List of those present during Alito's coaching sessions

[phoebe]

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/Alito%20hearing%20prep%20list.pdf

can you say Ted Olson..??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Olson

snip

From 1986-1988, Olson was investigated by Independent Counsel Alexia Morrison. He challenged the constitutionality of the special prosecutor's office, arguing that it was in effect an unchecked fourth branch of the federal government, but the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in Morrison v. Olson.

Olson represented George W. Bush in the case Bush v. Gore, which ended the contested 2000 Presidential election.



Harriet Miers..

what about the others on here - let's do some research DU'ers..

[phoebe]

1. Steven Bradbury..fake news reports are legal..torture is OK

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/03/15/fakenews/index.html

Remember those fake video news reports the Bush administration has been distributing to local television stations? Back in February, the Government Accountability Office warned federal agencies to stop pushing the phony news reports on the grounds that continuing to do so would amount to the distribution of domestic propaganda in violation of federal law.

That might have been the end of the matter, but the Bush administration has other ideas. Last week, budget director Josh Bolten and a Justice Department lawyer named Steven Bradbury issued their own opinion about the fake news stories. Their conclusion: The GAO is wrong, and the fake news reports are perfectly legal. Moreover, as the Washington Post reports today, Bolten and Bradbury said that legal advice for the executive branch is supposed to come not from the Government Accountability Office but from the Justice's Office of Legal Counsel.

That would be the same Office of Legal Counsel that issued a legal memorandum in August 2002 defining torture out of existence and opining that the president's commander-in-chief power gives him authority to defy federal law in the name of national security -- and the same Office of Legal Counsel that retracted that memo in December 2004, just in time for Alberto Gonzales' confirmation hearings.

[phoebe]

3. Rachel Brand

http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1120208726476

Name: Rachel Brand
Position: Nominated in 2005 to head the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Policy.
Background: Worked in the White House Counsel's office from 2001 to 2002. Law clerk to Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Role: As acting chief of the Office of Legal Policy, Brand spearheads the department's vetting of judicial nominees. Her staff includes former congressional staffers Richard Hertling Jr. and Kristi Remington. The bulk of Brand's work may be over once the president has chosen a nominee. However, depending on who is selected, she may be called on to assist in the confirmation process.


Jennifer Brosnahan
according to AmericanPresident.org she is a Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President

[phoebe]

5. Jamie Brown, Bill Burck, Senator Dan Coats, Shannen Coffin,

Elisebeth Cook, Grant Dixon, John Elwood, Leslie Fahrenkopf, Dabney Friedrich, Brett Gerry, Ed Gillespie, Richard Hertling, Bob Hoyt, Jamil Jaffer, Brett Kavanaugh

[phoebe]

6. Bill Kelley, Wan Kim, Richard Klingler, Kristi Macklin, Brent McIntosh,

Harriet Miers, Richard Painter, Ben Powell, Neomi Rao

[phoebe]

7. Kyle Sampson, Steve Schmidt, Gordon Todd and Raul Yanes.

One time visits by:

Mike Carvin, Adam Ciongoli, Chuck Cooper, Tim Flanigan, John Manning and Ted Olson.

[phoebe]

8. Adam Ciongoli, counselor to John Ashcroft

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1114432514183

snip

"These are highly competitive jobs. One way to identify candidates who share the president's values is to look toward certain sources," says Adam Ciongoli, a counselor to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. "You can't get to know someone in a one-hour interview, so what you want is a proxy, a reference point, something that connects a candidate to someone you know."

According to Ciongoli, the links between DOJ officials and certain organizations, judges and law schools also reflect conscious career decisions on the part of applicants.

"If you think you want to work in a Republican administration, the natural thing to do is to go to a law school like the University of Chicago and clerk for a judge like Luttig and go to events sponsored by the Federalist Society," Ciongoli says. "The kinds of people the administration wants are going to have chosen these paths."

snip

All political hires at the Justice Department require the blessing of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. If an attorney is not seen as sufficiently supportive of the president and Republican ideology, he or she can be rejected regardless of other qualifications, say several Justice Department lawyers familiar with the process.

more

http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/pubarticleCC.jsp?id=1061306539054

snip

"He was a great teacher," recalls the 35-year-old of Cappuccio. Of course he's not apt to say anything bad. Ciongoli just became senior vice president and general counsel of AOL-Time Warner, Europe, and reports directly to his former professor, now the media giant's chief legal officer. But Cappuccio's influence on Ciongoli's career goes deeper than just his new job.

Cappuccio recruited Ciongoli out of law school to work in the appellate practice at Kirkland & Ellis, headed by Kenneth Starr. There Ciongoli befriended a constellation of rising conservative stars, including Viet Dinh, Jay Lefkowitz, and Paul Clement, who went on to become chief counsel to the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by then-senator John Ashcroft. When Clement left that post, he convinced Ciongoli to take the job.

Ashcroft and Ciongoli clicked, and when the boss became attorney general, he took Ciongoli along as legal counsel. The younger lawyer became one of the AG's closest advisers and his intellectual sparring partner and sounding board. Ciongoli was one of the key architects of the USA PATRIOT Act and one of four Justice Department lawyers who drafted the Bush administration's order authorizing military commissions to try suspected terrorists. The job was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. "I leave with mixed emotions," says Ciongoli. "John Ashcroft has been a tremendous mentor and friend, and when you leave an environment like that, it's never easy."

