Conyers Wants More Interviews
by emptywheel

Update: Apparently, Conyers also wants Monica's testimony, and is willing to give her immunity to get it. Damn, I was hoping Ms Loyalty Oath would be forced to plea, rather than get immunity. I'm imagining Fawn Hall and Ollie North all wrapped up into one.

John Conyers isn't done with his interviews. Yesterday he requested interviews with eight more DOJ employees:

* Rachel Paulose (USA for Minnesota)
* Steven Biskupic (USA for Eastern Wisconsin)
* Mary Beth Buchanan (USA for Western Pennsylvania)
* Larry Gomez (Interim USA for New Mexico and First AUSA under Iglesias)
* Matthew Friedrich (COS and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division)
* John Kelly (Deputy Director, EOUSA)
* John Nowacki (Principal Deputy Director, EOUSA)
* Tasia Scolinos (Director of Public Affairs for DOJ)

I'm guessing that HJC is working in several different directions with this request. Scolinos and Nowacki have been very involved with discussions about how to implement the USA firings and how to respond to the aftermath, so they'll offer yet another version of the ever-changing explanation for the firings.

They're bringing the incompetent Rachel Paulose, presumably to hear her tales about how surprised she was to become USA. But they're also bringing John Kelly, the guy who tried to stave off the self-demotion of the managers in Paulose's office and the guy who is currently baby-sitting Paulose in MN. So I presume the committee is interested in hearing more about the rapid destruction of the USA office in MN.

They're bringing Steven Biskupic to find out whether he brought a crappy public corruption case to avoid being fired. Given his mention of bringing 12 cases against Republicans since 2002, I'd also like to know if he was originally on the list to be fired because he put some big fundraiser in jail. (And note, HJC has also asked the RNC for any emails discussing Biskupic; those might be interesting).

They're bringing in Larry Gomez, who DOJ has claimed was stuck running David Iglesias' office when he was off being an "absentee landlord" by serving in the Naval Reserves. I suspect, though, they'll also ask some questions about the Aragon case and maybe the trumped up Voter Fraud cases Iglesias was supposed to take.

One of the two most interesting names on the list is Mary Beth Buchanan. McClatchy suggests she's being requested because she's from one of the places in which Bush complained about voter fraud. But that's not right--he was complaining about Philadelphia, not the Pittsburgh area where Buchanan is USA. And Politico suggests she's being summoned to talk about playing dual roles, USA and Director of the Office on Violence Against Women. I don't buy that either--there are a number of people whose dual appointments would be much more interesting (not least, the new COS for AGAG, who should be busy in CT chasing down Holy Joe's $300,000 slush fund). I suspect Conyers wants to talk about Buchanan's seeming selective prosecution of Democrats for public corruption cases.

And then there's Matthew Friedrich. He's a stumper. He hasn't really shown up on the document dumps. But I'm guessing he may be on there fore one of two reasons. He may have been involved in discussions about why various USAs weren't prosecuting the numbers and kinds of cases that AGAG wanted (including obscenity, immigration, and death penalty cases); these were used as the excuse to fire Lam, Bogden, Charlton, and Iglesias. More interesting, to me, is the allegation that Brent Wilkes' lawyer made--that DOJ demanded a number of revisions to the Kyle Foggo and Brent Wilkes indictment. That sounds like the kind of thing the AAG for the Criminal Division might have been involved in. If so, Friedrich might have a lot he could tell the Committee.

There's one more outstanding detail I've been pondering. HJC has subpoenaed William Moschella, who was very involved in the discussions about the firings. This means one of twho things. Either Richard Hertling tried to prevent Moschella from testifying. Or, like the fired USAs who testified before Congress, Moschella wants the cover of a subpoena before he spills to the Judiciary Committees. In either case, it suggests Moschella will have a good deal of interesting things to say to the committee.
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