ACTION ALERT: Support the Bar Ethics Grievance Filed Against Sen. Vitter

The Louisiana State Bar Association has finally received an ethics complaint regarding the allegations, many of which he has admitted, that Sen. David Vitter engaged in multiple instances of adulterous and criminal conduct.  Charlie Melancon, who is challenging Sen. Vitter in Louisiana’s 2010 U.S. Senate race, notes his frustration with the lack of accountability Sen. [...]

Register by noon, 08-28-09 (tomorrow), for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s 08-30-09 (Sunday) Telephone Town Hall

Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, along with Nancy-Ann DeParle, counselor to President Obama and director of the White House Office of Health Reform, will host her second of five telephone town hall meetings this Sunday, August 30, 2009 from 7-8 p.m.
Per the Congresswoman’s press release, they:
… will be discussing health insurance reform that combines the quality Americans [...]

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga) emails constituents: You’ll be ’safe and secure’ at my Town Hall meeting.

Atlanta-Area Action Alert: Rep. Hank Johnson, the Democratic Representative of Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District is holding a health care reform town hall meeting (Flyer – .pdf) Monday night, August 10, 2009. If you can attend this (or another) town hall meeting, here’s a list of ‘best practices’ to help you prepare.  After [...]

Texas Tech faculty members object to the hiring of ‘Professor’ Alberto Gonzales

Sarah Nightingale of the Avalanche-Journal reports that Texas Tech professors object to the hiring of Alberto Gonzales:
More than 40 Texas Tech professors have objected in a petition to Chancellor Kent Hance’s decision to hire former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, according to the petition’s creator.
Petition creator Walter Schaller, a Tech philosophy professor since [...]

Renewing Protests in Iran organized by internet, txt msg

After 11 days of quiet, protesters in Iran unveiled a new hit-and-run strategy this week, NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reported on the July 9, 2009, Rachel Maddow Show.  Engel explains that the relatively smaller and shorter (in time) protests replace the mass demonstrations because increased number of arrests and deaths and greater [...]

Help protesters in Iran remain anonymous online and circumvent internet censorship systems.

Though hardly a novel tactic, the Myanmar government systematically shut down access to the internet in order to prevent news and pictures of the brutal military crackdown of the 2007 Buddhist monk protests from reaching the outside world. Currently, both Iran and China are doing the same to prevent the publication of news and pictures [...]

The DoJ Office of Professional Responsibility is a real Roach Motel

John Gibeaut reports at the ABA Journal that the role of the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility has descended to a level equivalent to that of a ‘Roach Motel’ and how, as a result, judges are beginning to take the discipline of unethical attorneys into their own hands.  In his lengthy article, Mr. [...]

Alberto Gonzales finally lands a job.

It took nearly two years, but Alberto Gonzales finally found a job teaching at Texas Tech:
Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that Gonzales will start Aug. 1, and that his salary will be around $100,000.
“Anytime I can get a former cabinet member to work for the university, I will,” Hance [...]

Happy Fourth of July

I sent an email earlier today wishing a fun and safe Independence Day to various members of the blogging community who have given their time and encouragement to me since I started TGP.  Bob Bennett, whose firm sponsors Bad Prosecutors, replied with the following essay from his newsletter about the fate of the men who signed [...]

Harriet Miers’ testimony in US Attorney firings spotlights again why she is unfit to practice law.

It took two (2) years and a judicial scolding by United States District Judge John D. Bates, but Harriet Miers’ has finally testified in the U.S. Attorney firing investigations:
In a low-key session on Capitol Hill, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers was deposed Monday by House Judiciary Committee staffers probing the alleged politicization of the [...]

Bar complaints filed against Yoo, Bybee, Addington, Ashcroft, Gonzales, Mukasey, 6 others

Justin Blum at Bloomberg (h/t Zachary Roth at TPMMuckraker) reports that state bar complaints have been filed against twelve Bush administration lawyers involved in the authorization and sanctioning of torture by the United States of America, including two attorneys, Alberto Gonzales and John Yoo, whose disbarments I have long been advocating. [A complete [...]