[Sydnie]

58. Adam Ciongoli also clerked for Alito

Gary Rubman, class of 1992, and Adam Ciongoli, class of 1986, said they aren't surprised that their former boss, Judge Samuel Alito, has been nominated by President Bush to serve on the nation's highest court.
<snip>
Clerks typically only serve for a year. Rubman worked for Alito for 12 months from 2000-2001 and Ciongoli from 1995-96.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051121/NEWS01/511210307/1009&theme

[deminks]

18. Somewhere I read that Rachel Brand was sitting next to

Ms. Alito and leanded over to say something to her just before she left the room. I am still looking for that and will post a link if I can.

[phoebe]

22. Dabney Friedrich, worked for Orrin Hatch and Harriet Miers

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1120208726476

snip

Name: Dabney Friedrich
Position: Associate White House Counsel since 2003.
Background: Worked on the staff of then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Law clerk to Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Role: Friedrich's boss, White House Counsel Harriet Miers, will be a key advisor to the president as he decides who to put forward as a replacement for O'Connor. And much of the information Miers will rely on will have been compiled by Friedrich, who coordinates the office's work on judicial selections. If Friedrich needs to make an aggressive case for the president's nominee, she can rely on the experience of seven years as a prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/politics/politicsspecial1/15confirm.html?ex=1284436800&en=5ddb65dd767dcb96&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Includes photo of some of the above during Roberts hearings

[DemReadingDU]

29. here is link of Rachel Brand sitting next to Ms Alito

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/rachel-brand/index.php

[deminks]

32. Thank you. That's it. nt

[Catherine Vincent]

37. Rachel Brand was on Washington Journal this morning.

I'm listening now.

[Sydnie]

45. That is exactly how it happened

I only saw the reruns so I was paying very close attention. that is exactly what happened. Almost like she said "You should scoot out now" to her.

[hang a left]

2. Can someone post the list?

I can't get it to download.

[Emit]

16. Here it is

Administrationn participants and other regular attendees:
Ryan Bounds
Steve Bradbury
Rachel Brand
Jenny Brosnahan
Jamie Brown
Bill Burck
Senator Dan Coats
Shannen Coffin
Elisebeth Cook
Grant Dixton
John Elwood
Leslie Fahrenkopf
Dabney Friedrich
Brett Gerry
Ed Gillespie
Richard Hertling
Bob Hoyt
Jamil Jaffer
Brett Kavanaugh
Bill Kelley
Wan Kim
Richard Klingler
Kristi Macklin
Brent McIntosh
Harriet Miers
Richard Painter
Ben Powell
Neomi Rao
Kyle Sampson
Steve Schmidt
Gordon Todd
Raul Yanes

Other Individuals who attended one session:
Mike Carvin
Adam Ciongoli
Chuck Cooper
Tim Flanigan
Leonard Leo
John Manning
Ted Olson

[hang a left]

21. thanks Emit.

Lindsey Graham didn't make the list huh?

[Emit]

24. De Nada, and, no, Graham wasn't on the list. But

I do wonder where Think Progress got the list, or where Russ Feingold got it? And, I wonder how complete it is.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/01/12/alito-murder-board/

[radio4progressives]

42. Well Russ Feingold specifically Requested it from Scalito yesterday

and asked if he could have it by this morning.. in fact Feingold asked Scalito if he could get his Staff sitting behind him to colate the list and make it available to him by this morning (thursday)

so i imagine that Russ got it over to Christy Harvey or David Pedosta or whoever at Think progress, cuz I'm quite sure they were waiting on pins and needles for it..

just my guess... ;)

[Sydnie]

46. Wasn't Graham there? Didn't they already admit days ago that

Graham was there? That can't be a complete list. Anyone know where these meetings took place?

[Emit]

52. According to this article, he was

But I don't see him on the list in the OP

~snip~
...That certainly ought to be the case. Graham is one of a group of Republicans who have been coaching Alito behind the scenes. The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reported before the hearings began:
"On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the 'gang of 14' who sits on Judiciary, joined a so-called moot court session at the White House."
~snip~

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011006Q.shtml

[Sydnie]

54. Good, let's get him for contempt for falsifying documents submitted

to the Congress. That works for me too.

[dogday]

82. This was a freaking convention

look at all those names.

[ewagner]

4. So what about

Lindsey Graham????

Where did the initial reports come from?


Was there some "weasel wording" in those lists?

Did Graham specifically deny his presence?

Something isn't right here......it smells

[deminks]

13. What I found for Graham's involvement:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=117813

[phoebe]

9. Michael Carvin, represented Bush in Florida Recount

http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book5Ch.2.html

snip

Many conservative wealthy donors also pressured Bush who had raised a record-shattering $100 million war chest. According to the New York Times (December 20, 2000), the top donors included Kenneth Lay, chief executive officer of the Houston-based energy giant Enron Corporation who was originally in the running to be Bush’s treasury secretary; California venture capitalist E. Floyd Kvamme; and Michael Carvin, the lawyer who represented Bush during the recount case in the Florida Supreme Court.

Enron and its employees gave more money to Bush’s various campaigns than anyone else, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Kvamme gave $1,000 to Bush’s campaign, Federal Election Commission records showed. He and his wife donated $50,000 each this year to the Republican National Committee’s state elections committee. Carvin, a former deputy attorney general in the Justice Department during the Reagan administration, gave $1,000. He and two other attorneys from Carvin’s Washington-based law firm, Cooper, Carvin & Rosenthal, PLLC, were named to the Justice advisory team.

