The More Obvious Type of Connection - Jan Paul Miller and the Iraq War Contracts

Nov. 8, 2005 Jan Paul Miller (USA Sothern District of IL), a career prosecutor resigns, and the press release reviews his accomplishments.

http://64.233.167.104/...

U.S. Attorney, Mr. Miller established the prosecution of white collar crimes as a priority. He oversaw the first conviction in the nation for kickbacks relating to government contracts issued to support the war effort in Iraq, and two additional defendants in a similar case are pending trial.

Nov. 18, 2005 details of the conviction.

http://64.233.167.104/...

Jan Paul Miller, United States Attorney for the Central District of Illinois, announced that Glenn Allen Powell, a former employee of Kellogg, Brown & Root Services, Inc. (KBR), was sentenced today to a term of 15 months in prison for defrauding the United States and accepting kickbacks of more than $100,000 from an Iraqi subcontractor for the renovation of buildings in Iraq. U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm also ordered Powell, 40, of Cedar Park, Texas, to pay restitution in the amount of $90,973.99.

So who fills his spot?  According to the document dump:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/...

...In western Michigan, (Margaret Chiara's district), there was very bad feeling about US Attorney's office because of pitiful prosecution history of former US attorney, Phillip Green and therefore, interference (particularly political) with US attorney's office would likely cause an uproar.

Phillip Green, former US Atty in Michigan-sucked up to Sara Lee Corp.-many people died and sickened because of tainted meat. He performed disgracefully in prosecuting the case. (http://commondreams.org/views01/0726-04.htm)

Bush then nominated Phillip Green to fill position in Southern District of Illinois on June 9, 2006 but the nomination was returned when the 109th Congress adjourned in December 2006. The president has not resubmitted Mr. Green's nomination as of this date.
(http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/2/22/205548/359)

...

Posted by: Shelley
Date: March 20, 2007 01:37 PM

Green, probably the heir apparent to Chiara, gets moved to a new office and then lost in the shuffle.  The investigation into Iraq contracts--probably lost too.  Chiara gets forced out so DoJ brings in a outsider who doesn't know what he/she is doing.  Two offices in chaos!  But, as you will see in the more complex case of Heffelfinger and the NAIS, rove prefers more than just a twofer.  

The More Complex Type of Connection -NAIS and Thomas Heffelfinger (USA MN)

Thomas Heffelfinger was a loyal republican who had a long career in public service.  He served as a USA for bush I and bush II.  So why "resigned" on Feb. 17, 2006, for financial reasons:

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/...

Heffelfinger, 58, announced Tuesday that he would resign Feb. 28 and return to private practice. "There's never a good time to quit as U.S. attorney because there's always new crimes, new cases," he said. "It's an entirely personal reason, balancing the best needs of the office and the best needs of my family." He declined to discuss the reason specifically, beyond saying financial considerations were part of it. Being in government service has meant my family has made sacrifices," he said.

when no job announcement appears until June 5, 2006?

http://twincities.bizjournals.com/...

Best & Flanagan has hired Thomas Heffelfinger, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, the law firm announced Monday.

At first blush his resignation looks like the republicans want to give a young (age 32) Federalist Society minority woman, Rachel Paulose, a chance to build her resume for later appointments.  From the document dump a portion of her resume:

http://judiciary.house.gov/

RACHEL K PAULOSE

EMPLOYMENT
Interim United States Attorney (March, 2006 to present): District chief federal law enforcement officer.
United States Department of Justice (January, 2006 to present):
Senior Counsel to Deputy Attorney General Paul 1. McNulty and Special Counsel for Health Care Fraud. Portfolio includes supervision of Department's health care fraud policy as well as certain civil and criminal litigation.
Dorsey & Whitney (October, 2003 to December, 2005): Trial lawyer. Work included successful representation of Republican party in election lawsuit; defense of faith-based health care program; corporate litigation.
Williams & Connolly (October, 2002 to October, 2003): Business litigator. Work included defense against class action suit demanding slavery reparations; federal criminal and civil appeals; malpractice defense.
DAG000000411

So what was USA MN Heffelfinger working on when he left?  Bloomberg reports on Nov. 3, 2006.

http://www.bloomberg.com/...