Update (03-30-09) re: Sen. Vitter’s missing law license

04-24-09:  IMPORTANT UPDATES AT END OF POST: Senator Vitter is an inactive member of the LSBA although the timing is suspicious:

Wow, that’s very interesting. Here’s an interesting “coincidence” including November, 1999:
A former New Orleans prostitute said she had an affair with Senator David Vitter in 1999 when he was a newly elected House member. [...]

Sen. Vitter, why DID you lose your license to practice law?

Update on 03-30-09: Senator Vitter is an inactive member of the LSBA.
As I wrote last week, I began researching whether Senator David Vitter’s adulterous and criminal conduct violated the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct. A check of the Louisiana State Bar Association Membership Directory Active Member Search and Martindale.com, however, yielded no results for [...]

Is Sen. David Vitter licensed to practice law?

Update on 03-30-09: Senator Vitter is an inactive member of the LSBA.
Because Senator David Vitter (R-LA) keeps showing up like a bad penny, I decided to research whether his various criminal activities violated any professional conduct rules of any bar associations to which he might be admitted. I first checked the Louisiana State Bar [...]

Chickens come home to roost as employers shun toxic Bush lawyers

Noting that Alberto Gonzales hasn’t been able to find a job since his 2007 resignation, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane reported on March 8, 2009, that David Addington has joined the pool of unemployable Bush administration attorneys. From their article Terror-War Fallout Lingers Over Bush Lawyers:
For some of Mr. Bush’s lawyers, the most likely consequence [...]

UCBerkeley Professor DeLong calls for John Yoo’s job

In this letter, UC Berkeley Professor Brad DeLong calls for UC Berkeley to fire his UC Berkeley colleague, John Yoo, concluding:
I am not an international law professor.  I am not a moral philosophy professor.  I am just an economics professor.  I am aware that my conclusions [as supported in his letter] may be wrong.  It [...]

President of Alabama State Bar replies to charges of misconduct by Bar member US Attorney Leura Canary: I’m not interested so stop contacting me.

J. Mark White, President of the Alabama State Bar, responded to my e-mails regarding the unethical conduct of Leura Garrett Canary, who is herself a member of the Alabama State Bar. Here is his e-mail, quoted in full, and my response to him.
E-mail from J. Mark White, Esq., President of the Alabama State Bar:
J. [...]

Alberto Gonzales and Leura Canary named to Top Ten Prosecutors list for 2008

Crossposted at Oxdown Gazette.
Update 08-12-09: The link to the Bad Prosecutors 2008 annual list of the ten worst prosecutors has been corrected.
Update 05-20-09: I was updating links that had gone bad, including the link for the 2008 annual list of the ten worst prosecutors included in this post below.  For reasons unknown to me, it [...]

It’s Election Eve and I’m going to have to take (the generic equivalent of) Benadryl to be able to sleep tonight.

And I’ll be using (the Mountain Dew equivalent of) caffeine tomorrow night to be able to stay up to watch the polls close and to wait for the election results.
Anyone else too excited to sleep?
Tags: Election 2008, benadryl

Why does it take 7 felony convictions for the Alaska Bar to suspend Sen. Stevens’ bar license?

Crossposted at Oxdown Gazette.
As twolf1 noted earlier at Oxdown Gazette, Sen. Ted Stevens will be facing ethics proceedings in the Senate in spite of his ridiculous claim that he wasn’t convicted. I must admit, however, that I will be at mildly surprised if Sen. Reid follows through on this. In addition to any Senate investigation, [...]

Senator-for-now Stevens’ good news, bad news and Lisa Murkowski.

Crossposted at Oxdown Gazette.
The good news: Sen. Stevens won’t lose his right to vote until he’s sentenced, so he’ll be able to vote for himself.
The bad news: It may not be enough.
And Lisa Murkowski: Although Alaska’s junior Senator has been keeping a fairly low profile since getting caught in an improper land deal that she [...]