[phoebe]

10. Charles J Cooper (Chuck) - bio -

http://www.cooperkirk.com/bio_cooper.html

Federalist

[phoebe]

11. Timothy (Tim) Flanigan - interrogation policies + Abramoff ties

From Senator Patrick Leahy's website

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200509/092905a.html

THURSDAY, Sept. 29) – Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday raised key concerns about the nomination of Timothy Flanigan to be Deputy Attorney General, including:

· The role Flanigan played in developing the Bush Administration’s interrogation policies governing detainees;

· Flanigan’s dealings with indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff when Flanigan worked as general counsel for Tyco International; and

· The lack of relevant prosecutorial experience. Like other top officials within the Justice Department, Flanigan lacks that relevant law enforcement experience.

[phoebe]

12. John Manning - former Scalia clerk

http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback-ponnuru021103.asp

snip

But Gonzales has moved quickly and effectively to allay conservatives' concerns. First, he staffed his office with highly regarded conservatives, including former clerks to Clarence Thomas and former aides to Kenneth Starr. He picked Timothy Flanagan, a conservative and Justice Department veteran, as his deputy. "This is the most overqualified White House counsel's office in history," says one conservative observer, who has consequently "gone 180" about Gonzales.

The administration has appointed conservatives to the Justice Department, too. Attorney general John Ashcroft is conversant with, and supportive of, conservative legal theories. Ted Olson, a member of the conservative intelligentsia, will be solicitor general; John Manning, a former Scalia clerk, will head the office of legal counsel (OLC).

[Not_Giving_Up]

43. Check out his organizations

Commissions and Associations:
1998-Present
Member, Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, The Judicial Conference of the United States
1995 - Present
Member, American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
1981 - Present
Member, The Federalist Society (Steering Committee, Washington Lawyers Chapter); Chairman, Civil Rights Practice Group
1993 - Present
Member, The American Law Institute.
1994 - 1996
Co-Chairman, Advisory Council on Self-Determination and
Federalism to Governor George Allen of Virginia.
1991 - 1994
Public Member, Administrative Conference of the United States.
1991 - 1993
Commission Member, National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal (appointed by President Bush).
1991 - 1994
Commission Member, National Commission on Responsibilities for Financing Postsecondary Education (appointed by President Reagan).
1986 - 1989 Chairman, President’s Working Group on Federalism;
1985 - 1988 Member, National Security Council’s Policy Review and Planning and Coordinating Groups

[phoebe]

14. Elisebeth Collins Cook - Bush donor and Atty with Cooper & Kirk

http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=loc&addr=&zip=22203&search=Search+by+Location

[phoebe]

17. Grant Dixton - worked for Harriet Miers, Presidential Seal and The Onion

http://www.shadow-media.org/blog/2005/10/hold_the_onion_please.html

snip

The White House has taken notice of the satirical news source: The Onion. Specifically, they have taken offense to its use of the presidential seal in the section that parodies the President's weekly radio address.

The newspaper regularly produces a parody of President Bush's weekly radio address on its Web site, where it has a picture of President Bush and the official insignia.

"It has come to my attention that The Onion is using the presidential seal on its Web site," Grant M. Dixton, associate counsel to the president, wrote to The Onion on Sept. 28. (At the time, Mr. Dixton's office was also helping Mr. Bush find a Supreme Court nominee; days later his boss, Harriet E. Miers, was nominated.)

source: Katharine Q. Seelye, "Protecting the Presidential Seal. No Joke.", New York Times, October 24, 2005

That certainly offers bright background illumination upon the Miers nomination.

[hundred6]

15. damn it...

thats a list of pretty much every lying,distorting,'hide our true aganda cuz its might be considered unconstitunial and evil' behind the scenes conservative
pukes.

we have real reason to worry....

[phoebe]

19. not done yet.. John Elwood of Baker Botts + Florida recount

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/february6/civil-26.html

snip

The U.S. Department of Justice's John Elwood, counselor to the assistant attorney general, criminal division, countered that the government has not altered the balance between maintaining national security and protecting civil liberties.

"With all confidence, I've not had any problems with us infringing on rights anywhere," he said. Referring to last September's attacks, he added, "I feel everything we've done was constitutional on Sept. 10, and everything we're doing today is constitutional now."

http://ideamouth.com/appointments_and_disappointments.htm

Counselor to Justice Department, Criminal Dvision
John Elwood, of Baker Botts (a law firm that represented Bush in the Florida election recount)

[izzybeans]

20. Most operatives are to be expected but the one that troubles me

is Senator Dan Coats. I have no knowledge of any rules but it seems that mixing coaching an nominee and "advise and consent" don't mix ethically.

[phoebe]

25. Dan Coats - called for Clinton's resignation over Monica Lewinsky

http://www.ishipress.com/dancoats.htm

The New York Times has a different quote from Dan Coats. According to the Times, what Senator Dan Coats said was:

"The danger here is that once a president loses credibility with the Congress, as this president has through months of lies and deceit and manipulations and deceptions, stonewalling, it raises into doubt everything he does and everything he says, and maybe even everything he doesn't do and doesn't say," said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., who less than 72 hours earlier had called for Clinton's resignation over the Monica Lewinsky issue.

Coats added, "I just hope and pray the decision that was made was made on the basis of sound judgment and made for the right reasons, and not made because it was necessary to save the president's job."

Although these quotes are similar, there are significant differences. The main point is that Dan Coats had the audacity to suggest that the cruise missile attack on a chemical weapons plant in Sudan and a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan was a ploy by the President to divert attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal. This is nothing less than a denigration of the memories of the 12 Americans and 251 Africans who died last week in simultaneous attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, not to mention the 5,000 who were injured in these attacks.

