mtwheel,

This is way off topic, but I do not know who is more knowledgeable about the Plame affair than you, which is the topic of my question, more specifically, Victoria Toensing.
Now she followed Valerie in her congressional testimony catipaulting the meme that there was â€no underlying crime.†Now, as she was the principal author of the law written to protect covert agents, she spoke with some authority on the subject.

The question is, did anyone ask Ms. Toensing if she viewed â€her law†as a tremendous failure since in her words no crime was committed in the outing of Valerie Plame, or, does she remain proud of her law?

As a rookie to the blogoshere, I doubt I’ll ever find this thread again so I would apreciate it if you would spoonfeed me this answer in my email.

Thanx
OFG

Man, that would be an email thread I’d pay to read.
This thing just keeps getting more convoluted and interesting by the minute, doesn’t it?
Whew! Thanks for keeping this on the front burner EW…

SDUT broke the Duke Cunningham case and their reporter Marcus Stern was on a radio show talking about the case when a listener phoned in the tip about Brent Wilkes ADCS. So I was kindof surprised when WSJ seemed to have a scoop on January 9, 2006.

A FEDERAL criminal investigation of the Central Intelligence Agency’s former third-highest official has stalled because of CIA reluctance to turn over classified documents requested by prosecutors, people close to the investigation say.The U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego has been investigating former CIA Executive Director Kyle â€Dusty†Foggo to determine whether he committed illegal acts in influencing the awarding of CIA covert contracts. Mr. Foggo resigned from the CIA in May 2006, shortly after the Wall Street Journal disclosed the investigation.

WSJ seemed to know quite a bit about the status of the investigation.

Officials at the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego declined to comment on the investigation, though people with knowledge of it say it still appears that the declassification conflicts with the CIA can be worked out. But slow negotiations have substantially delayed the case. Prosecutors in San Diego had expected to get a grand jury indictment of Mr. Foggo some months ago.

Although Wilkes lawyer denied knowing an indictment was imminent, it seems Wilkes had a heads up. He and his wife filed for divorce in Dec 2006. (California is a community property state).

So, who leaked info to WSJ? And what was the purpose? And why WSJ? Was it a gift from someone in DOJ in Washington hoping to help derail the case one way or another?

cmc

Yeah, there are three possibilities about the leaks, it seems, maybe four. One, which is unlikely, that someone from USA SD leaked the info (lawyers not named Starr lose their licenses for that kind of thing). Second, FBI (Dzwilewski?) did it–FBI tends to be a lot more leaky than lawyers teams. Maybe someone at Main DOJ did it, as a way to spike the case (which Foggo and Wilkes’ lawyers seem to be playing into). Or perhaps CIA did it, to prevent their work from being exposed.

emptywheel,

Supposedly several reporters were shown a copy of the indictment before it was public.
Does this mean that Wilkes and Foggo’s lawyer expect the govt to ask the reporters to reveal their sources ….or go to jail? Somehow, that and the graymail have a familiar ring to it.

And once again, we’re in a place where, if the leak were Admin-organized, the reporters could go to great lengths to protect the govt.

Or, one would hope, the reporters now involved would have learned something from the Judy Miller saga, and they’ll just slip the shiv to the SAO who gave them the leak.

There is something I don’t understand about Foggo’s claim here: he’s arguing that his indictment is improper because someone told the press about it before it was official? So someone told the press. So what? That doesn’t change whether or not he took bribes, steered contracts, or stuffed $$$ in the Duke’s pocket, since all of those alleged crimes took place years before the alleged premature disclosure to the press. Can anyone explain to me why he would think a newspaper article is the same thing as a get-out-of-jail-free card?

Oops, lost part of the closing tag.

Dept. of Justice does Cover-up of $300 million in Fraud connected to Mitt Romney.

