By Justin Rood - January 12, 2007, 11:29 AM
The epic
Duke Cunningham scandal gets weirder: Carole Lam, the San Diego U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the corrupt former lawmaker, is being quietly pushed out by the Bush administration. Lam's office has recently been troubling
the CIA and
Capitol Hill by pushing for documents related to the Cunningham investigation.
According to this morning's
San Deigo Union-Tribune, the White House's reason for giving her the axe is that she "failed to make smuggling and gun cases a top priority." But most folks the paper talked to -- supporters and detractors -- said that sounded like a load of hooey.
A belated attempt at a cover-up? That doesn't quite fit. It's not like the Cunningham investigation has earned a place in the Great Scandal Prosecutions Hall of Fame. There have been signs of trouble all along. There was the
strange decision to throw him in jail before ensuring he told everything he knew, as well as
evidence of poor coordination between the numerous federal agencies involved in investigating the fiasco. If the administration for some reason didn't want the truth to come out about what the Cunningham scandal touched -- well, many folks thought all they had to do was sit back and let the probes tangle themselves in knots.
The paper raises the possibility that Lam isn't the only U.S. Attorney who's being pushed out. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told the paper in a statement, “We don't know how many U.S. Attorneys have been asked to resign – it could be two, it could be ten, it could be more. No one knows."
January 12, 2007This sounds suspicious, that several US attorneys who haven't pleased the Bush administration (among them, the San Diego prosecutor who won a bribery conviction of Republican congressmen Duke Cunningham) are being asked to leave their jobs. Being replaced by those friendlier to the party, in some cases:
Lam is one of several prosecutors who have either resigned under pressure or been told to leave in recent months.
New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias is among those who have announced they are stepping down.
“I was asked to resign,” he said. “I asked (why) and wasn't given any answers. I ultimately am OK with that. We all take these jobs knowing we serve at the pleasure of the president.”
H.E. “Bud” Cummins, who left the post of U.S. Attorney in Little Rock, Ark., wouldn't say whether he was asked. His replacement, J. Timothy Griffin, was an Army prosecutor who worked in the White House and for the Republican National Committee. Arkansas' senators, both Democrats, have criticized the way in which he was selected because it did not require Senate approval.
Something almost certainly for the Judiciary committee to take up and investigate?
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