[izzybeans]

26. I know what the state of IN sends to D.C. and it isn't pretty.

We keep churning out Quayle clones. Babbling parotts. and I forgot he was 'former' senator. I just moved back.

[deminks]

23. Picture of Dan Coats with Ms. Alito

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito smiles as he looks back at his family during the third day of his Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill January 11, 2006. From left are Alito's son Philip, former Senator Dan Coats, sister Rosemary Alito and wife Martha. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=alito+wife&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&xargs=0&pstart=1&c=images&b=11

I think the lady leaning over in the black and white plaid jacket is Rachel Brand.

[phoebe]

27. Brett Kavanaugh - The Starr Report + Vince Forster

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A25394-2002Oct14¬Found=true

The political opposition sees rank hypocrisy. "Kavanaugh, who once defended Starr's insatiable appetite for information on presidential doings as being not about politics but about the sanctity of the law, has apparently changed his tune," according to the liberal Nation magazine. "The ironies abound." A cynical view of Kavanaugh's actions would be that he bases his legal reasoning on his conservative views -- that he supports broad powers for a Republican president and circumscribed powers for a Democratic president. A more charitable explanation is that Kavanaugh is merely a good lawyer, forcefully representing the best interests of his client at the moment. Asked about Kavanaugh's ideology, Craig Lerner, a former colleague from the Whitewater investigation, replied: "He's a terrific lawyer."

Kavanaugh declined to be quoted in this article, but his administration colleagues say he has been consistent in the positions he took for Starr and now for Bush. Under Starr, they say, he was seeking to rein in presidential privileges in a criminal matter; as a counsel to Bush, he is seeking to defend presidential privileges in civil matters.

"The need for information in criminal proceedings is a trump card," said another former Starr lieutenant now in the Bush administration. "In civil litigation, a president gets the benefit of the doubt a lot more."

For the dozen former Starr underlings with high-level jobs in or appointments by the Bush administration -- including two in the White House and three in the Justice Department -- that explanation is something of a personal rationale. The real test will come if the Bush administration is facing a criminal probe. "You might have to reassess based on what Brett does at that point," the former Starr colleague said. WTF????

[phoebe]

28. Ed Gillespie - lobbyist, Enron, was Chairman Republican National Committee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gillespie

snip

Edward Gillespie (born 1962) is an American conservative Republican political lobbyist. Most notably, he was selected by President George W. Bush to be Chairman of the Republican National Committee, where he remained from July 2003 to January 2005, when he was replaced by Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.

Gillespie is founder of Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a conservative lobbying firm that provides strategic advice, public relations services, and government representation to corporations, trade associations and issue-based coalitions. The firm's clients included Enron and Microsoft, which paid the firm $1.2 million between 2001 and 2003. After his term as RNC chairman expired, Gillespie returned to the firm. According to a survey of journalists by The New Republic about anonymous sources "close to the White House," "almost everyone agrees that, if the veil of anonymity were magically lifted from all White House coverage, Gillespie would be the single most frequently cited source."<1> As a result, his statements are often important in news stories about the Bush administration

snip

In March 1998, Gillespie was executive director of coalition supporting computer data encryption called Americans for Computer Privacy. Gillespie's message was that "Encryption is, far from being a geek issue, essential to citizens' individual liberty. The mission that goes with the message is a tough one: to halt a Clinton administration drive to set up a system requiring that software equipped with data-scrambling capabilities also include a way for law enforcement or national security agencies to quickly access the encrypted information."<2>

In 2000, Gillespie served as senior communications advisor for the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, organizing the party convention program in Philadelphia for Bush's nomination and Bush's inauguration ceremony. He also played an aggressive role as spokesman for the Bush campaign during the vote recount in Florida.

[phoebe]

31. D. Kyle Sampson works with Gonzales

n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. I know this is a stretch, but was there a

McIntosh from Texas involved with the Swiftboaters? And wasn't there a McIntosh from Seminole, Florida involved with the Harry Jacobs (Dem) challenge to the County's Supervisor of Elections in the 2000 presidential election?

Are any of them related?

[Emit]

33. Kyle Samson and Raul Yanes

Conyers and Waxman asked for these two to be removed from the Plame investigation because of their roles as aides to Gonzales:

~snip~
The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

As you are likely aware, Deputy Attorney General James Comey appointed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to head the Justice Department's investigation of a Bush Administration official's leak of an undercover CIA operative's name, Valerie Plame. We understand that you have recused yourself from the case because of your role as White House Counsel. We hope that you now will seek the recusal of your three top aides, Chief of Staff Ted Ullyot, Deputy Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, and Counselor Raul Yanes, for the same reason.
~snip~
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:DDnUrw1BGWQJ:forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/2/8/162259/2162+Raul+Yanes&hl=en

And, it looks like they were coordinators of the WH response to the investigation:

~snip~
If the names sound familiar, it may be because Ullyot and Yanes were the coordinators of the White House's response to the investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. That investigation is being handled by, uh, the Justice Department.

~snip~

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Ei4wcDGEpGYJ:www.unknownnews.org/0502080206ValerieWho.html+Raul+Yanes&hl=en

Wonder if they ever recused themselves, or were removed?