The public entity eToys.com filed for bankruptcy in 2001. At which time the court approved the law firms of Traub Bonacquist (TBF) and Morris Nichols (MNAT) to be the Creditors and Debtor’s counsel. The law mandates that both firms have no connection with eToys or with each other. The rules of conflict of interest are designed to assure the public and the creditors get a fair deal, especially when communal stock companies are involved. They must keep their hands out of the cookie jar.
The policing agent assigned to be the watchdog for the public is the Dept of Justice US Trustee’s office. The US Trustee program was formed around 1987 to separate such duties from the Judges who were handling bankruptcy cases. Congress felt such separations were necessary in order to halt any corruption with the millions, which has since become billions of dollar, in complex legal decisions and fee’s that Judges permit law firms and professionals to earn each year. Cronyism is a forbidden item.
There are more than 100 statutory violations that have occurred in eToys. Including perjury, scheme to fix fees, intimidation of victim/witness, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and RICO violations to name a few. The $300 million in fraud has not been prosecuted by the DOJ, even though confessions to perjury have occurred.
So that the reader may understand the serious consideration of the issues below I, Steven Haas (a/k/a Laser Haas) testify that the foregoing is true and correct. These statements are made under the “Penalty of perjury†this 17th day of October 2007.
Collateral Logistics’ Inc (CLI), a company owned by Laser Haas, was hired as the Court approved liquidation consultant as eToys had announced that they were going to auction off everything for $5 million. The bankruptcy assets were eventually sold to Bain/KB. Barry Gold, MNAT & TBF gave Bain/KB discounts in the tens of millions. At that time Bain was owned and/or controlled by the Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
The sales efforts of Laser managed to get back more than $45 million into the eToys bank accounts. Yet for some inexplicable reason the new CEO of eToys, Barry Gold and the law firms TBF & MNAT kept finding fault with Laser’s accomplishments. When Laser discovered the possibility that Barry Gold and TBF might be associated he was offered a very clever bribe of $800,000 with a caveat of TBF’s high connections.
Upon turning down that gratuitous offer, a campaign to destroy Haas began that forced Laser to hire a new attorney for CLI. Henry Heiman who was formerly a Trustee in Delaware. TBF, MNAT and Barry Gold had “produced†some documents to the Court stating that Haas generously waived all earnings. CLI was entitled to more than $3 million in fees and expenses. Heiman stated that he would correct the matter, that the contracts the court approved were indisputable and that CLI would be paid in 30 days. Haas told Heiman and the US Trustee office how the parties had tried to invite Haas to become one of the “good ole boysâ€. Both stated there was no law broken, that no court violation had occurred and denied any legalities/violations of conflict of interest issues.
Two years later Laser began to sense that Heiman did not have the best interest of CLI in mind; so Laser started to research the Code and Rules of the bankruptcy system that anyone can find on the Dept of Justice website. The law states the Courts can only approve attorneys for work in bankruptcy matters, once the attorneys submit an Affidavit, under Bankruptcy Rule 2014. Attorneys must state that there are no connections or conflict of interest. They must not touch the pot of golden cookies in the cookie jar.
The DOJ website led Laser to discover that his both Heiman & the Dept of Justice Attorney, Mark Kenney, had lied to Haas that the bribe was not an issue unless accepted. Perjury had been committed by the false affidavits that had been tendered by the attorneys. TBF, Barry Gold, MNAT, etc, had been paid more than $14 million in fees and expenses. Attorneys must re-certify there are no conflicts whenever the seek payments. They must submit fee applications at least every three months.
Upon supplementary discoveries of malfeasance Laser again contacted the Dept of Justice’s Mark Kenney and informed him of the issues at hand. This resulted in heated phone conversations whereby Heiman emailed Laser a threat by Susan Balaschak of TBF. Stating if Haas did not “back off†from his investigations not only would CLI not get paid for the work the Court had approved, Laser’s career would suffer greatly and TBF would seek additional retaliations to come after Haas for monies earned earlier.
