"Writing Letters," New York Sun,  July 19, 2006.

Story lede:

The Justice Department's own ethics officer commences an investigation as to whether the attorney general and his top aides acted within the law in approving a covert domestic wiretapping program authorized by the president. But the inquiry is shut down before the first witness in interviewed. The attorney who is to lead the inquiry, a 20- year veteran of the Justice Department, is simply informed by his superiors that he and his staff have been denied security clearances necessary to do their work. The government has in effect curtailed an investigation of itself.

 
"Internal Affairs",   National Journal, March 15, 2007.

Story lede:

Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.

What others wrote about this same story:

“Rove is Linked to Early Query Over Dismissals”, New York Times, March 15, 2007.

“Separately, the House Judiciary Committee, opened a new front in its investigation of Mr. Gonzales, asking him to respond to an article published in The National Journal asserting that he had advised President Bush to effectively terminate a Justice Department inquiry into the program of domestic surveillance without warrants only after Mr. Gonzales learned he might be a subject of the investigation.

“Even Republican defenders on Capitol Hill are expressing growing unease.

“’I think the attorney general is going to have to explain himself because this has cast a cloud over the department,” said Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, before the latest disclosures. “How much is justified? I don’t know. But it has cast a cloud there’.”

Also, what others wrote about his story:

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/opinion/25rich.html

Frank Rich, “When Will Fredo Get Whacked?” New York Times, March 25, 2007,

 "Secret Order by Gonzales Delegated Extraordinary Powers to his Aides,"  National Journal, April 20, 2006.

Story lede:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed a highly confidential order in March 2006 delegating to two of his top aides -- who have since resigned because of their central roles in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys -- extraordinary authority over the hiring and firing of most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department. A copy of the order and other Justice Department records related to the conception and implementation of the order were provided to National Journal.

In the order, Gonzales delegated to his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, and his White House liaison "the authority, with the approval of the Attorney General, to take final action in matters pertaining to the appointment, employment, pay, separation, and general administration" of virtually all non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department, including all of the department's political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation. Monica Goodling became White House liaison in April 2006, the month after Gonzales signed the order.

The existence of the order suggests that a broad effort was under way by the White House to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department, not just at the U.S.-attorney level. Department records show that the personnel authority was delegated to the two aides at about the same time they were working with the White House in planning the firings of a dozen U.S. attorneys, eight of whom were, in fact, later dismissed.

 What others wrote about this story:

"Gonzales Gave Aides Firing Authority: Secret Authority Seen as Evidence of an Effort at Political Interference," Associated Press, May 1, 2007. 

“Justice Department Announces Inquiry into its Hiring Practices”, New York Times, May 3, 2007

“In a confidential memorandum signed by Mr. Gonzales in March 2006, the attorney general delegated to them the hiring and firing of the department’s political appointees and senior executives, with the exception of those who had to be confirmed by the Senate.
“That would include many of the senior lawyers at department headquarters who handle public corruption, civil rights, voting fraud and environmental crimes, among other matters. It could also include interim United States attorneys.

“Mr. Specter, the ranking Republican on the judiciary panel, said he was infuriated that such a formal delegation of power took place, yet no one told Congressional investigators until it was reported this week by the National Journal…”

"Justice Official Says He Was Directed to Call Fired Prosecutors"  National Journal, May 3, 2007.

Story lede:

The chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has told congressional investigators that phone calls he placed to four fired U.S. attorneys -- calls that three of the prosecutors say involved threats about testifying before Congress -- were made at McNulty's direction.

Michael Elston, the chief of staff, told congressional investigators in a closed-door session on March 30 that McNulty specifically instructed him to make the phone calls after the Justice Department's No. 2 official learned that the fired prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals.

A transcript of Elston's confidential interview with the congressional investigators was made available to National Journal.

The U.S. attorneys have said that Elston, in effect, told them that if they kept quiet about their dismissals, the Justice Department would not suggest that they had been forced to resign because of poor performance.

Related article:

Amy Goldstein, "Justice Department Official to Quit: Elston Had Role in Prosecutor Firigns", Washington Post, June 11, 2007. 
 

"Administration Withheld Emails about Rove"  National Journal, May 10, 2007.

The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

The withheld records show that D. Kyle Sampson, who was then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, consulted with White House officials in drafting two letters to Congress that appear to have misrepresented the circumstances of Griffin's appointment as U.S. attorney and of Rove's role in supporting Griffin.