Nevermind, I see they were in April, 2005:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:nnwwBMuSGi8J:www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/responses/agrecusalcialeakresp42005.pdf+Raul+F.+Yanes&hl=en


BTW, Yanes is a Brigham Young Grad and wrote this piece on Religion and the Courts. It's pretty subtle, but seems he's one of those "the secularists are evil and are all that is wrong with America" kinda guys.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lwC5nQE8U9sJ:www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9311/articles/yanes.html+Raul+F.+Yanes&hl=en


~snip~

Religion and the Court 1993


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Raul F. Yanes and Mary Ann Glendon


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1993 First Things 37 (November 1993): 28-30.

Religious litigants claimed victories in all four cases involving religious freedom to reach the Supreme Court this past term. Far from clear, however, is whether any of these hard-fought legal wins represents significant progress for citizens resisting the cultural forces bent on constricting the role of religion in American life.

~snip~

For the foreseeable future, the Court can be expected to flag the most flagrant assaults on the religious freedom of solitary individuals or small religious groups, as illustrated by the Santeria case. It is less likely that a Court majority will recognize that what it classifies as "establishment" cases implicate religious freedom just as surely as "free exercise" cases. The Court's continued insistence on a rigid separation of religion and government exerts what lawyers call a "chilling effect" on most government efforts to accommodate the religious practices of its citizens and discourages creative experiments with the use of religious organizations to help deliver much-needed social services. Given the pervasive power of the modern regulatory and social welfare state, the continued reign of separationism means that the Court remains a collaborator, witting or unwitting, of the cultural forces bent on secularizing America.

~snip~

[Marie26]

34. Brett Gerry, counsel for President & WMD committee

Brett Gerry is in the Office of General Counsel for the President. What's interesting is that he's also involved in ignoring Conyer's FOIA request for the Downing Street memo. He was also the associate general counsel for the "Comm. on the Intelligence Capabilites of the US regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction." This committee looked into why the US had the wrong intelligence about Iraq's WMD's, and made future recommendations for fighting the "war against terror". This is just a who's-who list of shady Bush cronies, isn't it?

http://www.wmd.gov/commissioners.html#gencounsel
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1383

[deminks]

35. Ted Olson did a long segment on Hardball with Nora O'whatever

On Monday. He never divulged that he was on the prepping team. Just described by Nora as "another good man" and "someone who has spent a lot of time in front of the SCOTUS." I wondered why they dragged his old tired ass out.

transcript here.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10788602/

[spindrifter]

36. This needs to be moved to the Research Forum--

you guys have done a great job of gathering info on the "murder board" folks.

[Emit]

38. Raul Yanes, btw

Remember back last year sometime when Gonzales said on some Sunday morning talk show that Andrew Card was notified by the CIA about the Plame investigation and then they had a few days to gather their info?

See this link, as I'm sure I'm not explaining it accurately:

As White House counsel, was the one first notified that the Justice Department, at the request of the C.I.A., had opened an investigation into the outing of Joseph Wilson’s wife. That notification came at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2003, but it took Mr. Gonzales 12 more hours to inform the White House staff that it must “preserve all materials” relevant to the investigation.--Frank Rich

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/24/gonzales-raises-questions-for-andy-card-to-answer/


As coordinator for the Plame investigation (see post #33)via Card and Gonzales instructions, Raul Yanes involved as the person to direct all questions. Wonder what else his job was in this matter?

Here's the text from the WH:

Text of White House Counsel's Message to Staffers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Text of an e-mail to White House staff Tuesday from counsel Alberto R. Gonzales about the Justice Department's investigation about the leak of a CIA officer's identity:

PLEASE READ: Important Message From Counsel's Office

We were informed last evening by the Department of Justice that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee.

The department advised us that it will be sending a letter today instructing us to preserve all materials that might be relevant to its investigation. Its letter will provide more specific instructions on the materials in which it is interested, and we will communicate those instructions directly to you.

In the meantime, you must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the department's investigation.

Any questions concerning this request should be directed to Associate Counsels

Ted Ullyot or Raul Yanes in the counsel to the president's office.

The president has directed full cooperation with this investigation.

Alberto R. Gonzales

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:AN-YKWqv_74J:www.apfn.org/LEAK-GATE/message.htm+Raul+F.+Yanes+Bush&hl=en

[Not_Giving_Up]

39. Neomi Rao

Clerked for Clarence Thomas, still looking for more on her. She was involved with the Yale Free Press, but everything I find only lists her as an advisor.

[Not_Giving_Up]

40. Kyle Sampson

Was Chief of staff to Alberto gonzales, made the Chairman of a Task Force on Intellectual Property.

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/iptaskforce.htm

[Swamp Rat]

41. Where's Scalia?

:D

[mb7588a]

44. Graham connection?

Graham's legislative director is named Jen Olson. Any connection? I can't find a link between Ted/Theodore Olson and his deceased (on 9/11) wife Barbara. I found a picture of him with his son Kenneth, and he mentions only "family" in a Larry King interview from Oct. of 2001.

Dig people!

Also, if you come across a bigger list of Graham staffers, post the link.
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?member=SCSR&site=ctc
Chief of Staff: Richard Perry
Scheduler: Ellen Bradley
Legislative Director: Jen Olson
Press Secretary: Wes Hickman

If any of these people work for the Judic. committee or any of its subcommittes that is significant, because that means they are employed by a Republican Senator.

[Not_Giving_Up]

47. Ryan Bounds

Legal Policy, DOJ

http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/ps/keyawards.htm

[Not_Giving_Up]

48. Leslie Fahrenkopf

Associate Counsel to the pResident

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/administration/whbriefing/2004stafflista.html

[mb7588a]

49. kyle sampson was counsel to Sen. Hatch.