Patrick J. Rogers – predictably and unbelievably – denies charges of Vote-Suppression

Crossposted at Oxdown Gazette.
Patrick J. Rogers is the New Mexico attorney who represents and advises the Republican Party of New Mexico on its voter suppression efforts. In this prior post , I documented how Mr. Rogers’ conduct in this matter violates the New Mexico Rules of Professional Conduct. Mr. Rogers “was too busy [...]

Web-mail to Sen. Theodore F. Stevens

Sen. Theodore F. Stevens
United States Senate
Contact via webmail
Sen. Stevens,
I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys such as yourself, whether that conduct is a violation of the rules of professional conduct with which each such attorney must comply and authoring factual allegations of the conduct that establish violations of the applicable rules of professional [...]

E-mail to Patrick J. Rogers (Updated)

Patrick J. Rogers, Esq.
Modrall Sperling
PO Box 2168
Albuquerque, NM 87103-2168
Telephone: (505) 848-1800
Fax: (505) 848-1891
Email: pjr@modrall.com and patrogers@modrall.com
cc: contact@modrall.com
Mr. Rogers,
I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys such as yourself, whether that conduct is a violation of the rules of professional conduct with which each such attorney must comply and authoring factual allegations of the conduct [...]

E-mail to Matthew Garrett Davis

Crossposted here at Oxdown Gazette.
Matthew Garrett Davis
Witte Law Offices
119 E Kalamazoo St.
Lansing, MI 48933
Phone: (517) 281-9374
Fax: (517) 485-0187
foster5701@hotmail.com
Mr. Davis,
Please accept this e-mail as an offer to reply to criticisms leveled against you as a result of the complaint you filed on behalf James Carabelli against the Center for Independent Media, the Michigan Messenger, Eartha [...]

Employment of Kyle D. Sampson reflects poorly on Hunton & Williams, LLP, No.3

Updated March 10, 2009 to reflect Mr. Sampson’s leave of absence from Hunton & Williams.
Cross-posted at the Oxdown Gazette, Firedoglake’s new diary blog.
My third e-mail to Ms. Field:
Andrea Bear Field
DC Office Managing Partner
Hunton & Williams
cc: Kyle D. Sampson , Partner
Hunton & Williams
Dear Ms. Field,
On behalf of The Grievance Project, I would appreciate Hunton & Williams’s [...]

E-mail to Robert H. Bork, Jr.

Robert H. Bork, Jr.
gonzalesfacts@gmail.com
Mr. Bork,
As the media contact for GonzalesFacts.com, I would request a response on the record to these allegations that Alberto Gonzales has engaged in conduct that calls into question his fitness to practice law. I have also previously requested a response from George J. Terwilliger III via this e-mail:
George J. Terwilliger [...]

George J. Terwilliger III replies to my e-mail. Sort of.

In my e-mail to George J. Terwilliger III, I offered Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Terwilliger the opportunity to respond to my allegations that Mr. Gonzales has engaged in conduct which brings into question his fitness to practice law. Mr. Terwilliger has taken the opportunity to reply to my post:*
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — “The [...]

E-mail to George J. Terwilliger III, counsel to Alberto Gonzales

George J. Terwilliger III
White & Case LLP
701 13th Street NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20005
Telephone: 202-626-3628
Fax: 202-639-9355
gterwilliger@whitecase.com
Dear Mr. Terwilliger:
I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys who, in the service of the government of the United States, have engaged in conduct that violates the rules of professional conduct with which each attorney must comply. [...]

Virginia lawyers file grievance against Monica Marie Goodling

As reported by Frank Green in the Richmond Times Dispatch (h/t Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABA Journal via Matt Berman at TPMMuckaker ) on September 16, 2008, attorney William R. Wilder prepared a grievance complaint against Monica Marie Goodling and he and several other attorneys filed the complaint with the Virginia Bar:
Monica Goodling resigned [...]

