The Daily MuckIn response to investigations by the Justice Department, the CIA Inspector General, and Congress, the CIA has begun a search for more audio or videotapes of interrogations. Officials believe that the CIA does not have any more recordings that it made itself, but that it may have recordings made by other intelligence services. (Newsweek)
Congressional leaders and government watchdog groups are continuing to ask questions about no-bid contracts awarded by federal prosecutors to former Bush administration officials to monitor corporations as part of settlements in fraud and corruption cases. Questions about corporate monitors – who are paid by the companies they monitor – first arose when it was revealed recently that former attorney general John Ashcroft was awarded a no-bid contract worth over $25 million. (Washington Post)
The competition for former Rep. Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) seat on the House Appropriations Committee is shaping up as a battle over the Republican Party’s disposition towards earmarks. Former Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) says that the appointment of Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who has been critical of the earmark process, would make a “major statement” that the Republican Party is serious about “ending wasteful earmarks and bringing transparency to the Appropriations Committee.” (The Hill)
House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) is looking into CEO pay as part of his investigation of the subprime mortgage crisis. Waxman has sent letters to the CEO of Countrywide Financial and the former CEOs of Citigroup and Merill Lynch questioning them about their pay packages. (Politico)
According to the FBI, the number of federal mortgage fraud convictions more than doubled in 2007. Investigators predict that number will increase further in 2008 as the crisis over home mortgage loans intensifies.
Alarmed at reports of safety problems with the fire-fighting system at the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has called for a “full and thorough investigation” by the Government Accountability Office. Wolf also sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, urging her to investigate. (Washington Post)
Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona, who just returned from a self-imposed 60-day suspension, has announced that he will be retiring so that he can spend more time battling federal corruption charges. This means that he will also be spending more time with his wife and mistress because while Carona faces conspiracy, mail-fraud, and witness-tampering charges, his wife faces a conspiracy charge, and his mistress faces four counts of mail fraud, three counts of bankruptcy fraud, and a conspiracy count. Carona’s attorney said that his client, once a rising star in the GOP and a Golden Duke nominee, resigned on his website so as to not distract him from his trial preparations. (Los Angeles Times)
The once prominent plaintiff’s attorney Dickie Scruggs, who was charged in November with conspiring to bribe a judge in a Hurricane Katrina-related case, now faces a second set of allegations. Court papers in a separate case reveal that Scruggs conspired with attorney Joey Langston to bribe a state judge, Bobby DeLaughter, in a fee-dispute from an asbestos case. Scruggs lawyer asserts that “Langston apparently has his own problems, but they’re not Dickie Scruggs’s problems.” Scruggs is former Sen. Trent Lott’s (R-MS) brother-in-law. (Wall Street Journal)