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/September/05_ag_497.html

Now he's Gonzalez's chief of staff.
interesting connection.

[mb7588a]

50. Yanes

yanes is Senior counsel to the Atty. Gen.

Raul F. Yanes has served as Associate Counsel to the President since 2003. Prior to joining the Administration, he was a partner at the New York City law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he was a litigation associate from 1993 to 1999 and a partner from 1999 to 2003. Yanes clerked for Judge John L. Coffey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1991 to 1993. He earned his law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/February/05_ag_064.htm

[Emit]

51. Raul Yanes, Enron, Phillip Morris

Was counsel to Arthur and Anderson, the accounting firm that was convicted of destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant's collapse.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:BfDwzcSw-u0J:216.133.76.156/cgi-bin/readart.cgi%3FArtNum%3D529%26Disp%3D4%26Trace%3Don+Raul+F.+Yanes+Bush+tobacco&hl=en

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:dBNZWPomRScJ:www.andersenalumni.net/%255CAndersenAppeal.pdf+Arthur+Andersen+Yanes+Enron&hl=en

And, as a partner at the New York law firm Davis, Polk and Wardwell, his clients included Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds in tobacco lawsuits. I bring this up because, later, when he worked under Gonzales, he was involved in the USA v Phillip Morris RICO case, and was suspected of influencing the case because the DOJ reduced the penalites:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:uKTRxjlkHdIJ:tobacco.northeastern.edu/litigation/cases/DOJ/DOJ_RICO%2520TRIAL_SUMMARY_FINAL.pdf+Raul+F.+Yanes+Bush&hl=en


More:

Have political appointees in positions of authority above the DOJ trial team exerted influence to hamper the administration of justice? Red flags suggesting an imminent weak settlement abound. Four of them are:

Associate Atty. Gen. Robert McCallum, who runs DOJ's Civil Division and formerly a partner at the Atlanta law firm of Alston & Bird, a firm that has represented R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

Alberto Gonzales' Chief of Staff Theodore Ullyot, formerly a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, which has long represented Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.

Raul Yanes, Chief Counsel for Alberto Gonzales, who was a partner at the New York law firm of Davis, Polk and Wardwell, where he represented Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds in tobacco lawsuits.

And Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff for the White House, who was a lobbyist for Philip Morris in Texas in the 1990s.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:93o8VgBVaToJ:www.tobacco.neu.edu/litigation/cases/pressreleases/foia.htm+Philip+Morris+Rico+Raul+Yanes&hl=en

[mb7588a]

53. Brosnahan

Brosnahan, Jennifer Associate Counsel to the President

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/administration/whbriefing/2004stafflista.html

[mb7588a]

55. Brown, dixton, fahrenkopf, friedrich, Kavanaugh

Brown, Jamie E
Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs

Dixton, Grant M
Associate Counsel to the President

Fahrenkopf, Leslie A
Associate Counsel to the President

Friedrich, Dabney Langho
Associate Counsel to the President

Kavanaugh, Brett M
Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary

[mb7588a]

56. miers, powell

Miers, Harriet E
Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff

Powell, Benjamin A
Associate Counsel to the President

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/administration/whbriefing/2004stafflista.html

[mb7588a]

57. That's ALMOST the entire

Counsel office, and a LOT of high high high high-ups in DOJ.

[mb7588a]

59. Gerry, kelley, painter, Rao

Gerry, Brett C
Associate Counsel to the President

Kelley, William K
Deputy Counsel to the President

Painter, Richard W
Associate Counsel to the President

Rao, Neomi J
Associate Counsel to the President

[Not_Giving_Up]

60. Ben Powell

Associate Counsel to President

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/administration/whbriefing/2004stafflista.html

[Not_Giving_Up]

61. Leonard Leo

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/leo200411011103.asp
Leonard Leo is a Catholic strategist for the Bush White House and Bush-Cheney campaign.

http://www.fed-soc.org/staff.htm (Federalist Society)
Leonard A. Leo
Executive Vice President

Well, let's see...There's a Catholic Advisor to this process? Is anyone not yet convinced of which way the right to choose is about to go?

[Not_Giving_Up]

62. Gordon Todd

Justice Dept lawyer...seemingly in civil rights dept. http://www.godlesshouston.com/news/050307_justice_dept_religious_rights_unit.php

[Emit]

63. Some background already completed here

Looks like some folks already started getting some background on these people who are advising SC nominee:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:mvnvI_jrfsgJ:www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp%3Fid%3D1120208726476+Alberto+Gonzalez+Raul+Yanes+Bush&hl=en


Here are some from the list, more at link:

Name: Charles Cooper
Position: Founder of Cooper & Kirk (then called Cooper & Carvin)
Background: Member of the Federalist Society; served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel and the Office of Civil Rights.
Role: A prominent Republican lawyer, Cooper has had his hand in the Supreme Court nominations of William Rehnquist, Robert Bork, and Anthony Kennedy. Although he's finishing up a trial in Nashville, Tenn., this week, he won't be shy about expressing his opinion or helping push through the nominee. "I don't know anybody who isn't," he says.
~snip~

Name: Leonard Leo
Position: Executive Vice President, Federalist Society
Background: A one-time associate at New Jersey's Sills Beck who specialized in gaming law and casino regulation, Leo has been a fixture at the Federalist Society for more than a decade. During the 2004 election was head of Catholic Outreach for the Republican National Committee.
Role: An expert on the history of judicial nominations and the judicial records of the leading candidates, Leo has been taking the Federalist Society's views directly to the Oval Office. But should the White House pick someone that ruffles the feathers of the Society's big names, they'll need Leo to smooth things over for the confirmation battle.