E-mail to William R. Wilder

Willia

E-mail to Michael J. Elston

Michael J. Elston
McGuire Woods, LLP
Washington Square, 1050 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 1200
Washington, District of Columbia 20036-5317
Telephone: 202-857-1700
Fax: 202-857-1737
melston@mcguirewoods.com
Dear Mr. Elston,
I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys in the service of the government of the United States, whether that conduct is a violation of the rules of professional conduct with which each such attorney [...]

Update on Wes Teel

As I noted previously, Roger Shuler at the Legal Schnauzer has been following the plight of Wes Teel and his political prosecution by the Department of Justice. In his post, Shuler links to a comment made by Scott Horton at Mark Crispin Miller’s News From Underground and to an interview of Mr. Horton by [...]

Update on Texas Supreme Court Justices’ Ethics Hearings

As I noted back in July, ethics hearings on grievances filed against Texas Supreme Court Justices Nathan Hecht and David Medina were scheduled to be heard on August 14, 2008.
Chris Rizo, who has covered these complaints for The Southeast Texas Record, reports at LegalNewsline.com that Judge Hecht’s ethics complaint was referred for further grievance [...]

Some good news?

In his 1,000th column at White House Watch, Dan Froomkin quotes from Washington Post Staff Writer Carrie Johnson’s article that the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility notified unspecified bar associations of the findings of wrongdoing in An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling and Other Staff in the Office [...]

Had enough yet?

The Legal Schnauzer shares a letter he recently received. In his post, Message From a Political Prisoner, he describes the receipt of the letter as “a profound experience recently, something I never dreamed would happen to me as a U.S. citizen.” He explains:
My letter was from Wes Teel, a former state judge in [...]

Update: E-mail to Professor John Yoo

Professor John C. Yoo
U.S. District Court Judge
jyoo@law.berkeley.edu
Dear Professor Yoo:
I previously sent this e-mail back in April of this year, but, unfortunately, left out the ‘j’ so I sent it to y-o-o @ law.berkeley.edu. I noticed this error today after reading your op-ed, Supreme Court grabbed more power in recent term, in The Philadelphia Enquirer, [...]

Sen. Murkowski’s ‘reply’ to my web-mail

Yesterday, I sent a web-mail to Sen. Murkowski in which I requested her to reply to my allegations that she engaged in conduct that raise a substantial question as to her honesty, trustworthiness and fitness as a lawyer. Today, I received the following ‘reply’ from Sen. Murkowski:
Thank you for contacting my office. I will [...]

Web-mail to Sen. Lisa Murkowski

Updated 08-11-08 with this ‘reply‘ from Sen. Murkowski.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski
United States Senate
Contact via webmail
Washington, D.C. Office
709 Hart Senate Building
Washington D.C., 20510
202-224-6665
Fax 202-224-5301
Anchorage Office
510 L. Street, Suite 550
Anchorage, AK 99501
907-271-3735
Fax 907-276-4081
Fairbanks Office
101 12th Avenue
Room 216
Fairbanks, AK 99701
907-456-0233
Fax 907-451-7146
Juneau Delegation Office
P.O. Box 21247
709 West 9th Street, Room 971
Juneau, AK 99802
907-586-7400
Fax 907-586-8922
Kenai Delegation Office
110 Trading Bay Road
Suite 105
Kenai, [...]

E-mail to Harriet E. Miers, No. 2

Harriet E. Miers, Esq.
Lock Lord Bissell & Liddell, LLP
hmiers@lockelord.com
Copy to:
Jerry K. Clements, Esq.
Chair, Lock Lord Bissell & Liddell, LLP
jclements@lockelord.com
George Taylor Manning, Esq.
Jones Day
gtmanning@jonesday.com
Dear Ms. Miers,
As I mentioned to you in my prior e-mail , I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys in the service of the government of the United States, whether that [...]