When Laser called the Dept of Justice about such, Mark Kenney also addressed Haas in an angry manner and stated that the conflict of interest issues of Barry Gold and TBF had been handled in Bonus Sales. There it was, out of anger, a slip of the tongue, Mark Kenney accidentally provided Haas with the place to find the proofs that the Dept of Justice had known all along. Undisclosed conflicts of interest of TBF and Barry Gold existed and had already been addressed by the Courts twice before. Congress has mandated that all court cases now be available to the public by Internet access, knowing the fact that issues hidden tends to corrupt. The public access system is called PACER.
Researching PACER for the Bonus Sales case (Del Bankr 03-12284) led to the discovery of a company TBF’s owner, Paul Traub and Barry Gold hold together. That being the entity of Asset Disposition Advisors. (ADA) The old adage of the lie told yesterday is forgotten when one tells a lie today proves to be correct in this case.
Haas’s attorney Heiman refused to supply the Court with this damming information and Heiman immediately asked the Court to withdraw as CLI counsel. Upon Laser’s supplying of the proof to the Court, the eToys shareholders reached out to Laser. The comparing of notes led to discovery of many additional hidden secrets. Both the shareholders and Haas made Emergency motions to ask the Court to deal with the issue of the false affidavits that were to be heard on December 22, 2004.
The Director, Lawrence Friedman, of the US Trustee’s in Washington D C replaced Roberta DeAngelis by a press release on Dec. 22, 2004. At the Emergency hearing on Dec. 22, 2004 the Judge Ordered TBF, MNAT and Barry Gold to address the non-disclosure of conflict of interests issues by responses on Jan. 25, 2005. The Asst US Trustee, Frank Perch armed with the responses and confessions of multiple, intentionally false affidavits, then Motioned to Disgorge TBF $1.6 million on Feb. 15, 2005.
Just when Laser and the eToys shareholder key researcher (Robert Alber) felt that justice would occur, out of the blue, less than 10 days later Mark Kenney enters a Stipulation to Settle that reduces the penalty of the returned monies of $1.6 million to only $750,000. At the same time Mark Kenney included language within the settlement that implied a get out of jail free card to everyone while also permitting continuous circumvention of the Law. It illegally states that the parties would not be compelled to tell any of their other illegitimate activities. Mark Kenney being charged by Oath with protecting the public’s interest had turned collaborator and seeks to protect the perpetrators of fraud on the court with a slap on the wrist fine. This is simply absurd!
Not only has TBF & MNAT confessed to several acts of false affidavits, Paul Traub of TBF also confessed directly to the court that he paid Barry Gold four payments of $30,000 each that stopped when TBF & MNAT placed Barry Gold secretly within the Debtor. A hidden Hiring Letter shows that Barry Gold was given illegal permission to circumvent the Court and the Law, by his own choice, and such was deliberate. Once he agreed to violate the law, he was then paid $40,000 per month and a bonus at the end. To earn t
his money all Barry Gold had to do was work 4 days per month for the Debtor.
Laser and Alber immediately complained to the Court, to Frank Perch and the Director of the Dept of Justice EOUST office, Lawrence Friedman. Mr. Friedman emailed Haas his staff was on top of it and that the matters would be addressed properly.
At the same time Haas and Alber began researching for the reasons why the Dept of Justice’s Mark Kenney would stick his neck out, so flagrantly against the Law. To everyone’s surprise the additional non-disclosures the Stipulation tried to cover up was the fact that MNAT, TBF & Barry Gold all had non-disclosed connections to KB/Bain. TBF and Barry Gold had worked for/with Bain. SanKaty, Stage, as Mitt Romney owned the entity called Stage Stores, also a bankruptcy matter in another state, Texas.
MNAT, it turns out, also represents Bain interests on a regular basis. MNAT had handled a Mitt Romney/Bain connected entity, the Learning Company, when it merged with Mattel. Both the Bain and Mattel issues mandate immediate removal of MNAT, TBF & Barry Gold with referral to the United States Attorney’s office for prosecution.
Yet the Disgorge motion and Stipulation to Settle speciously ignores MNAT. There are also multiple $100 million dollar preferential issues in both eToys and KB Toys bankruptcy that have never been reviewed. MNAT brazenly represents Bain in the KB Toys bankruptcy case. This is also a crime as has been established in the matter of In re Bucyrus. In that case Milbank was disgorged their entire fee’s paid, the Law firm lost a $20 million lawsuit and Gellene was sent to jail for his perjury in trying to hide such from the Court by false affidavits. A book on the Gellene matter is available on Amazon, entitled Eat what you kill -The fall of a Wall Street Lawyer.
To demonstrate how little the $750,000 meant to TBF as a deterrent, Paul Traub then petitioned the Court to handle the $100 million dollar preferential of Michael Glazer and Bain in the KB Toys case. TBF and Barry Gold did not inform the KB Judge of their connections to Bain and Glazer. Whereupon Haas and Alber immediately cried foul to Asst US Trustee Frank Perch, to the Court and to Lawrence Friedman.