William McGuire, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group Inc., may face criminal charges for reaping $333 million from stock options that might have been backdated to raise their value, say former securities regulators not involved in the case.

McGuire, 59, was ``central to'' a process that set many option dates ``at or near'' the lowest price in a quarter or year, raising his potential profit over 12 years, said a law firm retained by Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth, the largest U.S. health insurer. McGuire agreed to step down as CEO by Dec. 1, and resigned as chairman.  The probe found that ``certain facts run contrary'' to McGuire's assertion to the law firm that the pricing dates were set in advance. The report, released Oct. 15, may expose McGuire to civil or criminal charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Minnesota Attorney General, securities lawyers said.

The firm retained by UnitedHealth?  According to UnitedHealth:

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/...

Dorsey & Whitney LLP, a national law firm based in Minneapolis, has served as United HealthCare's outside counsel since the early 1980s.

Dorsey & Whitney--the same firm Rachel Paulsoe worked for until Dec. 2005.  She left Dorsey in Dec. 2005 to go to McNulty's office in Jan. 2006.  But wait, on Feb. 17, 2006 she was named the Interim USA of MN.  So she went from the firm that represented UnitedHealth Group, to main DoJ overseeing Health Care Fraud, to Interim USA of MN overseeing prosecution of her ex-firm's client.  And, all this "unforeseen" activity in a mere 1-1/2 months.  

Seemed like the end of story so I went to write a diary and WHAM! I ran across this gem. On March 12, 2007, Heffelfinger denies that his "resignation" is related to the "obvious" eight", but:  

http://64.233.167.104/...

Heffelfinger told Minnesota Lawyer that five of the eight who were dismissed worked closely with him on Native American issues and were among his closest friends in the U.S. attorney ranks.

In short, Heffelfinger was the Chair of the Native American Issues Subcommittee (NAIS) until his departure in Feb. 2006.  A year later, five more NAIS subcommittee members have the same fate -- Chiara, Charlton, Iglesias, Bogden and McKay.  (Note: McKay is not on this list, but he appears on another list below):

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/...

NOTE: KRIS and MATS below should probably read NAIS as Tom is probably Tom Heffelfinger

Re. Chiara and NAIS: There are emails somewhere in the 7 range (sorry, I saw them yesterday and didn't note) from back in the spring of 2006 regarding whether or not she is the chair of the NAIS committee. I can copy from the zipped consolidated file, but don't know how to tell exactly which document these are from.

From: Beeman,. Judy (USAEO)
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:46 PM
* To: Chiara, Margaret M. (USAMIW); ' WiChtman, Karrie S. (USAMIW)
-> Subject:' NAIS Listing
Margaret if you are the new chair, please let me know. Thanks. Judy
>*. Native American Issues
* Chair: TBA
a Vice Chair: Margaret Chiara (W/MI)

• Sheldon Sperling (E/OK)
  
• David O'Meilia WOK).
  

Paul. Charlton (AZ)
James A. McDevitt (E/WA)
> Thomas E. Moss (ID)
* David Iglesias (NM)
Michael G. Heavican (NE)
> Matt Mead (WY)

• Bill Mercer (MT)
  
• Daniel Bogden (NV)
  

a Drew Wrigley (ND)

also this:

From: Goodling, Monica
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 5:49 PM To: Sampson, Kyle
Subject: RE: AGAC
David Dugas has . the Environment Working Group officially (Judy Beeman sent him a letter per your instructions). Judy also says Chiara is calling herself the chair of the KRIS,
but Judy is checking her email to see who authbrized it or how that happened. Perhaps she just assumed it was hers after Tom left:..

Original Message - -
From: Sampson, Kyle , Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006'2:18 PM
To: Goodling,'Monica.
Subject: FW:AOAC
I think the answer to. Bill's below questions is no -- 99 percent sure. Could you confirm
for me?

Original Message - -
From: Mercer, Bill (ODAG) Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 12:20 AM
To: Sampson, Kyle .
Subject: AGAC
Have you - filled the MATS chairmanshop? Chiara was Tom's vice, but she has
limitations.