Legal Schnauzer as interpreted by attorney legal*

Although I appreciated very much this post at Legal Schnauzer and the new visitors it generated here at the Grievance Project, I didn’t intend to post about it until I saw this post at attorney legal*.
Compare the schnauzery Legal Schnauzer:
E.M.’s efforts hit close to home for us here at Legal Schnauzer. As someone who has [...]

TGP had some interesting visitors this week

My posts on Kyle Sampson and Monica Marie Goodling received relatively strong traffic here at The Grievance Project. My sincere thanks to each of you who stopped
That site traffic included visitors from the following federal agencies that I found to be notable:

U.S. Senate Sergeant At Arms
USDA Office of Operations
US Department of Justice (multiple visits [...]

It’s not paranoia if they ARE out to get you, No. 7

In Episode No. 5 of the Paranoia, I highlighted the story of Jesselyn Radack as told by Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side, in her July 14, 2008 interview, Six Questions for Jane Mayer, Author of The Dark Side, with Scott Horton at No Comment. Ms. Radack wrote about her experience in The [...]

Employment of Kyle D. Sampson reflects poorly on Hunton & Williams, LLP, No. 2

Updated March 10, 2009 to reflect Mr. Sampson’s leave of absence from Hunton & Williams.
My second e-mail to Ms. Field:
Andrea Bear Field
DC Office Managing Partner
cc: Kyle D. Sampson, Partner
Dear Ms. Field,
It has now been several months since I e-mailed you about your colleague, Mr. Kyle D. Sampson about his partnership in Hunton & Williams. As [...]

Monica Marie Goodling

Personal Information:

Name: Monica Marie Goodling

Bar: Virginia

Bar Information: Virginia

ID No.: N/A

Status: Active (presumed)

Registered Address: None listed.

Registered Phone: None listed.

Bar: Virginia

No Certification for Fiscal Year, per Virginia State Bar’s Attorneys Without Malpractice database which “includes the names of lawyers who have certified that they represent clients drawn from the public and do not have malpractice insurance.” [...]

Update: Kyle D. Sampson

I have updated the statement of facts alleging various ethical violations by Kyle D. Sampson of the Utah and Washington, D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct with the recent report, An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling and Other Staff in the Office of the Attorney General, by the United States Department of [...]

It’s not paranoia if they ARE out to get you, No. 6

At No Comment, Scott Horton continues with his stellar reporting on the politicization of, and abuse of power in, the Department of Justice with this July 23, 2008 post of his Six Questions for Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, Author of In Justice. Mr. Iglesias. one of the United States Attorneys fired by DoJ [...]

It’s not paranoia if they ARE out to get you, No. 5

In his July 14, 2008 No Comment post, Six Questions for Jane Mayer, Author of The Dark Side, Scott Horton introduces his interview with Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side:
In a series of gripping articles, Jane Mayer has chronicled the Bush Administration’s grim and furtive dealings with torture and has exposed both the individuals [...]

Nominees needed for 10 Worst U.S. Prosecutors for 2008

I was searching for like-minded souls one night several months ago when I stumbled upon the “good” prosecutors at Bad Prosecutors. I felt right at home when I read this statement :
Welcome! This Blog is published by the Bennett Law Firm with Sherri Katz and Bob Bennett being principal contributors. For over thirty years, [...]

It’s not paranoia if they ARE out to get you, No. 4

h/t: Nonnie at Hysterical Raisins, via e-mail, and Roger Shuler at Legal Schnauzer
In her July 11, 2008 Raw Story article Alabama US Attorney denies any involvement in university editor’s termination, Lindsay Beyerstein shines light on the political firing of blogger Roger Shuler by the University of Alabama Birmingham for blogging:
The abrupt dismissal of a veteran [...]

Welcome, USDOJ.

