FACT: From 1997 to 2000, Lam was the Chief of the Major Fraud Section at the Southern District of California. For the 11 years before that she was Assistant US Attorney at the same office.
FACT: Carol Lam was appointed as interim US Attorney for the Southern District of California on September 4, 2002. On November 12, 2002 she was sworn in as a presidential (George W. Bush) appointment.
FACT: Lam was one of eight attorneys fired in the Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy
NEWSPAPER ACCOUNT: U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa criticized Lam for what he saw as a failure to prosecute illegal immigrant smugglers. Issa said Monday [March 5th, 2007] that Lam lost her job because she failed to fulfill part of her mandate.
"Clearly she needed to be fired for not implementing policy over a long period of time"
Issa testified at the March 6, 2007, United States House Committee on the Judiciary hearing. Starting in early 2004, Issa and other Republican members of Congress began sending letters to Lam and the attorney general's office complaining about the job she was doing.
FACT: According to U.S. Attorneys - Criminal Caseload Statistics, Carol Lam's conviction rate of immigration related defendants DID drop substantially. Even Dianne Feinstein wrote a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in June 2006 stating,
"It has come to my attention that despite high apprehension rates by Border Patrol agents along California's border with Mexico, prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of California appear to lag behind"
But if you look closely, it didn't drop until 2005. See for yourselves
So, we have Darrell Issa, along with "other Republican members of Congress" complaining about something in early 2004, that wasn't true until 2005? Prescient much, Darrell? Or just lucky? To be fair though, the Duke Cunningham scandal hadn't reared its ugly head until June of 2005. So, unless Issa could actually see into the future, I doubt his letters.......wait a minute, this just in:
Here's the response to Senator Feinstein about her June letter, from DOJ official William E. Moschella, Assistant Attorney General of the United States:
The immigration prosecution philosophy of the Southern District focuses on deterrence by directing its resources and efforts against the worst immigration offenders and by bringing felony cases against such defendants that will result in longer sentences. For example, although the number of immigration defendants who received prison sentences of between 1-12 months fell from 896 in 2004 to 338 in 2005, the number of immigration defendants who received sentences between 37-60 months rose from 116 to 246, and the number of immigration defendants who received sentences greater than 60 months rose from 21 to 77.
Prosecutions for alien smuggling in the Southern District under 8 U.S.C. sec. 1324 are rising sharply in Fiscal Year 2006.
[snip]
In FY 2004, the Southern District tried at least 37 criminal immigration cases; in FY 2005, the District more than doubled that number and tried over 80 criminal immigration cases.
[snip]
Finally, the United States Attorneys' Offices nationwide have been vigorously prosecuting alien smuggling. Data on alien smuggling prosecutions from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys' database shows that these cases have risen steadily during the last three years. In Fiscal Year 2003, there were 2,015 alien smuggling cases filed under 8 U.S.C. sec. 1324. In Fiscal Year 2004, there were 2,451 such cases, and in Fiscal Year 2005, there were 2,682.
VINDICATION!!! Carol Lam herself has used this Moschella letter as defense of her record, and Dianne Feinstein has entered the letter into the Congressional record after grilling Kyle "evil Radar" Sampson about it during the Senate Judiciary hearings on March 29, 2007.
Take a few breaths.........now, let's continue........
Fast forward 14 months:
...a letter criticizing U.S. Attorney Carol Lam's "lax" handling of immigration crimes" was sent to Alberto Gonzales on October 20, 2005.
The letter, was signed by 18 19 other Republican lawmakers
October 20, 2005? That's only about five weeks before Cunningham pleads guilty. So, there was a concerted effort, WHILE AN INVESTIGATION INTO DUKE CUNNINGHAM WAS WELL UNDERWAY, by 18 19 United States Congressmen to yank the United States Attorney handling the case from her position for something that even the DOJ agreed wasn't true.
Among the signatories:
John Doolittle (!)
Richard Pombo (We miss you! Kisses!!)