Mark Kenney responded to the proofs provided by Laser by Obstructing justice stepping in as the defense for TBF. Kenney asked the courts to strike and expunge the proofs provided by Laser and Alber. The Court signed an Order dismissing Laser’s & ALBER’s comments and then held a hearing about the issue. As if such treasonous defenses and improper procedures were not enough, Laser discovers that Mr. Perch and Lawrence Friedman both put in their resignations, from their positions of esteemed office, for “personal reasonsâ€. Leaving an perceptible void of responsible authority.
As Mark Kenney was successful in assisting in the defense of TBF, MNAT and Barry Gold, the court also assisted the threats of TBF against Haas, by allowing the CLI claims hearing to be rescheduled. Haas’s new counsel, Brad Brook, now having a slam-dunk case against the fraud, with admitted acts of perjury, should have motioned to win the case, bizarrely, instead Brook asks to withdraw. Stating falsely that Haas had disappeared and could not be reached. Brook could not offer or state it was a monetary issue as his firm believed in Laser’s case so much they took it upon contingency.
The Court permitted the rescheduling, the withdrawal of Laser’s attorney and then summarily dismissed the CLI claims case. The Court ignoring the issues of due process and Constitutional rights, even went so far as to refuse Laser’s new counsel from speaking to the Court the very day the Court dismissed the $3 million claim that CLI had earned from the Court approved contracts as liquidation consultant.
Both Haas and Alber complained to the FBI, the US Marshall’s, the OIG, the OGE and the OPR offices of the US Government. All of which referred Haas and Alber to the US Attorney’s office in Delaware and the US Dept of Justice office of General Counsel of the EOUST in Washington D.C..
The sham of these referrals is the fact that the after the resignation of Lawrence Friedman, the replaced Region 3 Trustee, Roberta DeAngelis was promoted by the Dept of Justice to be the Acting General Counsel for the US Trustee’s. DeAngelis is now in scandalously in charge of investigating her own cases that she was removed from!
Making matters even worse the US Trustee’s office has been acting as appellee in the appeals of Haas and Alber, improbably defending TBF, MNAT and Barry Gold by asking the Courts to strike and dismiss the Haas or Alber appeals for being “without meritâ€. Roberta DeAngelis has actually signed a brief asking the 3rd Circuit to dismiss.
Heading off the first appeal of Laser, the bankruptcy court issued a 57 page Opinion that testifies on behalf of the perpetrators and states clearly erroneous findings of fact and conclusions of law to justify the position. It is as if the Delaware bankruptcy court has become a twilight zone and sanctuary for white-collar, syndicated crime!
Anyone can plainly see that the entire system of cronyism is defending TBF, MNAT and Barry Gold. The one question that has remained unanswered is Why? Who can it be, that the entire system is protecting? At the same time the question comes to mind as to how high does the manipulation of the system go? Is the White House aware of all the perversions of the Justice system and if so, why has no one sought to correct the problem? Where does the power come from that can manipulate the Dept of Justice?
Everywhere that Haas and Alber look they find inexplicable questions of connections and cronyism that remain unanswered, even though the acts of impropriety are clearly evident. Just months ago it was discovered that the Judge who had heard all 4 Delaware District Court appeals in the eToys case, Judge Kent A Jordan, was a partner in the firm of Morris James. As per the law § 455 Kent Jordan should have recused himself from the case as his firm Morris James was the firm that Haas had fired when he had hired Henry Heiman to pursue the claim of CLI in eToys.
Also the resignations of esteemed parties do not cease, as Debra Yang of President Bush’s Corp Fraud Task Force also resigned without providing any remedy. A feat that is only made pale by the fact that it is now discovered that the US Attorney for Delaware Colm F Connolly was a partner of the law firm of MNAT. Colm F Connolly is now to be the Judge in Delaware District Ct position made vacant by Kent A Jordan.
It appears it certainly is a great career move to refuse to investigate or prosecute one’s former partner, associates and clients. Especially when the Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney owns one of the clients and has benefited from the malfeasance.
Nevertheless, it now has to be a vital cause of concern for MNAT, Barry Gold, TBF & Mr. Connolly, as such actions are unethical, illegal and good reason for Colm Connolly failing to be promoted to the Federal Judge position. The lawbreakers now realize they are caught, red-handed, with everyone’s hands in the cookie jar.