Have you filled the Environment Working Group chairmanship formerly held by Burgess?
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
Tracking: * Recipient Read
Sampson, Kyle Deleted: 5/9/2006 7:36 PM

My apologies for not being able to exactly pin this down - I'm having trouble with the big files today.
Posted by: Barbara B

Obviously, Chiara made the assumption that an efficient and focused DoJ would move Vice Chair to Chair upon the Chair's resignation.  But the goal of the DoJ is not efficiency, it is disruption of committees like NAIS.  Thus, the continual forced resignations of multiple NAIS members.  Further, DoJ set the departure date for Chiara, et.al. as one to two weeks prior to the NAIS annual meeting.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/...

Date: March 21, 2007 02:32 PM
7-10 pg 17
An email from Margaret Chiara to McNulty. In it, she details how her last day is to be March 9th, yet, she is chairing a committee re: Indian Tribal Summit on March 13 and 14. Charlton, McKay, Igelsias and Bogden are all on the committee as well.
So 5 USA's were on an Indian Tribal Summit committee and a 6th was investigating Abramoff, K-street, and corruption into Indian deals?
And the USA who would have been charged with pursuing subpeona contempt is replaced as well?
Anyone see any connection here?
Reason being: If Lam's investigation brought in wider corruption in Indian Tribes vs lobbying, then wouldn't the rest of the USA's on the council have gotten wind of it and started investigating if their districts were involved as well?
Posted by: MotleyPatriot
Date: March 21, 2007 03:17 PM

In essence, DoJ kept changing the NAIS Chair right before the annual meetings.  This disruption had to make data gathering and transfer of witness information difficult.  Is this why Charleston wanted tape recording of F.B.I. interviews and why it became one of his major arguments with the DoJ?  

http://www.indianz.com/...

The ousted U.S. Attorney for Arizona sought to record FBI interviews with people suspected of committing crimes in Indian Country, documents released on Monday show.

Officials at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., did not outright oppose the proposal, according to a slew of e-mails and memos. In fact, some supported the use of taped interviews and confessions in order to secure more guilty pleas and convictions.

Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton "thoughtfully articulated" the need for the project, a memo to a high-ranking DOJ official last June stated. Charlton was worried that the failure to record FBI interviews "has created an unfair disparity between the way crime is treated in the Native American community and all other communities in Arizona," the document said.

Tapes would be the most efficient and least disruptive way to transfer information for a committee that had problems with turnover like NAIS.  The new chairs and new members could listen to the interviews on tapes if they needed clarification.  Without tapes, they had reams of paper and handwritten notes. Clarification requires a reinterview of the witnesses. It appears that once the new committee chairs and members figure out what is going on, they are forced to resign!  

So I suggest you just pick a name of a "resigned" or "appointed" USA.  Look at corp. level relationships, but also look at the committee assignments.  All roads will lead to ABRAMOFF, ROVE, AND CHENEY!

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/...

7-7

Start with "Fact Sheet: United States Attorney Appointments"

Appears straightforward UNTIL you start checking the list (lists really) It starts with "Nominations since March 9, 2006" and lists the "15 nominations" the President has made in that time.

Next comes the list of vacancies since March 9. They list 13 vacancies that "have arisen". But SEVEN of these vacancies are not on the previous list of Presidential nominations. THIS NOW MAKES A TOTAL OF 22 nominations/vacancies.

Next list appointments that the AG made. There is a total of 12 names on this list. Some are duplicates of the names on the list of "presidential" nominations (nominated twice?) and others are on the vacancies list. TWO OF THE NAMES ARE NEW, FOR A TOTAL OF 24 nominations/vacancies.

What may be more interesting, though, is that the most controversial districts ARE NOT ON THE LIST!

No New Mexico, Nevada, Northern California, Southern California or Western Michigan nominations/vacancies are listed AT ALL!

This would make for a total of 29 districts with nominations/vacancies since 3/9/2006.

As my Dad used to say, "Baffle 'em with BS", and list seems to be designed to do just that.

Posted by:
Date: March 20, 2007 01:25 PM