New Info Indicates Corruption in Judicial Confirmation Process

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 4/07/04 | Susan Jones

[kattracks]

(CNSNews.com) - A government watchdog group says it knows who wrote an incriminating memo to Sen. Ted Kennedy, recommending that he delay the confirmation of one of President Bush's judicial nominees -- apparently to influence the outcome of an important pending case.

According to The Center for Individual Freedom, two of Sen. Kennedy's former aides -- in a memo dated April 17, 2002 -- recommended that he delay the confirmation of Judge Julia Smith Gibbons to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The reason? To influence the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, then pending before the 6th Circuit appeals court, CFIF said.

Olati Johnson, then Judiciary counsel to Senator Kennedy, wrote the memo, CFIF said. Melody Barnes, who at the time was chief counsel to Senator Kennedy, joined in the memo's recommendation that Judge Gibbons' confirmation be delayed. In all copies of the memo that have been made public, Johnson's and Barnes' names have been redacted, CFIF noted.

Johnson's job history is key to the story, the Center for Individual Freedom said.

Immediately before joining Senator Kennedy's staff in September 2001, Olati Johnson was assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. There she served as co-counsel for Elaine R. Jones.

Jones had a direct interest in the outcome of the University of Michigan undergraduate school affirmative action case; she served as counsel for one of the parties.

In fact, according CFIF, Olati wrote the memo urging Kennedy to delay Judge Gibbons' confirmation based on a telephone request from Elaine Jones.

According to CFIF, "The revelation that Johnson authored the memo, responding to a request from her former colleague, raises significant new ethics questions regarding the highly publicized affirmative action cases and Democratic efforts in the U.S. Senate to obstruct judicial confirmations.

"As co-counsel in the University of Michigan case, Johnson exceeded the bounds of acceptable advocacy with her recommendation to Senator Kennedy."

The Center noted that both Olati Johnson and Melody Barnes raised ethical concerns about the April 17 memo to Sen. Kennedy: "[Melody Barnes] and I are a little concerned about the propriety of scheduling hearings based on the resolution of a particular case," Johnson wrote.

Their memo also specified the rationale for the delay: "The thinking is that the current 6th Circuit will sustain the affirmative action program, but if a new judge with conservative views is confirmed before the case is decided, that new judge will be able, under 6th Circuit rules, to review the case and vote on it."

According to the Center for Individual Freedom, Olati's memo noted that the "6th Circuit is in dire need of additional judges" and that Judge Gibbons was an "uncontroversial nominee." CFIF said those two remarks indicate there was no reason to delay Gibbons' confirmation - other than to affect the outcome of the case in question."

\tx6660"The scandal is growing," said CFIF Executive Director Jeffrey Mazzella.

"First we learn that Elaine Jones tried to affect a pending case by stacking the judicial deck in her favor. Now it turns out that she enlisted the help of her former employee, Olati Johnson, who was a co-counsel in the University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative action case before she worked for Senator Kennedy."

CFIF has run several advertisements in recent weeks, urging Sen. Kennedy and other Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats to come clean about the memos.

"Two of Kennedy's closest advisors recommended that he engage in improper conduct," Mazzella said on Tuesday. "It's time for Senator Kennedy to answer the key question in this mushrooming scandal: did he try to influence a major pending case by obstructing a judicial nominee? This revelation demonstrates beyond any doubt that his staff did."

The Center for Individual Freedom is among a number of groups demanding a Senate Ethics Committee investigation. The request for such a probe has not yet been answered, CFIF noted.

"Before Senator Kennedy attacks President Bush or other leaders for having a credibility problem, he ought to look at himself and his own staff," Mazzella concluded.

"The staffers who wrote this memo have obviously committed a serious ethical breach. Senator Kennedy ought to acknowledge whether he is guilty of the same major ethical violations."

The Center for Individual Freedom describes itself as a constitutional advocacy group that "fights to protect individual freedom and individual rights in the legal, legislative, and educational arenas."

Since 2001, its Confirmation Watch project has worked to "expose and eliminate the corruption and manipulation that plagues the judicial confirmation process."

See Earlier Stories:
Second Ad Demands Answers From Senate Judiciary Democrats (31 Mar. 2004)
Ad Questions Senator Kennedy on 'Obstruction of Justice' (24 Mar. 2004) Memogate? Conservative Leader Calls for Probe (24 Feb. 2004)

[Glenn]

Flash!:

Sun rises in the morning!

