Brenda Morris
Posted on 04/07/2009 2:03:25 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON — A furious federal judge on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of ordering that the prosecutors who bungled the case of former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska be investigated for possible criminal wrongdoing...
--snip--
One F.B.I. agent, Chad Joy, has said in an affidavit that he sat in on meetings in which Stevens prosecutors were clearly aware that they were ignoring their professional obligations to turn over materials that the defense could use to counter the charges.
Agent Joy, who still works for the bureau, took the unusual step of asking the government for official protection as a whistle-blower. His 10-page affidavit has become an important part of the collapse of the case.
--snip--
Now the Justice Department is examining whether senior managers, including members of the public integrity unit, were lax in monitoring the prosecutors and how such a significant case could have gone so far awry without senior officials’ stepping in.
One specific issue is whether the department was at fault for failing to pick up on the struggles of a trial team of five principal lawyers that may have been overwhelmed, struggling in the face of tight deadlines and an aggressive defense team from Williams & Connolly, a law firm known for its combativeness, according...
--snip--
The prosecutors under scrutiny include highly regarded government lawyers with long experience trying corruption cases. One is Brenda Morris, the chief trial lawyer, who jousted with Mr. Stevens during his several hours on the stand, and with the chief defense lawyer, Brendan Sullivan. Also under investigation is William M. Welch II, the interim head of the public integrity unit who rushed over to take control of the case in early October after the judge strongly criticized the government’s erratic behavior, saying he had lost confidence in the public integrity unit...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
AP's version has the same title. The Times might change its title before tomorrow.
May the tendrils of the paper trail wend its way back to the beltway and/or the chicago Dhimmi machine.
$10 says nothing ever happens to them.
Excellent news. An investigation of the prosecutors should be done. We are America.
Now that he’s lost the Senate seat and there’s a nice 6 year term for a democrat, it was all a big misunderstanding. My fat Italian ass.
just think what kind of media circus - including “impeach!” and BDS crowd would be on 24/7 had this been done by conservatives.
I cannot think why GOP does not make this an issue. This is clearly “politicization of DOJ” and GOP should be demanding congressional investigation and they should be on TV every day making the case how activist justice is poisoning the country.
Nifong is another example. DOJ refused to investigate Nifong. GOP should demand congressional hearings on that too. Did the democratic activist attorneys at DOJ do that? Shouldn’t they be prosecuted for that?
The Stevens atrocity has democrat party ordered assassination written all over it.
Gee, a leftist lawyer doing wrong. Who would have thunk it.
Because the GOP
is just the other side of the same oligarchy puppet/robot.
I PREFER to think of the DIMRATS as the rear side . . .
however . . . that would still leave the GOP side to do a lot of destructive . . . uhhh . . .
poking of taxpayers and patriots where it hurts most.
You can expect a lot more of these types of fake prosecutions in the future. They are a specialty in banana republics.
So....did that contractor build him a house?
What Brenda Morris and William Welch did, if the accusations are true, is tantamount to robbery, fraud and kidnapping and should be treated as such.
Federal Government Prosecutors lied? Deliberatley withhels evidence?
This is considered news?
I thought it was just accepted fact....
Well, at the least, because the Judge has ordered an investigation, they are going to have to lawyer up, and in this town, that is not cheap.
Why not make it a trillion?
They got what they wanted. Is everyone who works in government crooked or cowardly?
Yea, I’ll print some money up to bail you out if you lose the gamble.
Does that title sound biased to you? It sounds fair to me, but I’m not familiar enough w/ the story to make an informed decision. What do you think?
The DOJ is a political machine whether there’s a (D) or (R) in the White House. The “Justice” part of their name is somewhat farcical.
The prosecutors were Bush appointees as was the public integrity overseer. They were no Clinton appointed prosecutors left in the Justice Dept. by 2008. Maybe they just had it in for the ornery old Senator. I would like to know why other than the fact he was mean as a snake and corrupt as heck.
The judge assigned a special prosecuter outside of justice.
LLS
Good. We like those kind of judges, don’t we?
What are the chances that Chad Joy will ever get another promotion within the FBI?
But if the perps escape jail, they’ll all get promotions, for doing the job the politicians wanted them to do.
>> Is everyone who works in government crooked or cowardly?
Throw in “or lazy or incompetent”, and you pretty much have it.
The ONLY piece of our government that works well, IMO, is our military.
The entire rest of it, top to bottom, is useless at best, and evil at worst.
And your source for this statement ?
Brenda Morris
Probably asked Johnny Sutton for pointers.
Glad to see the NYT is already strengthening their reputations and putting forth their defense. oh, poor government attorneys overwhelmed with deadlines ... as if ALL attorneys don’t live with that day in and day out without the feds footing the bill. The article is a complete crock. (that goes without saying given the source)
Are you talking career prosecutors or President-appointed U.S. Attorneys?
The DOJ was conducting an internal investigation. Not with enough alacrity for the judge, who appointed his own independent investigator.. this thing WILL have legs.
It is easy to verify because it is common accepted practice of all incoming administrations. Bush accepted the resignation of ALL Clinton prosecutors in 2001 and later even fired some of his own appointees. This is common knowledge and I am surprised you did not know it. I am also surprised the Bush prosecutors went after a GOP senator with such venom.
Brenda Morris, DYKE!
A contractor(s) remodeled his house. In return, he paid $160,000. The prosecution made up a spreadsheet to allege that the value of the work effort was in excess of $200,000.
That spreadsheet was found to include hours of people that weren't even in town the days the prosecution asserted they were working for Stevens. It was so bad that the judge threw the whole thing out and advised the jury to disregard it.
LLS
Do not confuse "prosecutors" with "US Attorneys." You are correct that Bush removed all US Attorneys and appointed his own bunch.
The prosecutors in this case were not appointees but career civil servants, working for DOJ for decades, but promoted and elevated during the Bush administration. Several have been shown to be Democrats.
Regardless, the investigation took place under Gonzales and the indictment and trial under Mukasey.
These were LIBERAL democrat lawyers inside the DOJ.
If the AG would have questioned the investigation, the lawyers would have screamed bloody murder to the media.
There was no US attorneys involved in this case. This was a DOJ, career lawyers, scam.
“The prosecutors were Bush appointees as was the public integrity overseer.”
Not true.
As somebody already mentioned, these people were not political appointees but career attorneys. Every department has both (temporary) political appointees and (permanent) career attorneys. Career attorneys tend to be liberal. Maybe 60% of attorneys are liberal and for those who want to work for the Government it is even higher (75%?).
US attorneys are totally different (in fact, Bush did not fire them all when he was elected).
Bush terminated all US Attorneys when taking office, except Bob Mueller (who he nominated to head the FBI) and Paul Warner. Mary Jo White was allowed to stay in office several months but was ultimately replaced.
That is incorrect. The 8 that you refer to were in his second term, and those were US Attorneys that he had appointed.
Bush should have fired all of Clinton's political appointee's....but he didn't.
In the case of US Attorneys, he did.
See posts 23 and 24, for more.
I found this somewhere:
“That is mostly true, replied D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales. “Clinton fired all Bush [U.S. attorneys] in one fell swoop. We fired all Clinton [U.S. attorneys] but staggered it out more and permitted some to stay on a few months,” he said.”
Anyway, US attorneys are different from DOJ career attorneys. The controversy here is the permanent DOJ career attorneys, who tend to be liberal (and as seen in Nifong and Stevens case, willing to misuse their powers).
Which is exactly what I said... with a link cited referencing the email. Bush did replace all Clinton attorneys, despite the many times people continue to post propaganda otherwise.
Anyway, US attorneys are different from DOJ career attorneys. The controversy here is the permanent DOJ career attorneys, who tend to be liberal (and as seen in Nifong and Stevens case, willing to misuse their powers).
Agreed. But you cannot just replace career civil servants like you do with political appointees; they cannot be fired, without cause. But in this case, you had Brenda Morris specifically assigned to this witchhunt shortly before trial. You had William Welch promoted to his Chief spot. I don't think this was entirely a Democrat lynching.
What I meant to say...
Bush did replace all Clinton U.S. attorneys...
Bios of prosecutors facing criminal investigation (Sen. Stevens)
Anchorage Daily News | 4/7/09
Posted on 04/07/2009 6:01:51 PM PDT by JRochelle
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2224493/posts
Stevens was accused of getting renovations and improvements for free. It was already his house.
You may be right, but I remember it the way I posted it. Where could I find that information? Link?
Are you referring to the 8 that were fired?
You can probably find facts on most of them by googling their names, or looking at FR Keywords:
Carol Lam, David Iglesias, Paul Charlton, Daniel Bogden, Kevin Ryan, Margaret Chiara, John McKay, Bud Cummins
While I hate wikipedia, it is good for some things:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Lam
Lam began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Irving R. Kaufman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1985 to 1986.[2]
From 1986 to 1997, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California and was Chief of the Major Frauds Section from 1997 to 2000. Lam convicted several high-ranking members of the Chicago organized crime family La Cosa Nostra; obtained a guilty plea and a civil settlement of $110 million from National Health Laboratories, Inc. in a Medicare fraud case; and briefed and argued the first appellate case upholding the constitutionality of “roving” wiretaps.
She then served as a judge of the Superior Court in San Diego, presiding over a criminal trial calendar.
In 2002, Lam was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California by George W. Bush. In 2007, Lam was asked to resign by the Bush Administration.
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