The Daily Muck

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Allen Raymond, former Republican consultant connected to the 2002 Election Day phone-jamming controversy in New Hampshire, said the White House had no knowledge of the plot. The scandal has led to at least three criminal prosecutions and a $135,000-lawsuit settled between Republicans and Democrats.(Associated Press)

The top defender in Supreme Court cases of the Bush administration’s policies toward legal rights of Gitmo prisoners is resigning after nearly three years at the post. Solicitor General Paul Clement argued before the Supreme Court that the detainees are not allowed rights to prove their innocence, backing the administration’s view to abolish habeas corpus rights for all terrorism suspects. (Reuters)

Head of analysis for all U.S. spy agencies Thomas Fingar spent years compiling an intelligence report on Iran and the country’s nuclear goals. Just before his report was to be released last summer, new intelligence offered a view different from Fingar’s, that Iran was no longer seeking a nuclear program, undermining the Bush administration’s hard line on Tehran and underscoring the murky lines that separate politics and intelligence. (LA Times)

Two members of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign staff resigned recently after their lobbying ties to the oppressive military junta in Myanmar came to light. Now McCain is promising, “People will be thoroughly, more thoroughly, vetted,” within his campaign from now on … yet Charlie Black remains. (Wall St. Journal)

Sgt. Jermaine Nelson claims he was only following orders. But a Marine commanding general wants to pin blame on him. Now Nelson is charged with the murder in November 2004 of an unarmed detainee in Fallujah, with life in prison looming. (Associated Press)

Mississippians are rushing to find housing before FEMA kicks them out of the agency’s disaster housing program on June 1. Around 6,800 families still live in FEMA trailers nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina. (Sun Herald)

Private defense behemoth Blackwater Worldwide applied for a permit to lease a training center in the Otay Mesa-area of San Diego under the guise of two companies they employ, Southwest Law Enforcement and Raven Development Group. Area citizens appealed the permit claiming false information provided by Blackwater warranted the second look. Now city officials are saying the appeal doesn’t apply, and Blackwater can resume plans. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A former associate of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Adam Kidan, wants time off from prison due to his cooperation with prosecutors. Kidan was sentenced to 70 months in jail in 2005 for fraud. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)