Darrell Issa
Jerry Lewis (!!)
Dana Rohrbacher (who has since called for Gonzales to resign)
...and......drumroll please
Randall "Duke" Cunningham
So, let's recap. In early 2004, a group of Congressman, led by Darrell Issa, started a campaign to oust their US Attorney, based on false charges of lax immigration prosecutions. Nothing happened, because for each year in office, she INCREASED these prosecutions. Some time in early 2005, she changed her strategy to go after bigger fish in the immigration pool. She was successful, as Moschella attests.
Then, while Lam was deep into the investigation of Cunningham, (presumably) the same group of characters, including the target, Duke himself, urged Alberto Gonzales himself to can her. He didn't.
But about six months after Duke Cunningham pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud, and the Lam investigation heated up to include the CIA's Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and defense contractor Brent Wilkes, Gonzales suddenly gets serious about Lam and her non-existent immigration prosecution problem. Then when caught, he denies having anything to do with it.
Coincidence or crime? Is anything a coincidence in this administration??
Albertooooooooo, you got some esplainin' to do! Thursday is the day. Invest in popcorn futures.
UPDATE I: 3:13PM - I've found the letter written by Darrell Issa in Feb. 2004. Looks like CREW may be pursuing ethics charges against him for it too.
The letter:
Dear Ms. Lam:
I write to request information concerning an incident that reportedly occurred on November 20.2003. According to news reports, Antonio Amparo-Lopez was arrested on suspicion of alien smuggling and held at the Temecula, California, interior checkpoint while border patrol agents contacted your office for guidance.
According to recent reports. Mr. Amparo-Lopez (Alien #A76266395) a known alien smuggler with a long criminal record, was released after your office declined to prosecute.
I respectfully request that your office provide me with information about the facts surrounding the alleged incident of November 20, 2003, and, if applicable, the rationale behind any decision made by your office to decline or delay prosecution of Mr. Amparo-Lopez or any other action that may have contributed to his release.
I look forward to your response. If you have any questions, please fed free to contact me or my Legislative Assistant Josh Brown at ***-***-****. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
UPDATE II: 3:59pm - Darrell Issa's January 16, 2007 statement AFTER the Carol Lam firing. Sounds like a head-fake to me. O"bviously, we did not get her fired for the Corruption investigation leeading to Jerry Lewis, etc." Uh-huh.
"San Diego owes her our thanks for her work, particularly for her success targeting public corruption and other white collar crimes," he said in a Jan. 16 release. The professionalism exhibited by the attorneys from her office who prosecuted former Congressman Randy Cunningham was a credit to her leadership and her office."
UPDATE III: 7:12pm - Thanks to bernardpliers for deciphering the list of 18 19 Congressmen who signed the letter. His diary from March 31st is here.
Page 1
Darrell Issa ? (R-CA-49)
Ed Royce (R-CA-40)
Page 2 Left column
Ken Calvert (R-Ca 44)
John Doolittle (R-CA-4)
Gary Miller (?)(R-Ca-42)
Elton Gallegly (R-CA-24)
Dana Rohrabacher(R-Ca 44)
Devin Nunes (R-CA-21)
Dan Lungren (R-CA-3)
Richard Pombo (R-CA-11)
Bill Thomas (R-CA-22)
Page 2 Right column
George P. Radanovich (R-CA 19)
Duncan hunter (?)(R-CA-52)
Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA-25)
Mary Bono (R-CA 45)
Wally Herger (R-CA 2)
Jerry Lewis (R-CA 41)
David Dreier (R-CA 26)
Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA 2)
UPDATE IV: 7:55pm - Mogolori notes:
WASHINGTON — The day news broke that a federal corruption probe in Southern California was spreading to Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis, the chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales fired off an e-mail to the White House about the federal prosecutor who had begun the investigation.
"The real problem we have right now is Carol Lam," D. Kyle Sampson told White House Deputy Counsel William Kelley on May 11. "That leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires."