Fitzgerald Won’t Charge Rove, Adviser’s Lawyer Says
The prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case on Monday advised Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, that he would not be charged with any wrongdoing, effectively ending the nearly three-year criminal investigation that had at times focused intensely on Mr. Rove.
The decision by the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, announced in a letter to Mr. Rove’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, lifted a pall that had hung over Mr. Rove who testified on five occasions to a federal grand jury about his involvement in the disclosure of an intelligence officer’s identity.
In a statement, Mr. Luskin said, “On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove.”
Mr. Fitzgerald’s spokesman, Randall Samborn, said he would not comment on Mr. Rove’s status.
(NYTimes)
Faced with a widening federal investigation into his ties to a high-powered lobbying firm, House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis has retained a criminal defense attorney, said sources close to the California Republican.
Lewis recently hired Robert Bonner of the Los Angeles-based firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the sources said.
Barbara Comstock, an attorney with the firm Blank Rome Government Relations and a former Justice Department official, will handle press inquiries for Lewisâ legal team, the sources added.
(Roll Call)
Flouting the Rule on Lobbyist-Paid Travel
…a review of travel disclosure forms by the Center for Public Integrity found that dozens of congressional travelers appear to have violated this ethics rule in recent years.
Filings for travel from January 2000 through June 2005 show that lawmakers and aides accepted at least 90 trips for which the original reported sponsors or co-sponsors match the names of firms registered with the Senate Office of Public Records to lobby the federal government. The total cost of the travel listed on the original forms was roughly $145,000.
As of April 21, the Center found that about 20 percent of those forms had been amended to indicate that a different set of sponsors paid for the trips.
“After the Abramoff scandal, you would think that every member of Congress or staff who took a trip would go back and look at their forms to see if they also took a trip from a lobbyist,” said Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “[Not doing so] shows a real insensitivity to the implications of the rules and laws.”
News Flash: Scots Love Golf, But Don’t Care About Abramoff
For all the Beltway chatter about the worldâs original golf course and what may or may not have happened when Jack Abramoff flew federal officials here in 2000 and again in 2002, locals in this windswept beach town are distinctly uninterested.
Most people interviewed here have never heard of Abramoff, so theyâre also unaware of the starring role their townâs big draw is playing in the scandal thatâs consuming Washington, D.C., insiders.
(Roll Call)
Federal prosecutor Nathaniel B. Edmonds told the jury in his closing argument that Safavian maintained a “secret, inappropriate and unethical relationship” with Abramoff, his former boss, when Safavian became the deputy chief of staff and then chief of staff of the General Services Administration, the U.S. government’s landlord agency.
Abramoff bestowed on Safavian a long list of favors, including a heavily subsidized golfing trip to Scotland and London on a private jet in the summer of 2002, Edmonds said. In exchange, he added, Safavian offered Abramoff “access, he offered connections, he offered power.”….
Safavian’s attorney Barbara Van Gelder, said there were “many reasons to doubt the government’s evidence.”…
She portrayed Safavian’s omissions of fact to investigators as “innocent errors” that should not be judged as crimes by the jury because he acted “in good faith.” Van Gelder characterized Safavian as “open, courteous, trying to do the right thing” and said he answered any question or requests put to him by investigators.
(WPost)
Arguments on Spy Program Are Heard by Federal Judge in ACLU Suit
A National Security Agency program that listens in on international communications involving people in the United States is both vital to national security and permitted by the Constitution, a government lawyer told a judge here on Monday in the first major court argument on the program.
But, the lawyer went on, “the evidence we need to demonstrate to you that it is lawful cannot be disclosed without that process itself causing grave harm to United States national security.”….
The government’s main argument on Monday, repeated over and over, was that more facts are required but that more facts cannot be disclosed.
(NYTimes)
Shadeggâs Memo Stokes Fight on Pork
A leading fiscal conservative in the House has stoked debate over pork by circulating a newspaper story linking Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) to âthe inherent risk of corruption at the heart of the congressional earmark process.â
Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), who ran for the majority leadership on a platform of fiscal retrenchment, sent reelection supporters an opinion piece on the federal investigation surrounding the House Appropriations Committee chairman.
(The Hill)
`Honest Services’ Law Vexes Defense Lawyers in Fraud Cases
In a string of recent high-profile public corruption cases, federal prosecutors have charged elected officials, including at least two governors and a congressman, with defrauding the public of its right to “honest services.”
It’s a charge that seems to strike at the heart of civic corruption: Who would disagree that the public is entitled to politicians’ honest services?
But to some defense lawyers, the law is a source of consternation, a brief, vague addendum to the mail and wire fraud statute that makes it possible to bring up a grab-bag of activity that may look unsavory or unethical but does not fit specific crimes such as theft or bribery.
(Knight Ridder)
Energy Dept. Tells Workers of Data Theft
Energy Department officials told nearly 1,500 workers that their Social Security numbers and other information may have been compromised when a hacker gained entry to a department computer system eight months ago. (AP)
NSA Blocking Whistleblower From Telling Committee About Shocking, Illegal Activities
CongressDaily reports that the NSA is preventing Congress from interviewing Russell Tice. (ThinkProgress)
Former Administration Official Sensed Trouble at MZM
Within two months of joining defense contractor MZM Inc., former Bush administration official Kay Coles James quit after questionable conduct by the company’s president.
Pelosi Takes Case to Black Media
The fight over the Ways and Means Committee seat held by Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) is now playing out on the airwaves and in the pages of publications aimed at blacks, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) seeks to dispel the notion that sheâs enforcing a double standard by demanding that Jefferson step down prior to any criminal charges being filed against him.
(Roll Call)
