Democratic Judiciary Committee staff memos

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Look what Josh Marshall's saying

We've now looked over the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms report on the matter issued last week. And it seems clear that his investigators were prevented from finding out whether or not this happened because of their lack of subpoena and other standard law enforcement powers.

www.talkingpointsmemo.com

Talking Points Memo Document Collection
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/senatedocs.pilfer.report.21-22.pdf

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1. Oh my...the plot is getting quite thick

No wonder some of the repukes on the committee told their foaming at the mouth base to back off.

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2. A friend just recently reminded him

Then if you hop down to pages 48-49, you'll see that in his final interview with investigators, Manuel Miranda -- the guy at the center of all this -- for the first time mentioned that a backup disk of the documents had just come into his possession and that he got it from "a friend of his from outside the Senate" who had made the backup for him. This friend had just recently reminded him that the backup existed.

In any case, all humor aside, it seems pretty clear that the Senate investigators found possible trails leading to both the White House and the Justice Department. But they were blocked from pursuing them.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com

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3. Revealing Picture of Hatch Appears on the Internet

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 5, 2004
3:06 PM
CONTACT: MoveOn.org
Newsroom: 202.822.5200


Revealing Picture of Hatch Appears on the Internet

WASHINGTON - March 5 - Twice in the days before right wing activist Kay Daly published stolen Democratic documents on her web site, Senator Orrin Hatch appeared on fringe internet radio shows with her. On October 29, 2003, he appeared on her Free Republic radio “Daly Show” and on November 11, 2003, he appeared on another Free Republic radio show with her. Manuel Miranda appeared on Ms. Daly’s radio show just two weeks earlier.


Kay Daly was the first person to publish complete versions of the stolen documents. Miranda still denies leaking the stolen documents. Orrin Hatch denies having any knowledge of the stolen documents. Their appearances on the internet-broadcast radio shows days before she obtained the documents calls into question their denials.


It is highly unusual that a sitting United States Senator, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, would appear on two fringe internet radio broadcasts in two weeks. The same could be said for a top staffer in the Senate Leader’s office, especially in the busy days leading up to the Republicans’ faux filibuster.


For reasonable observers, it is hard to believe that the timing of these events is purly coincidental. This is one reason a criminal investigation is absolutely necessary.

Both Manuel Miranda and Sen. Orrin Hatch Appeared on a FreeRepublic.com Radio Show with Stolen Memo Publisher Just Weeks Before Memos Published.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0305-01.htm


So was it Kay Daly that made the backup disk for Miranda?

And this
COALITION FOR A FAIR JUDICIARY
The Collusion Memos
These memos repeatedly make clear that a small collection of extreme left groups -- abortion groups, race organizations, labor unions and leftist groups specifically focused on judges -- are driving the Democrats' agenda and decisions. These groups tell Senate Democrats whom to attack and vote down, when to hold hearings on which nominee, how many hearings to hold and rules ofr allowing floor votes. The memos even indicate that the groups persuaded Democrats to delay nominations in order to affect pending cases.

http://fairjudiciary.com/cfj_contents/press/collusionmemos.shtml

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4. The full report is posted at Findlaw.

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/senate/pickle30404rpt1.html

Now that the Senate niceties are over, will someone notice that there was a crime perpetrated here? I know the committee will meet to maybe decide on a criminal referral.

I guess prosecutors must wait for a complainant. Must they wait for a partisan vote, and win a majority?

Pre-long-a-tion.

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5. And it seems that cry baby Orrin

new all about it.

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7. How can Orrin say this?

EVEN SET AGAINST the atmosphere of harsh partisan strife that has pervaded the Senate Judiciary Committee in recent years, the conduct laid out in the so-called Pickle Report this week manages to shock. The report -- named for its author, the Senate's sergeant-at-arms, William H. Pickle -- details how two former Republican committee staffers tapped into a huge cache of Democratic staff memos. At a news conference releasing the report this week, an apparently anguished Judiciary Committee chairman, Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) -- joined by ranking Democratic member Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) -- pronounced himself "mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files occurred" and declared that "there is no excuse that can justify ."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35122-2004Mar5.html

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6. Election-year investigations heat up on the Hill

By DOUGLAS WALLER

Sunday, Mar. 07, 2004
Scandal, or at least the persistent allegation of it, is as much a feature of election years as is the stump speech. And so far this season, the G.O.P. seems more besieged than its adversary. After a three-month investigation, Senate sergeant-at-arms William Pickle reported last week that at least two Republican staff members downloaded and circulated some 4,670 confidential files from the computers of Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee members from 2001 to 2003. They did so by exploiting a weakness in the computer security system. The aim: to gain an edge in the rancorous battle over President Bush's judicial nominations. Some of the memos, which at times suggest liberal special-interest groups' fingerprints on the Democrats' strategy, were even leaked to G.O.P.-friendly journalists. Manuel Miranda, a former aide to Senate majority leader Bill Frist, does not deny snooping but contends that Pickle's report did not find a "credible suggestion of criminal acts."

Still, a Justice Department probe may be in the offing, and it won't be the only one aimed at Republicans. The FBI is investigating whether Michigan Republican Representative Nick Smith was offered a bribe to support the Medicare reform bill. Smith alleged in November that unnamed G.O.P. Congressmen offered to donate $100,000 to his son's campaign for the House if he backed the bill. (He now says he got only a vague offer of "significant financial support" for his son.)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040315-598530,00.html