~snip~

Name: Dabney Friedrich
Position: Associate White House Counsel since 2003.
Background: Worked on the staff of then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Law clerk to Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Role: Friedrich's boss, White House Counsel Harriet Miers, will be a key advisor to the president as he decides who to put forward as a replacement for O'Connor. And much of the information Miers will rely on will have been compiled by Friedrich, who coordinates the office's work on judicial selections. If Friedrich needs to make an aggressive case for the president's nominee, she can rely on the experience of seven years as a prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia.


~Snip~
Names: Theodore Ullyot, Raul Yanes, Kyle Sampson
Positions: Senior staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Background: All three lawyers worked for Gonzales in the White House Counsel's Office during President Bush's first term.
Role: Ullyot, Yanes, and Sampson will be working behind the scenes on the upcoming confirmation battle, particularly if it is their boss who gets the nod. Since all three worked in the White House prior to joining DOJ, they know the ins and outs of the administration's judge picking philosophy. Earlier this year, Sampson and Yanes helped prep Gonzales for his confirmation as attorney general. And Ullyot has close ties to another candidate on the administration's short list -- Judge J. Michael Luttig of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
~snip~

[Not_Giving_Up]

64. Steve Schmidt

Steve Schmidt is not just a conservative pundit. He's the chief spokesman for Vice President Dick Cheney and serves as a "Special Advisor to the President."
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/5832.html

[mb7588a]

65. Flanigan is actually flanAgan

was nominated for Deputy Attorney General, but because of his role in extraordinary rendition, he was withdrawn.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/11/213333/03
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB091FFC34540C7B8CDDA90994DD404482

[Not_Giving_Up]

66. Kristi Macklin & Brent McIntosh

http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/ls/dojappts.html
Office of Legal Policy Deputy Assistant Attorneys General: Frank A.S. Campbell, Brent J. McIntosh, Kristi R. Macklin, Brent J. McIntosh

[mb7588a]

67. COMPILED LIST WITH INFO:

Administrationn participants and other regular attendees:_
Ryan Bounds_ DOJ legal policy
Steve Bradbury_ WH Assoc. Counsel?, at DOJ he said fake news reports are legal
Rachel Brand_ Assistant Atty. Gen. Office of Legal Policy, main prepping and vetting office
Jenny Brosnahan_ WH Assoc. Counsel
Jamie Brown_ WH Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs
Bill Burck_
Senator Dan Coats_ Former IN senator
Shannen Coffin_
Elisebeth Cook_Bush donor and Atty with Cooper & Kirk P.L.L.C.
Grant Dixton_Grant M. Dixton, associate counsel to the president worked on presidential seal and Onion’s usage
John Elwood_ DOJ counselor to the assistant attorney general, criminal division – worked for Baker Botts, a firm that rep.’d Bush in FL recount
Leslie Fahrenkopf_ WH Associate Counsel to the President
Dabney Friedrich_ WH Associate Counsel to the President
Brett Gerry_ WH Associate Counsel to the President, General Counsel to WMD false intel. committee
Ed Gillespie_ we all know him
Richard Hertling_ staffer to Rachel Brand, worked in Congress
Bob Hoyt_
Jamil Jaffer_
Brett Kavanaugh_ Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary, worked for Starr and co-wrote Starr report
Bill Kelley_ Deputy Counsel to the President
Wan Kim_
Richard Klingler_
Kristi Macklin_ DOJ Office of Legal Policy Deputy Assistant Attorneys Genera
Brent McIntosh_ DOJ Office of Legal Policy Deputy Assistant Attorneys Genera
Harriet Miers_ HAHAHA LOSER
Richard Painter_ WH Associate Counsel to the President
Ben Powell_ WH Associate Counsel to the President
Neomi Rao_ WH Associate Counsel to the President
Kyle Sampson_ task force on intellectual property, was counsel to Sen. Hatch, now Gonzalez’s chief of staff
Steve Schmidt_ chief spokesman for Cheney, and special advisor to the president
Gordon Todd_ DOJ lawyer in civil rights dept.
Raul Yanes__ was WH Associate Counsel to the President, now DOJ. Yanes was a coordinator of the White House's response to the investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity

Other Individuals who attended one session:_
Mike Carvin_ Rep’d Bush in FL recount
Adam Ciongoli_ worked for ken starr’s law firm, former chief legal counsel to john Ashcroft, one of the key architects of the USA PATRIOT Act and one of four Justice Department lawyers who drafted the Bush administration's order authorizing military commissions to try suspected terrorists.
Chuck Cooper_ Reagan-era DOJ shill, Cooper and Carvin was former law form, now Cooper and Kirk. Was a Rehnquist clerk.
Tim Flanagan_ had a role in making interrogation policies, withdrawn nomination for Deputy Attorney General, has involvement with extraordinary rendition
Leonard Leo_ Catholic strategist for bush and BC’04 campaign. Exec. VP of Federalist Society.
John Manning_clerked for scalia, (former?) head of DOJ office of legal counsel
Ted Olson_ Former Solicitor General of the U.S. Rep’d Bush in Bush v. Gore

This took awhile. enjoy!