Thank you for visiting The Grievance Project.  (Statcounter and Sitemeter information is at the end of this post).
Earlier today, your boss, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, testified before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Attorney General Mukasey concluded his prepared remarks with the following statement:
As I have said many times, to members [...]

CREW files grievances against Michael J. Elston and Esther Slater McDonald

As far back as 2006, I began contacting various parties – including CREW – to suggest that an organized effort to file grievances would be an effective tactic for responding to the litany of attorneys engaged in questionable ethical conduct. Like most people and organizations I contacted, CREW never responded. Of the few [...]

Texas Watch files ethics complaints against Texas Supreme Court justices

Updated August 15, 2008 with results of August 14, 2008 hearings.
Chris Rizo at The Southeast Texas Record (h/t The Daily Muck at TPMMuckraker) reported yesterday that “[a]t least two Texas Supreme Court justices have ethics complaints pending against them” that were “filed by the judicial watchdog group Texas Watch” and which are scheduled for review [...]

E-mail to House Judiciary Committee regarding John Yoo

U.S House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary via Committee Contact Form
Honorable John Conyers, Jr., Chairman, via House Contact Form
Hon. Howard L. Berman via House Contact Form
Hon. Rick Boucher via House Contact Form
Hon. Jerrold Nadler via House Contact Form
Hon. Robert C. Scott via House Contact Form
Hon. Melvin L. Watt via House Contact Form
Hon. Zoe Lofgren [...]

Is John Yoo a Monster?

No, according to John H. Richardson of Esquire. Why not?
He wasn’t wrong all the time:
Consider also that courts and Congress have endorsed many of Yoo’s opinions, including the use of military commissions and the extended detention without criminal charges of “enemy combatants” who are American citizens.
The questions were really, really hard:
And consider this — [...]

Professor John Yoo and The Justice Case

Paul Kiel reported yesterday at TPMMuckraker that
the House Judiciary Committee authorized a subpoena for David Addington, Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, to testify about the administration’s torture policy
And now the AP reports that John Yoo, probably the most infamous of the infamous characters that walked the halls of the Justice Department during the Bush [...]

It’s not paranoia if they ARE out to get you, No. 3

h/t: Capt at Alternate Reality , mdking at Writechic Press and Roger Shuler at Legal Schnauzer
In their May 1, 2008 Raw Story article Break-ins plague targets of US Attorneys, Larisa Alexandrovna, Muriel Kane and Lindsay Beyerstein report on the troubles that seem to befall people that don’t toe the Republican party line. In [...]

Horton hears a Yoo

Updated April 23, 2008 to add poster art parody courtesy of the talented nonnie9999 who has many more posters at Hysterical Raisins. If I knew how, I would add this caption: … and then he rebuked him. Many thanks, Nonnie.
As Melissa from Writechic Press noted here, New York attorney and Columbia Law [...]

Starting to notice but not quite there.

At The Nation, Professor Stephen Gillers is correct when he writes in The Torture Memo that:
The press tends to overlook the lawyers when scandal breaks, focusing instead on their clients. That’s understandable, but in public and commercial life no serious move is possible (no corporate maneuver, no new financial instrument, no war, no severe interrogation [...]

E-mail to Professor John Yoo

Updated August 11, 2008 to correct the address of Professor Yoo.
Professor John C. Yoo
U.S. District Court Judge
yoo@law.berkeley.edu
Dear Professor Yoo:
I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys in the service of the government of the United States, whether that conduct is a violation of the rules of professional conduct with which each such attorney must [...]

Welcome to readers of Left in Alabama and Pine Belt Progressive

Thank you to Gene’O for referring readers from Pine Belt Progressive and Left in Alabama. You will find that I am not as prolific as Glenn Greenwald is or Scott Horton, who recently announced he was going to stop blogging at No Comment, was, but I hope you will stop by from time to [...]