In one of the letters that Sampson drafted, dated February 23, 2007, the Justice Department told four Senate Democrats it was not aware of any role played by senior White House adviser Rove in attempting to name Griffin to the U.S. attorney post. A month later, the Justice Department apologized in writing to the Senate Democrats for the earlier letter, saying it had been inaccurate in denying that Rove had played a role.
 

"The Scales of Justice" National Journal, May 31, 2007.

Lede:

In the closing weeks of Missouri's tight 2006 U.S. Senate race, the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., took the unusual step of revealing that his office's investigation into possible state government contracting abuses in Missouri had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Republican Gov. Matt Blunt.

Separately, less than a week before Election Day, the interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., brought voting-fraud charges against four employees of the activist group ACORN, which registers low-income people who typically vote for Democratic candidates. Justice Department guidelines discourage prosecutors from bringing criminal charges so close to an election.

Related articles:

Greg Gordon, “20006 Missouri Election Was Ground Zero for GOP”, McClatchy Newspapers, May 2, 2007.

Charlie Savage, "Missouri Attorney a Focus in Firings," Boston Glob, May 6, 2007.

Eric Lipton and Ian Urbina, "Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud," New York Times, April 11, 2007.

Robert L. Hasen, "Implausible Deniability": The Internet Foils Fudging by Three Voter Fraud Warriors", Slate, June 13, 2007. 

 

"The Ninth Man Out: A Fired U.S. Attorney Tells His Story," The Huffington Post, June 7, 2007.

Story lede:

The first sign that crimes may have been committed was when the victims no longer felt nauseous and their hair stopped falling out.

Also, it wasn't cold going deep into the vein the way it was before. They needed that hurt. And when it was too long in coming, they grew anxious. Their discomfort after all was their comfort. That was the only way they knew that the chemotherapy was working.
When the FBI believed that they had enough to make a case, they brought the file to Todd Graves, the then-U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Missouri. Ultimately, Robert Courtney, a local pharmacist would be sentenced to 30 years in prison without parole for watering down chemotherapy prescriptions for thousands of cancer patients.

Related story:

Robert Draper: "The Toxic Pharmacist", New York Times Magazine, June 8, 2003.

 "Gonzales Investigated Subordinates Who Were Likely to Testify Against Him", Huffington Post, Oct. 7, 2007.

Story lede:

Alberto Gonzales was briefed extensively about a criminal leak investigation despite the fact that he had reason to believe that several individuals under investigation in the matter were potential witnesses against him in separate Justice Department inquiries.

While Attorney General, Gonzales oversaw the probe into the disclosure of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program to the New York Times. However, many of those under scrutiny in that investigation were likely to be crucial witnesses about whether Gonzales himself had violated the law while promoting the program as White House counsel and testifying about it to Congress.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine is currently investigating whether Gonzales gave false or misleading testimony about the eavesdropping program while under oath.

Related articles:

Jeffrey Rosen, "Conscience of a Conservative," New York Times Magazine, Sept. 7, 2007. 

"Justice Department Sought Guilty Pleas in NSA Case". Huffington Post, Oct. 19, 2007.

Story lede:

The Justice Department earlier this year asked two individuals to plead guilty to criminal charges that they leaked classified information about the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program to the New York Times, federal law enforcement sources say.

But the evidence against the two people asked to plead guilty was scant, according to other federal investigators involved in the case, and the guilty pleas were sought as a last ditch effort by the Justice Department to avoid having to compel testimony from the Times against its own sources.

Unable to obtain guilty pleas, the federal prosecutor in charge of the leak case has now informally recommended that the Justice Department move forward to compel testimony from the Times… As a result, one of the first major decisions likely to be made by Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey, if confirmed by the Senate, will be whether to subpoena reporters for the Times to testify.

 Blogging posts about this story:

 Gene Gaudette, "One-two Punch From Murray Waas," American Politics Journal, Oct. 19, 2007.

 
"Justice Department Reopens Probe into Warantless Domestic Spying",  Huffington Post, Nov. 14, 2007.

story lede: 

The Bush administration has reversed course and will now allow a Justice Department inquiry to move forward regarding whether former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other government attorneys acted properly in authorizing and overseeing the administration's domestic warrantless wiretapping program, the Department informed Congress today.

President Bush had previously shut down the investigation by taking the extraordinary step of denying investigators security clearances necessary for them to move forward. Bush had intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe despite severe objections of career Justice Department officials, members of Congress, and perhaps even his own Attorney General, that he not do so.

