It’s Not Alberto Gonzales’ Fault that Rachel Paulose Is an Authoritarian Nut, Really
A couple of you pointed out the news that Office of Special Counsel had concluded that Rachel Paulose acted improperly when she demoted the guy who busted her for mishandling classified information:
Today, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced the settlement of a prohibited personnel practice complaint filed by John Marti, an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) in the District of Minnesota. Mr. Marti previously served as the First Assistant United States Attorney (FAUSA) to the former U.S. Attorney, Rachel K. Paulose. He alleged that in April 2007, Ms. Paulose demoted him to a staff attorney position because he had reported to officials within the Department of Justice that she had mishandled classified material. OSC’s investigation showed that Ms. Paulose retaliated against Mr. Marti for making whistleblower disclosures in violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act.
[snip]
Based on considerable evidence of intent, animus, and motive, OSC concluded that Ms. Paulose constructively demoted Mr. Marti.
Today, OSC issued a second press release clarifying yesterday’s news:
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced yesterday the settlement of a prohibited personnel practice complaint filed by John Marti, an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) in the District of Minnesota. Mr. Marti previously served as the First Assistant United States Attorney (FAUSA) to the former U.S. Attorney, Rachel K. Paulose. He alleged that in April 2007, Ms. Paulose demoted him to a staff attorney position because he had reported to officials within the Department of Justice that she had mishandled classified material.
In yesterday’s press release, OSC did not note that the settlement agreement reached between Mr. Marti and the U.S. Attorneys’ Office for the District of Minnesota was entered into by the Department of Justice as a no-fault agreement and was not to be construed as an admission of liability by DOJ. The settlement agreement specifically states this. [my emphasis]
Gosh, it was just a few weeks ago that we learned that Alberto Gonzales is sticking taxpayers with the bill for his defense against suits that he allowed partisan considerations to unfairly influence hiring and firing decisions.
The Justice Department has agreed to pay for a private lawyer to defend former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales against allegations that he encouraged officials to inject partisan politics into the department’s hiring and firing practices.
Now why do you suppose OSC was so quick to point out that this "evidence of intent, animus, and motive" doesn’t mean Alberto Gonzales bears any liability for the fact that a hand-picked "loyal Bushie" was using her position as US Attorney like a personal feifdom?
And now that we’re talking admissions of liability (or not), do you suppose Rachel Paulose is still burrowing in somewhere at DOJ?
TPM says “Since last year, Paulose has been an adviser to Attorney General Michael Mukasey at main DOJ.”
I wonder what kinds of questions he seeks her advice about and if she is paid hourly or receives a salary. Congress should not fund the DOJ division that pays her should she be around after January 20, 2009.
I’m wondering if that it still true. According to normal OSC rules, she should be fired as soon as OSC determines she acted improperly–which was back in July. If she’s not fired, then she’ll be burrowed in with the civil service protections accorded an AUSA.
Not to take away from Gonzales’ even more stellar accomplishments, but why does McNulty seem to skate off with no problems after all this? She was his girl friday, wasn’t she? He’s the one Monica fingered as a liar. I still wonder if he stepped in and took over the Plame outing supervision after Comey left. He was on the push/point for so much, yet just slides out with little fanfare.
The Plame outing ruined some of the people who knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq.
And then I see that Silberman was brought in to help with the cover-up. (wiki says) “On 6 February 2004, Silberman was appointed co-chair of the Iraq Intelligence Commission, an independent panel created to investigate U.S. intelligence surrounding the United States’ 2003 invasion of Iraq”
And further, after his help with the cover-up, GW rewarded him: “In June 2008, Silberman was named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor granted by the government of the United States.”
This all stinks.
This Bushies at DOJ are all in the toilet together, just floating there. It will be interesting to see if anyone does anymore about these turds.
Jason Leopold does not know either as of yesterday: “Paulose was reassigned by Mukasey last year to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy in non-managerial capacity. She served in an interim capacity for a year, …, and was formally installed in March 2007.”
No mention of her leaving. Maybe Eric Black, a former reporter for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune who was mentioned by Leopold, knows how to find out where she is now.
Elisebeth Collins Cook, Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at DOJ is a Federalist Society member. Her DOJ bio says “She clerked for the Honorable Laurence H. Silberman of the United States Court of the Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Honorable Lee H. Rosenthal of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.”
Pictures:
http://www.abovethelaw.com/200…..the_ha.php
Hey Fredo, nuts don’t fall far from the tree!
LA Times says “In a prepared statement issued Monday (back in 2007), Paulose said that she was resigning to become counselor to the assistant attorney general for legal policy at the Justice Department in Washington. That behind-the-scenes office helps coordinate a wide range of policy initiatives for the department and vets administration nominees to the federal bench.”
http://articles.latimes.com/20…..a-usatty20
So I am baffled – is she an advisor to AG Mukasey or counselor for Elisabeth Cook?
She’s a mole.
Several sites are showing the spoils practice tradition for lameduck presidents. On the Palouse matter, I read only the lawDotcom version, a reprint from Associated Press [attribution included], showing how the arbitration process hid what occurred and saved the need to burnish the resume. PEER is thinking there are ducks in that blind, too; consider this week’s note that the inventor of the effort to shutter all EPA libraries now is shepherding EPA’s effort to foot-drag in the mandate to open up e-filing of regional complaints; EPA accomplished the e-filling procrastination by shortening the public comment phase to 24 hours. Similarly in this lameduck strategy long planned, EPA has used the federal register process to waive the 100′ riparian buffer limit for Appalachian coal strip-mining which uses the push mountaintop into streams ‘technology’, also this week; the principal objections included mention the technique already has buried 1200 miles of streams in Appalachia, a demographically economically disadvantaged part of the country. There are going to be lots of ground hogs to watch February 2, 2009; some of them are going to be secret exGWBush widgets.
the whole thing is nutty .. there is no way both statements can be true .. it’d be like getting your eggs scrambled but sunny-side-up .. you get one or the other but you can’t get both using the same egg ..
Rachel may be a poster child for Bushbot Ideologues, burrowed-in deep, but not playing well with others at the same time.
And, just like you say, look! – there’s Gonzo throwing his hands up with wide eyes, saying that it’s not what he intended to ‘happen’ – he couldn’t possibly be Responsible, because he was Too Busy steadily ‘looking-away’ from Monica’s and Kyle’s Loyalty Grooming Program – the “Be Like Rachel” Program.