[Just mythoughts]

"The staffers who wrote this memo have obviously committed a serious ethical breach. Senator Kennedy ought to acknowledge whether he is guilty of the same major ethical violations."



Senator Kennedy has no ethics to begin with, this old pickled mind is little more than a speech giver.

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[anniegetyourgun]

Ted Kennedy....guilty on so many counts.

[The Wizard]

sounds like criminal offenses that should be prosecuted

[Elle Bee]

"The staffers who wrote this memo have obviously committed a serious ethical breach. Senator Kennedy ought to acknowledge whether he is guilty of the same major ethical violations."

I seriously doubt that "ethical violations" are of a moment's concern for a boozehound who has already been given a free pass after killing Mary Jo Kopekny (sp?)

.

[patj]

Does anyone else think it suspicious that the gulity parties are former staffers?

[Coop]

But unless the GOP takes the ball and runs with it...

[Just mythoughts]

So true, one could make the claim Senator Kennedy is "mental" and being used and abused because he is no longer in control of his mental faculties.

[sgtbono2002]

"Before Senator Kennedy attacks President Bush or other leaders for having a credibility problem, he ought to look at himself and his own staff," Mazzella concluded.


Kennedy has never had any credibility with anyone with good sense in the first place.

[Imal]

This just in: Democrats corrupt.

In other news, Pope Catholic, and the National Park Service reports that a bear has relieved itself in the woods.

[OXENinFLA]

(Big)MEMOGATE PING................

[Thebaddog]

Every time I read about these issues with the courts, I come up with a mental image of Norman Lear and Ralph Neas. These are the hidden hands behind all of this stuff.

[Humal]

This is no real surprise to me. Ted Kennedy is so in debt to the trial lawyers, he would do anything or say anything for them. All of his actions are aimed at defeating the President, because he is NOT on the trial lawyers' side. It's been said many times, "Follow the money".

I wonder, especially under these circumstances, if the Michigan affirmative action law could be revisited if/when Judge Gibbons, or any new judge, is installed?

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1015980/posts

MemoGate- sedition, slander-- or something worse?
Various FR links | 11-06-03 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1015980/posts

MemoGate- sedition, slander-- or something worse?
Various FR links | 11-06-03 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[daybreakcoming]

If the Kennedy family was compassionate, they would have him put away.

[xzins]

Who is on the Senate Ethics committee?

It is time to send letters to our Senators demanding an ethics investigation of Ted Kennedy. (Kennedy will threaten them because he sees himself as a real power center....his ego is far, far greater than his girth.)

[Old Sarge]

This came on CNS? Who reads that?!?

This will not appear on WAPO/NYT/LAT/CBS/NBC/ABCDisney/CNN, so who's gonna know? Certainly not The Sheep.

[Just mythoughts]

"If the Kennedy family was compassionate, they would have him put away."


The whole family is "mental" or dumb, stupid or blind.... The profile of the family is Teddy. I do not believe that Teddy has enough "mental faculties" left connected to write what he speaks.

I think that Old Teddy made a "deal" with Hillry to get that convention in Boston, he would give her speeches. He does not speak with the voice of a "sane" mind.

[Gritty]

Once a fat drunken murderer, always a fat drunken murderer.

The disgusting thing is the Senate puts up with people like this in the body and even grovels and calls them "my good friend and esteemed colleague"!

[Arrowhead1952]

"The staffers who wrote this memo have obviously committed a serious ethical breach. Senator Kennedy ought to acknowledge whether he is guilty of the same major ethical violations."

Senator Kennedy should shut his killer whale trap, retire from his senate seat and go into an insane asylum.

[deport]

Kennedy and the Judicial process.... Do you reckon the medial will pick this up and scatter it around the news cycles?

How would delaying her confirmation impacted the case? Was she up for confirmation before the case was ever heard before the court? If not I bet she would have not been involved in the decision if she didn't hear the presentations..... Sorta like Judge Pickering did just recently.

[hoosiermama]

SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

Unfortunately, IMO, nothing will happen because of the name Kennedy.....never any consequences for his action.....just sympathy for two dead brothers.....poor drunk BASSSturd. What a waisted life!

[cantfindagoodscreenname]

Do you reckon the medial will pick this up and scatter it around the news cycles?

Oh, sure they will, lol! As soon as I saw the source for this story, I knew that it would never see the light of day.

