Hey, do you remember when we were told that a vote for McCain would just mean more of the politicization of the Justice Department? Well, they were right.
The mail room at the Justice Department must really be backed up.
A few weeks back we posted on the inexplicable dropping of charges against the night club-wielding Black Panthers at a Philly polling location during the Presidential election by the Department of Justice and how an investigation into this by the Civil Rights Commission was being stone-walled.
Well, now it appears Justice may have had a role in the firing of Gerald Walpin as a condition to get stimulus money released to the Sacramento area. Recall how Walpin’s investigation into Sacto mayor and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson resulted in Johnson being suspended from receiving anymore Americorps funding. Johnson was unsuspended, Walpin went justifiable ballistic and was subsequently given the axe.
But the machinations behind how it was that Johnson was unsuspended is receiving the attention of at least one member of Congress.
According to a senior Republican aide, Sessions’ interest was piqued by a statement made in a late March television interview by Rep. Doris Matsui, the Democratic congresswoman who represents Sacramento. Asked whether Johnson’s problems could prevent the city from receiving stimulus funds, Matsui said that, at Johnson’s request, she had “been in conversation with officials at the White House and OMB [Office of Management and Budget] and others to ensure that we don’t lose any money at all.”
Within days of Matsui’s statement, a settlement was reached. Johnson was unsuspended, and in a particularly unusual move, acting U.S. Attorney Brown issued a press release hailing the arrival of stimulus funds. “The lifting of the suspension against all parties, including Mayor Johnson, removes any cloud whether the City of Sacramento will be prevented form receiving much-needed federal stimulus funds,” Brown wrote.
If you are wondering what the hell a U.S. Attorney General is doing talking about porkulus outside the context of an investigation into the abuse of porkulus funds, you are not alone.
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee want to know why a U.S. attorney was touting his own actions in bringing stimulus money to the city. That’s not the normal role of prosecutors. “We need to hear whether the settlement in this case was tainted in any way by political influence or political factors,” says the senior Republican aide.
And, again, efforts to ascertain what was the role the White House and the Justice Department, and in particular, Lawrence Brown, had in the Johnson re-instatement deal is being greeted with silence.
The fact that the one man, Walpin, who stood up to this deal was fired, only makes this whole stinking ordeal that much more suspicious.
H/T: Hot Air
P.S. Good news. Walpin’s got a blog. Well, it’s not his per se, but similar to Bailout Sleuth, it will track all things Walpin and Inspector Generals-gate related.
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