An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodli

[StrangeSox]

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0807/final.pdf

 

Disgraceful.

 

Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzalez' chief of staff, was particularly bad.

 

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/...ring_at_doj.php

Edited July 28, 2008 by StrangeSox

[bmags]

I guarantee you, despite them breaking federal laws, they won't have anything happen to them.

[bmags]

I'm glad the definitive report finally came out. I'm shocked at how little people know about the U.S. Attorney scandal. You know Iraq fatigue? I believe there is Bush fatigue.

 

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/...bian_rumors.php

 

In Gonzales' DOJ, Lesbian Rumors Could Cost You Your Job

By Kate Klonick - July 28, 2008, 10:29PM

It wasn't just Democrats who Monica Goodling was trying to rid the Justice Department of. If you were gay -- or even rumored to be gay -- your career was in jeopardy.

 

Today's IG report offers new details in the case of Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Hagen, whose tenure at Main Justice came to an end because Monica Goodling picked up on rumors that Hagen was gay and had an allegedly romantic relationship with her supervisor, the then-U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Margaret Chiara.

 

Hagen, whose case was first reported by NPR in April, is not identified by name in the IG's report. However, her attorney confirmed to TPMmuckraker this afternoon that Hagen is the unnamed, allegedly lesbian, AUSA detailed in the report.

 

"I think the report vindicates what she has been saying all along," said Lisa Banks of Katz, Marshall and Banks LLP. "That she was the victim of pernicious discrimination from Monica Goodling."

 

Hagen had worked as a federal prosecutor for Chiara in Michigan before being detailed to DOJ headquarters in Washington, where she she worked in the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA). When it was time to renew Hagen's detail to the EOUSA, Goodling blocked it, and prevented her from obtaining other details within DOJ as well.

Calling Goodling's actions "wholly inappropriate," the report concluded that Goodling broke federal law in discriminating based on sexual orientation.

 

The ostensible reason for the actions taken against Hagen were rumors that she had improperly benefited financially from the purported relationship with Chiara, in the form of large bonuses and trips with Chiara at government expense. The report concludes, however, that Goodling never substantiated the allegations of financial improprieties and that Hagen's rumored sexual orientation was the reason she was not allowed to remain at Main Justice. One of the witnesses cited in the report is Mary Beth Buchanan, the former executive director of the EOUSA who remains the U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh:

 

Buchanan said that Goodling told her that the AUSA and the U.S. Attorney were involved in a relationship, and that it would not be appropriate for the Department to do anything to further that relationship, such as employing them in the same geographic area. According to Buchanan, at that time the U.S. Attorney was trying to find a position in the Washington, D.C. area. Buchanan said she understood that Goodling was telling her not to select the AUSA because it would look like the Department was sanctioning the homosexual relationship.

As to the veracity of the rumors that surrounded Hagen and Chiara, Hagen's attorney described them as "completely false" in the interview with TPMmuckraker. "There was nothing to verify that my client was gay -- she never identified as such," Banks said. "The supposed relationship between her and the U.S. attorney was completely false, and nothing more than co-workers and friends. There was no improper relationship. No improper government trips. No improper bonuses."

 

Calls to Chiara's office were not immediately returned.

 

It's not clear what, if any, light the Hagen episode shines on the firing of Chiara as U.S. attorney. The professed reasons for the firings of the eight U.S. attorneys have never been very clear, but the circumstances surrounding Chiara's removal have been especially murky. Appointed U.S. attorney in 2001, she was asked to resign by Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, in November 2006. That was more than a month before the seven other U.S. attorneys were fired, in calls from Michael Battle, who had succeeded Buchanan as the executive director of the EOUSA. Chiara's resignation was effective March 16, 2007.

 

The official, albeit vague, reasons for Chiara's firing were "poor management issues" and a "loss of confidence by career individuals," according to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in testimony to the Senate. But there was scant documentation within DOJ of Chiara's alleged problems.

 

In the absence of a more substantial explanation from the justice Department for Chiara's firing, it's not unreasonable to wonder if the rumors of her lesbian relationship with Hagen led to Chiara's downfall, too.

 

As a Republican source told NPR, "To some people, that's even worse than being a Democrat."

 

[StrangeSox]

Some people were passed over because their spouse donated to a Democrat. Monica Goodling was dumb enough to state that in plain English in an email.

[bmags]

www.talkingpointsmemo.com/electioncentral

 

Man Denied DOJ Job Because of Wife's Democrat Ties Is Identified

By Kate Klonick - July 29, 2008, 10:31AM

Among our coverage yesterday of the OIG report, was the specific case of an "experienced terrorism prosecutor" who was denied a DOJ promotion because Monica Goodling discovered that his wife was a longtime Democrat.

 

That man has now been identified by The Buffalo News as William J. Hochul Jr., a career federal prosecutor from Western New York, whose wife, Kathleen Hochul, was a longtime Democrat:

The report does not name that attorney, but sources told The Buffalo News that it was William J. Hochul Jr., a winner of the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service -- and the husband of Kathleen C. Hochul, a longtime Democratic activist and former Hamburg Town Board member who was elected Erie County clerk in 2007.

The Justice Department's liaison to the Bush White House, Monica M. Goodling, blocked Hochul's appointment to the counterterrorism post, sources said.

 

"As a result, a much less experienced, but politically acceptable, attorney was assigned this important responsibility," says the report, issued by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and Inspector General.

The Buffalo News also identifies another Western New York federal prosecutor mentioned in the report, who was also nixed by Goodling for a promotion to Main Justice:

 

Similarly, although Michael A. Battle -- former U. S. attorney in Western New York -- headed the Executive Office of U. S. Attorneys from 2005 to 2007, Goodling blocked his choice for his own top assistant.

Goodling viewed Battle's pick as a "political infant" who had not proved himself to the Republican Party, Battle told investigators. Sources identified the failed nominee as John Kelly of the U. S. attorney's office in Rochester.

Edited July 29, 2008 by bmags

[bmags]

Huge News, somewhat similar scandal

 

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/...contempt_of.php

 

 

After months of making the HJC obsolete, they finally get some teeth.

[Balta1701]

After months of making the HJC obsolete, they finally get some teeth.

No they haven't. The Justice Department would still have to enforce the contempt rulings unless the Dems finally go for the contempt of congress method. The DOJ has already said it won't enforce any contempt rulings handed down by the courts or the Congress, so unless the House uses its own sergeant at arms to put people in jail, nothing will ever happen.

[NorthSideSox72]

Speaking of which... Judge rules that White House aides can in fact be subpoenaed by Congress.

 

[bmags]

f*,

reading the ruling, they didn't throw out exec. privelege. Everything is going to have to be sued for. The white house will never get prosecuted again. A great day for our three branches.