments that are typically generated through the state leadership of the President's party. Alabama journalist Roger Shuler has written back-to-back stories on his Legal Schnauzer blog summarizing reports of the congressman's goals, and breaking news of the Grimes firing.

Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson - herself a prominent whistleblower after her sworn testimony in 2007 that fellow Republicans framed Siegelman to prevent his re-election as governor - on Tuesday urged voters on a widely disseminated Alabama email list to pressure Davis until he publicly asks the Obama administration to fire Canary. Canary remains in office as one of many Bush holdovers helping run to the nation's federal justice system despite the tradition that political appointees resign upon a change in administration.

Only seven of the nation's 93 U.S. attorney posts have Democratic nominees, with none of them confirmed, according to the latest statistics from the Justice Department. This means that approximately 50% of the U.S. attorney offices - which have vast power over civil and criminal litigation in their districts - are still controlled by Bush appointees who survived its reputed internal political purge in 2006, and last November's landslide Democratic election victory based on the theme of "change."

More.......
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kreig/as-rove-testifies-about-f_b

[pscot]

1. This and DADT have been the most egregious failures

of President Obama's promise of change. They should have been done early on. Both represent shameful perpetuation of injustice for apparent political expediency. Shameful.

[tabatha]

2. He has only been in power for 6 months -

wait for 4 years to see what happens with DADT.

[bertman]

3. "in power"?? I hope not. In office is more like it. We Democrats are supposedly "in power".

Look where that's gotten us.

If it takes four years to repeal DADT, we're in more trouble than we can get out of.

[Wednesdays]

4. K&R

:kick: