Saturday, June 09, 2007

Purgegate Update

Was the Federalist Society society involved in Purgegate? Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society sent an email message to Mary Beth Buchanan on March 7 2005. Buchanan is now US Attorney for western Pennsylvania but at the time she served at the White House as director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and Kyle Sampson consulted with her about which US Attorneys should be replaced.

The subject of the email was "USA San Diego" meaning US Attorney and the message was "You guys need a good candidate?" with a recommendation for Mary Walker.

The problem is, Carol Lam was "USA San DIego" at the time, had no plans to step down, but was put on "the list" in late February, just a couple of weeks before this email. At the time, supposedly only top DoJ and White House officials knew of the planned purge; so why would Leo recommend someone for Lam's position?

By the way, "Walker led a Pentagon working group in 2003, which critics said helped provide the administration with a rationale to circumvent the international Geneva Conventions banning torture in the interrogations of terrorism suspects."

Buchanan will testify privately with the House Judiciary Committee on Friday.

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