[mb7588a]

68. still need info

Burck
Coffin
Hoyt
Jaffer
Kim
Klingler

so far no real bombshells :(

[Not_Giving_Up]

71. Shannen Coffin

Shannen W. Coffin, a Washington, D.C., attorney, is a former deputy assistant attorney general for the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he coordinated the government's defense of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 in the three recently completed federal trials.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/coffin200407210831.asp

[Emit]

72. Klingler: president has power to detain and interrogate all enemy fighters

If it's the same one:


He's with AEI (American Enterprise Institute) and Citizens for the Common Defence
~snip~
Two days before the Supreme Court hears arguments in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld v. Padilla, AEI will host a discussion of the legal and policy issues raised by detaining under military law U.S. citizens who take up arms against the United States. The discussion will be led by AEI adjunct fellows Bradford Berenson and Richard Klingler, whose organization, Citizens for the Common Defence, has filed a brief with the Court, and Adam Charnes, counsel of record on the organization's brief. Berenson, Klingler, and Charnes will argue that the president has power as commander-in-chief to detain and interrogate all enemy fighters, regardless of citizenship, and that the role of the federal courts in reviewing the detention of U.S. citizen enemies is a limited one.
~snip~

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:P-UoNYXBU20J:www.aei.org/events/filter.all,eventID.795/event_detail.asp+Richard+Klingler&hl=en


~snip~
Richard Klingler is an AEI adjunct fellow and a partner at the law offices of Sidley, Austin, Brown, and Wood, specializing in appellate litigation, regulatory proceedings, and related advisory services, particularly for telecommunications, media, and financial services clients. Mr. Klingler has recently served as internal counsel for a large telecommunications firm before re-joining Sidley, Austin, Brown, and Wood. In addition to his legal accomplishments, Mr. Klingler was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution where he wrote and published his book The New Information Industry: Regulatory Challenges and the First Amendment in 1996. Mr. Klingler was a clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court and formerly served as chief editor of the Stanford Law Review.

~snip~

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:1RT50Yofg_MJ:www.aei.org/events/contentID.20040303132452101/default.asp+Richard+Klingler+Bush&hl=en

[mb7588a]

73. huh, Klingler was an O'Connor clerk. nt.

[Emit]

80. Yeah, I noticed that. n/t

[Emit]

70. Bill Burck

Here's one Bill Burk. There's another in the post #69 below, which might be more likely the right one.

Assistant U.S. Attorney

One of Martha Stewart's prosecutors

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:-uQ-h5h4vEsJ:nominations.blogspot.com/2000_12_01_nominations_archive.html+Bill+Burck&hl=en

[Not_Giving_Up]

69. Bill Burck

Bill Burck, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/06/06/CU2005060601310.html

[mb7588a]

74. still need info on

Hoyt
Jaffer
Kim

[mb7588a]

76. wan kim

http://www.apabala.org/article/133_0_1_0/
Asst. Atty. Gen. for Civil Rights

Prior to his confirmation, Mr. Kim served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, supervising the Criminal, Educational Opportunities, and Housing and Civil Enforcement Sections. He has nearly ten years of experience as an attorney in the Department of Justice, first as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division, later as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and most recently with the Civil Rights Division.

[mb7588a]

77. Bob Hoyt

http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_old/PAW95-96/13_9596/0403feat.html
Bob Hoyt '73, a former (Chesapeake Bay Foundation) CBF attorney turned professor of environmental law

same guy? maybe.

Alito was a 72 grad of Princeton.

Maybe he is Alito's attorney?

[mb7588a]

78. Jameel Jaffir works for the ACLU

There's a couple spelling errors on this list-weird.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0446,hentoff,58430,6.html

[mb7588a]

79. That's everybody

no smoking gun, but it is a lot of pople who know a lot of things we'd like to know...........

Good DU thread i started on Feingold's original questioning:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2362645

I'm not entirely positive about my inferences about this material. It seems likely it'd be used later for witnesses, right?

[Emit]

84. It surprises me to see Jaffer on this list

When I was looking online about him last night, he has been very vocal criticizing Bush & Co.


Wonder if it's the same guy?

"It's difficult for me to understand why nobody was held accountable for the abuse of detainees here. There's no justification for kicking an enemy prisoner of war when he's wounded on the ground in front of you and about to die"

Jamil Jaffer,
ACLU lawyer

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C602E04F-7CF1-4566-830D-FD361DA2CA25.htm

"The government should not be barring scholars from the country simply because it disagrees with what they have to say," said Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU staff attorney. "The government's abuse of immigration laws skews and impoverishes political debate in the United States and deprives citizens of information that they need in order to make informed decisions about government policy."

http://www.aclu.org/natsec/emergpowers/21214prs20051110.html
More here:

http://www.aclu.org/search/search_wrap.html?account=436ac9516921&q=Jameel+Jaffer&sortby=page_date&affiliate=select+one&type=&from_month=month&from_day=day&from_year=year&to_month=month&to_day=day&to_year=year

[hopeisaplace]

75. Senators need coaching sessions

on how to ask questions with skill..*gheesh*

IMO, they need to ask question after question after question and let the nominee talk..for
goodness sakes these nominees are let off the hook when they just get to sit there and
listen to senators talk.

Senators need to be coached by professional interrogators so they can develop the most
important tool they seriously lack.

[phoebe]

81. thanks for extra help on this guys - had computer troubles 1/2 way thru

and couldn't get back on..even now it's painfully slow..

[phoebe]

83. Brent Kavanaugh + Bush criminal probe quote worth looking at again

look under his "bio" on this thread..