Arkansas Blog

Interesting...any comment Senator Pryor......

>>Can anyone find a definitive answer as to whether there is any legal basis for Tim Griffin to continue to serve<<
Brad Berenson

The attorney representing the accused person in the Maumelle civil rights violation case is a good starter.

Appalled. Appalled, I say, that Sen. Pryor won't speak to a constituent on this issue.

exactly, i would imagine the Judge in the first case brought to court by JTG would instantly be asked to determine this question.

of course, the DoJ wouldn't ever LIE, now would they?

looks like one helluva good opportunity for MP (or Blanche, hello, helllloooo) to publicly demand an accounting.

also today's WaPo (name/link) bumps the number to 26 USA's on the list at one time or another.

Does Tim Griffin have a shred of credibility?

The longer he stays in the USA's office the more damage he is potentially doing to his own future...

How is that resume going to look if Gonzales gets impeached? Or when Rove has to turn over those emails that Justice can't seem to find?

Rosso, what makes you think Tim the vote Grifter worries about the truth when writing a resume? *s*

I don't remember where a link to the resume he submitted to the DOJ for this position is but I think max covered it here. Lying on a resume should in and of itself be enough for Pryor or Lincoln to raise a lot more cane than either of them are, imo.

And the DOJ sure needs to explain the Grifters status...this is long overdue.

You believe this will be the first time W and the boys admit a mistake?

It could happen.

more on (pardon the pun) timing from TPM...

When Gonzales testified before the Senate last month, he claimed that he'd always rejected the idea of using a Patriot Act provision to appoint handpicked U.S. attorneys and keep them in place indefinitely without Senate confirmation as "interim" U.S. attorneys. In a December 19, 2006 email to the White House, Kyle Sampson had specifically advocated using the provision to install Timothy Griffin, Rove's former aide who was installed as the U.S. attorney for Little Rock, over the objections of the state's two Democratic senators. But Gonzales said that he'd never seen that email and he'd never considered Sampson's plan. "I didn't consider it and wouldn't consider it," Gonzales testified.

That was at odds with Sampson's earlier testimony before the Senate, where he'd said that Gonzales had not rejected the idea until late December or early January.

There' something key to note about this, and that's that Sen. Pryor's phone call with Gonzales was December 15th. The U.S. attorney firings scandal was taking its first steps in mid-January, but Sens. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Dianne Feinsteni (D-CA) wrote a letter to Gonzales expressing concerns about the firings as early as January 9th. So it looks from Sampson's testimony like Gonzales only rejected the plan when members of Congress started asking questions.

Can you say, "Writ Quo Warranto?"

So, as it appears, if the USA from the Western District of Arkansas was to indict someone they'd "have no standing". Wow, a USA's office that's toothless...great for fighting crime.

And Timmy ain't going nowhere - he's hear for 2008 - Bill Clinton has thrown the gauntlet down, he's taking Arkansas for Hillary and Rove has said, nope, Tim Griffin is taking Arkansas...

No such luck:

From a post at FDL, there was only one way to appoint at the time and that was through the Patriot Act. Since the Patriot Act provision is sill law nothing has changed.

"The statute is the only source of authority for appointment of a USA. The PATRIOT Act amendment did not create an alternative menas for appointing USA's. It amended the existing statute to delete the provisions for 120-day appointments. The statement that Griffin was not appointed using the PATRIOT Act procedure appears to me to be nonsense. At the time of his appointment there was no other way to appoint him.

Here is the wording of the amendment:

SEC. 502. INTERIM APPOINTMENT OF UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS.
Section 546 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by striking subsections (c) and (d) and inserting the following new subsection:

''(c) A person appointed as United States attorney under this section may serve until the qualification of a United States Attorney for such district appointed by the President under section 541 of this title.''.

The deleted subsections (c) and (d) provided for the 120-day limit on interim appointments and appointment by the Court if no Senate-confirmed replacement is made in that time. The new section (c) permits the "interim" appointee to serve until a new candidate is confirmed - that is, indefinitely. "

plus.. more from FDL...

Here's how the statute worked before the Patriot Act amendment. If a USA resigned or was fired, the president could appoint a new one to serve "with the advice and consent of the Senate," pursuant to 28 USC Sec. 541. That creates a problem - the Senate can be slow in acting to confirm, or might not confirm, in which case the position would stand vacant. So Section 546 provided that the Atty Gen'l - NOT the president - could appoint an "interim" USA for 120 days. (Note that it's the AG- a law enforcement officer who is supposed to be removed from politics - who made the interim appointment.) The 120 days was in order to give the Senate time to act. Usually the interim appointee was the same person that the president nominated but it didn't have to be.

If nothing happened within 120 days, the district court appointed an interim USA. Again, this could be the same person who the president nominated and usually was- but the process was designed to keep political concerns out and to make sure the appointee had lots of institutional legitimacy.

The Patriot Act reauthorization changed the rules. It deleted the 120-day limit on AG appointments and the provision for district court appointment, and made the initial "interim" appointment indefinite in time and without review. This meant that all the Pres had to do was have his AG appoint someone as USA and then refuse to submit any names to Congress, and the person could serve until the Pres fired him.

Griffin could not have been appointed under the 120 day rule because the 120 day rule had been deleted and did not exist when he was appointed. He could have been nominated under Sec 541 but that nomination would not have allowed him to serve because he had not been confirmed by the Senate. The only way for him to serve was to be appointed by the AG under Sec 546. He certainly could also have been nominated under 541 at the same time, and it is apparently that nomination that he "withdrew," but his Sec 546 "interim" appointment was not affected.

sooooo... wheninthehell will the 'repeal' become law? (i'm still waiting)

and... can/will KR/WH/DoJ just reassign JTG to 'assistant' or deputy status after the clock runs out?

MAJOR PET PEEVE by muleboy303

I'm just a Bill, yes, i'm only a Bill
and i got as far as Capitol Hill...

Senator Feinstein's S. 214: Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007
passed the Senate on 20Mar2007.

Rep. Berman's H.R. 580: To amend chapter 35 of title 28, United States Code, to provide for a 120-day limit... passed the House of Representatives on 26Mar2007.

per the Democratic Policy Committee's website from 14Mar2007 is this...

On January 19, Representative Berman introduced a similar bill, H.R. 580, in the House of Representatives. H.R. 580 differs from S. 214 in that it does not apply the 120 day expiration period and judicial appointment provisions to interim appointments existing on the date of enactment (Section 3).

it is unclear whether this "grandfather clause" language was removed from HR580 before passage, but such language is not listed as a part of the bill on Govtrack or Thomas.

but something sureashell seems to be wrong when two bills of a few paragraphs each, each passed overwhelmingly, have now taken almost two months to reconcile before sending to the President (with actually no word as yet of when to expect the process to be completed)

why, oh why, is such a simple, but damned important, change taking so long?

Mule has it... 214 and 580...

Careful muleboy, FDL can be very addicting for truth seekers. :)

too late... the monkey (chimp?) is already on my back. : )

What does it matter? Tim is only there to files voter fraud cases just before the next election for the demozette to Elephant Echo on the front page and Op-Ed.

Then everyone goes home and forgets about any prosecution case(s).

good catch doc...but as AT remarked a week or so ago...The Thousand Year Reich is finis`...caput.

Voter fraud cases will be suspect, even a few which may be valid.

Griffin will get his day before the Senate Judiciary.. count on it. Betcha 10 he's preparing for it.
Wasn't Monic Regents Goodling scheduled to testify this week?
_

Lwood - I think she is up next Wed.