How others covered this same story:

Scott Shane, "Bush Gives Security Clearances for N.S.A.. Inquiry," New York Times, Nov. 14, 2007. 

 "Judges' Group Director Pays DOJ Settlement," ABC News, April 29, 2008. 

Murray Waas articles about the Mike Huckabee pardon controversy:

Arkansas Times, “Special Handling:  How the Huckabee Administration Worked to Free Rapist Wayne Dumond,” Sept. 1, 2005.

Story lede:

New sources, including an advisor to Gov. Mike Huckabee, have told the Arkansas Times that Huckabee and a senior member of his staff exerted behind-the-scenes influence to bring about the parole of rapist Wayne Dumond, who Missouri authorities say raped and killed a woman there shortly after his parole.

Huckabee has denied a role in Dumond’s release, which has become an issue in his race for re-election against Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher. Fisher says Huckabee’s advocacy of Dumond’s freedom, plus other acts of executive clemency, exhibit poor judgment. In response, Huckabee has shifted responsibility for Dumond’s release to others, claiming former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker made Dumond eligible for parole and saying the Post Prison Transfer Board made the decision on its own to free Dumond.

But the Times’ new reporting shows the extent to which Huckabee and a key aide were involved in the process to win Dumond’s release. It was a process marked by deviation from accepted parole practice and direct personal lobbying by the governor, in an apparently illegal and unrecorded closed-door meeting with the parole board (the informal name by which the Post Prison Transfer Board is known).

 
Huffington Post, “Documents Expose Huckabee’s Role in Serial Rapist’s Release”, Dec. 4, 2007.

Story lede:

As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post and revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.

While on the campaign trail, Huckabee has claimed that he supported the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond because, at the time, he had no good reason to believe that the man represented a further threat to the public. Thanks to Huckabee's intervention, conducted in concert with a right-wing tabloid campaign on Dumond's behalf, Dumond was let out of prison 25 years before his sentence would have ended.

Blogging Posts about this story:

Crooks & Liars, "Huckabee's Role in Serial Rapist's Release," Dec. 5, 2007. 

Crooks & Liars, "Arianna's Response to Huckabee's Non-response to Murray Waas' Wayne Dumond Story," Dec. 7, 2007. 

 
Huffington Post,  “Former Aide Contradicts Huckabee’s Dfenese of Rapist’s Release,” Dec. 5, 2007.

Story lede:

Directly contradicting Mike Huckabee's claims, his former senior aide tells the Huffington Post that, as governor of Arkansas, Huckabee indeed told the state's parole board that he supported the release of a convicted rapist.

The senior aide, Olan W. "Butch" Reeves, personally attended a controversial parole board meeting with Huckabee in Oct. 1996.

"The clear impression that I came away with from the meeting was that he favored Dumond's release," Reeves said, referring to convicted rapist Wayne Dumond. "And I can understand why board members would believe that to be the case."

This stands in stark contrast to Huckabee's assertion, repeated at a press conference today that he "did not ask [the board] to do anything." When asked directly about trying to influence the board, Huckabee responded: "No. I did not. Let me categorically say that I did not."

Articles about this story:

Editor & Publisher, “Murray Waas’ Reveleations on Huckabee Pardon of Serial Rapist Produce Surprising Results", Dec. 6, 2007.

Murray Waas, the Washington-based investigative reporter who most recently broke several key stories on the Plame case for the National Journal, has posted today, at The Huffington Post, the results of his probe into an incident that has already surfaced in the 2008 race for the White House: Mike Huckabee's push, as governor of Arkansas, for the early release of convicted rapist who went on to rape, and kill, again.

Huckabee has admitted many of the basic facts in the case but played down his own role and expressed bafflement when the man struck again.

ABC News' Brian Ross Ross is also out with a report in this vein today. It includes a quote from David J. Sanders, a political columnist for Stephens Media in Arkansas: "The record clearly shows now Mike Huckabee did advocate for Wayne Dumond's release. I think there are real questions about whether he has been forthright on this issue."

Waas added a surprising update later in the day, reporting that, contradicting Huckabee's claims, his former senior aide told Huffington Post that, as governor of Arkansas, "Huckabee indeed told the state's parole board that he supported the release of a convicted rapist."

Blog posts about this story:

Powerline, "Is Mike Huckabee Telling the Truth  About  His Role in the Dumond Affair," Dec.6, 2007.