E-mail to Judge Mark Everett Fuller

Judge Mark Everett Fuller
U.S. District Court Judge
mark_fuller@almd.uscourts.gov
Dear Judge Fuller,
I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys in the service of the government of the United States, whether that conduct is a violation of the rules of professional conduct with which each such attorney must comply and authoring factual allegations of conduct that establish violations [...]

A Call to Action

Far more eloquently than I have previously argued, Scott Horton called for action from the organized bar associations at No Comment last week:
It’s also time for the organized bar to act decisively. So far bar organizations have denounced the torture memoranda and issued learned reports and articles. But I’m still haunted by a question a [...]

Alberto Gonzales: Not just unethical, but criminal?

As reported by Jason Leopold at the Online Journal on February 29, 2008, (h/t nonnie9999), Alberto Gonzales not only engaged in unethical conduct, but likely also engaged in conduct that was criminal:
John McKay, the former US attorney for the Western District of Washington who was also fired in late 2006 for reasons that appear to [...]

E-mail to Harriet E. Miers

Harriet E. Miers, Esq.
Locke Liddell & Sapp
Dear Ms. Miers,
I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys in the service of the government of the United States, whether that conduct is a violation of the rules of professional conduct with which each such attorney must comply and authoring factual allegations of conduct that establish violations [...]

Employment of Kyle D. Sampson reflects poorly on Hunton & Williams, LLP

Updated March 10, 2009 to reflect Mr. Sampson’s leave of absence from Hunton & Williams.
Updated on July 29, 2008, with a July 28, 2008,  update to my post on Kyle D. Sampson.
I have not previously sent my copies of my posts directly to their targets. At time of posting, I had no e-mail address [...]

It’s not paranoia if they ARE out to get you, No. 2

From Scott Horton at Harper’s:
Seems that people who raise their voice in support of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman are often the victims of unfortunate accidents. Ask Dana Jill Simpson, the Rainsville Republican lawyer who notes that as soon as she told some friends that she had resolved to file an affidavit exposing what was [...]

The immorality of torture leads – inevitably – to prosecutorial misconduct

At Balkinization, Professor David Luban discusses how the adoption of a torture regimen results in this additional unintended consequence: government lawyers are systematically violating “ethics rule[s] forbidding them from speaking with parties who have legal representation without obtaining consent of the party’s lawyer.” Professor Luban explains in greater detail:
This is the “no-contact rule” in [...]

John Ashcroft: Jamie Gorelick cannot be trusted – or can she?

Describing the political situation he faced prior to providing testimony to the 9/11 Commission, former Attorney General John Ashcroft writes in Never Again – Securing America and Restoring Justice:
One member [of the 9/11 Commission] in particular had a definite conflict of interest. Jamie Gorelick served as deputy attorney general under Attorney General Janet Reno [...]

Does John Ashcroft hate Alberto Gonzales?

I’ve been reading Never Again – Securing America and Restoring Justice by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. When I started reading the book, I would joke that Never Again cost me way too much even though I bought it at the ‘dollar’ store but that it was still a better deal than the dollar [...]

For the Bush Administration attorney, the truth still waits

In her article appearing in the February 2008 edition of the ABA Journal, Eileen Libby addresses the issue of When the Truth Can Wait. It should come as no surprise that the examples and case law that Ms. Libby provides and the conclusions she draws do not come to the aid of former Attorney [...]

It’s not paranoia if they ARE out to get you

The Washington Post’s Dan Eggen reported yesterday that
A federal grand jury in Alexandria has issued a subpoena seeking information about the confidential sources of a newspaper journalist who wrote in a 2006 book about alleged CIA efforts to infiltrate Iran’s nuclear program.
The Jan. 24 subpoena ordered the reporter, James Risen of the New York [...]

The Grievance Project

For nearly two years, I have been watching intently the consistent and continuous dismantling of the Constitution by the President. Through December of 2006, the Congressional Republicans enabled the President both actively by passing legislation and passively by failing to fulfill their Constitutional oversight responsibilities.
When control of both houses of Congress was unexpectedly transferred to [...]