[Liberty Valance]

The info exposed in "memo-gate" is being implemented as we type by the 5th column dems. We see it. Why doesn't the media see it? I may have answered my own question. :^)

---

W'04

---

[pogo101]

For you FReepers who are dieting, let's illustrate this Ted Kennedy story appropriately:

[tractorman]

I don’t believe a word a guy says that can’t even keep his first name straight.
I mean what is it: Ted, Ed, Teddy, Eddy, Theodore, Edward or what?

[Solson]

I'm shocked I've never seen this story in the mainstream press. I'm also surprised I haven't seen Katie Couric strongly questioning Senator Kennedy over this obvious breach of ethics.

[RippleFire]

bump

[sam_paine]

Does the Pope poop in the woods? Does a bear wear a funny hat?

[vaudine]

Sooo!? Where is the outrage; where is the media coverage; where has the lawsuit been filed--the ethics charge? These Repubs need to get off their La-la land dufusses and make some strenuous charges.

I can't hold my breath tht long.

vaudine

[expatpat]

If the Kennedy family was compassionate, they would have him put away.

They put his nutty sister in a loony bin(the one you never hear about), but it seems they put the wrong sibling away.

[Just mythoughts]

I believe there is a "special" place reserved for those who "hate" and seek to destroy their own nation and people.

NOT JUDGING Old Teddy, could well be he is "mentally insane", thus doing his evil deeds in ignorance, but those who USE him for their own political gain are just as accountable!

[Just mythoughts]

"I don’t believe a word a guy says that can’t even keep his first name straight.
I mean what is it: Ted, Ed, Teddy, Eddy, Theodore, Edward or what?"


The baby of the Kennedy clan is still a baby, and never grew up. I do not believe that he is capable of writing what he says, reason why I believe his speeches come from Hillry....

She has tried to give these kind of shrill lunatic speeches and got mocked, and keeps her "negatives" tooooo high to run for that most coveted positions of power.

[montag813]

Immediately before joining Senator Kennedy's staff in September 2001, Olati Johnson was assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Can you day "Omarossa"?

[montag813]

Immediately before joining Senator Kennedy's staff in September 2001, Olati Johnson was assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Can you say "Omarossa"?

[StriperSniper]

Once a fat drunken murderer, always a fat drunken murderer.

Laura Ingraham had a caller yesterday who said, "We have found WMD, it is Ted Kenedy, a Womanizing, Murdering Drunk!".

[montag813]

"The staffers who wrote this memo have obviously committed a serious ethical breach. Senator Kennedy ought to acknowledge whether he is guilty of the same major ethical violations."

No..George Allen needs to take his attacks of The Swimmer to the Senate floor, and Santorum needs to arrange a censure vote. TIME TO GET SERIOUS PEOPLE! THERE'S A WAR ON!

[tractorman]

Kind of makes me wonder what else is in the swimmers FBI file that Shrillary has.

[hgro]

Gee, what a suprise that brain ded ted would ever be influenced by anyone. He is a stalwart swimmer who knows how to drown his adversaries on his own.

[Just mythoughts]

"Kind of makes me wonder what else is in the swimmers FBI file that Shrillary has."


I see this not as "blackmail", rather a coordination of two gangs, Northern and Southern. To regain the "power" the two sides had to call a truce, signed an agreement and join forces.

Teddy wanted the convention in Boston, for his boy JFKerry and in order to get that convention he had to become the microphone for Hillry. Right now Old Teddy sees no "pain" for his deeds, who will stand against him, after all his best friend in the Senate is none other than the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Orin Hatch.

[tractorman]

“Teddy wanted the convention in Boston, for his boy JFKerry …”

The big pig at the big dig.

[Just mythoughts]

“Teddy wanted the convention in Boston, for his boy JFKerry …”

"The big pig at the big dig."



LOL I sure hope they have filled up all those holes under that city of Boston, would not do to have all those people convening to cause that city to sink!

[Redbob]

Why haven't I heard anything about this on the evening news?

Oh, nevermind...

[tractorman]

There’s hole big enough for the swimmer to plug.

[MamaLucci]

This is why Ted the Swimmer has been keeping such a high profile.

[USVet6792Retired]

Things you will never hear in the Senate chamber.....

"The Chair recognizes the murderer from Massachusetts"

[tractorman]

Oops. Make that:

There’s NO hole big enough for the swimmer to plug.

[sasafras]

This is no big deal unless the Republicans make an issue of it. They will probably just let the Dems call them racist and crawl back into a hiding spot. We need more Republican/Conservative politicians that are willing to stick their neck out and call a spade a spade. Like Tom Tancredo.