Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Carol Lam, fired for investigating the wrong people

TPM highlights the particulars on the firing of former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, who was fired shortly after Kyle Sampson noted in a May 11, 2006 email the “real problem we have right now with Carol Lam.” As TPM reports, one day earlier, on May 10, 2006, Lam had informed the Justice Department that she planned to execute a search warrant on CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a target of Lam's wide-ranging corruption investigation.

By that time, Lam's investigation had already led to the bribery conviction of then-U.S. Representative Duke Cunningham (R-Cal.), and was also in pursuit of Brent Wilkes, "a defense contractor who allegedly bribed Duke Cunningham and possibly other Republican congressmen."

According to Lam, when she was informed by Justice Department official Michael Elston that she was being canned, Elston remarked that orders for her dismissal came from “very highest levels of the government.” But if his recent testimony before Congress is to be believed, Attorney General Gonzalez knows nothing, nothing (update: Gonzalez suddenly remembered today that the Deputy AG, McNulty, who resigned yesterday, was solely responsible; anyone believe that?), and no emails were written by anyone in the Justice Department or the White House about firing Lam.

Corruption is not the "real problem," investigating it is.

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