Florida GOP Police Blotter #11: Palm Beach judge involved in Goodling fiasco

We haven't had an addition to the GOP Police Blotter since May, and while this one is only a tenuous connection, I'm going to say it qualifies, since the investigation is ongoing -- and it might end up involving federal charges. (Besides, it's my sucky blog, so bite me.)

Immigration Court Judge Rex J. Ford (right) of Palm Beach has been named in the Department of Justice probe of the GOP favoritism practice that put Monica Goodling in the public spotlight. Judge Ford, whose court is in Broward County, allegedly reviewed and recommended candidates for appointment to the Immigration Court based solely on their Republican bona fides.

The process used in naming Immigration Court judges was not as high profile as the firings of U.S. attorneys, but it was also part of the illegal politicizing of the Justice Department, according to congressional critics.

Immigration Court judges, who hear petitions to remain in the U.S. from immigrants in more than 50 specialized courts around the country, are considered career Justice Department employees and not political appointees.

"Both (Justice) Department policy and federal law prohibit discrimination in hiring for career department positions on the basis of political affiliations," investigators said.

The investigators said that in 2006, Ford joined with two other immigration court judges - Garry Malphrus and Mark Metcalf - in recommending to Goodling six candidates for the court.

Before being named as immigration judges during the Bush administration, Malphrus had been associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Metcalf was a failed GOP congressional candidate from Kentucky.

Both were named immigration judges without being interviewed by the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which was the traditional procedure.

You'll no doubt be shocked -- SHOCKED -- to hear that Judge Ford had no comment, and even if he did, "Immigration Court regulations prohibit him from speaking to the press," according to, well, him.

Gee, it sure is too bad that impeachment is off the table ...

Another Democrat indicted by the Justice Department

His supporters say he's a target of the Bush crime syndicate. His detractors say he's been corrupt for a long time. But either way, Puerto Rico Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (right) and a number of other prominent Puerto Ricans are facing some pretty serious charges. (Acevedo is a member of Puerto Rico's Popular Democratic Party, a cognate of the U.S. Democratic Party.)

[Gov. Acevedo] is expected to be arrested Thursday and charged with six campaign related charges: conspiracy to violate election laws, making false statements, wire fraud, program fraud, conspiracy to defraud the IRS and filing a false tax return.

The 27-count indictment began with a long-running grand jury probe into how the governor funded his election to Puerto Rico's resident commissioner, the nonvoting position in Congress he held prior to becoming governor.

According to U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia González, the governor and his allies in Puerto Rico and Philadelphia conspired to pay off campaign finance debt with fake invoices and straw contributions. The governor, she said, also used campaign funds to pay for family vacations to Miami, Orlando and Costa Rica.

He also allegedly sent his children to China using campaign funds and bought $57,000 worth of luxury suits, said FBI agent in charge Luis Fraticelli.

[...]

Acevedo maintains that the drawn-out grand jury investigation into his finances is the product of a witch hunt. As members of Acevedo's staff and even his family were paraded to the grand jury in a prolonged probe, the governor's supporters claimed the case is another example of a Republican-led Justice Department going after Democrats.

Acevedo, a member of Puerto Rico's Popular Democratic Party, is in the midst of a reelection campaign.

He has been dogged for several years by allegations that his campaign committee padded his war chest with ''straw contributions,'' -- illegal contributions submitted under other people's names to skirt donation limits.

Subpoenas were issued in 2006 for hundreds of Puerto Rico secretary of state documents relating to more than 60 people tied to a handful of Philadelphia fundraisers.

The fundraisers helped collect campaign contributions for Acevedo while he was resident commissioner, Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in Congress.

Political operatives in Philadelphia are accused of submitting contributions in the names of relatives and employees of a Pennsylvania dental company.

A number of those Philadelphia contacts as well as members of his local campaign finance committee were among those accused.

The Philadelphia fundraising operatives have denied wrongdoing.

This is the first I've heard of the investigation into Acevedo's background but, particularly when juxtaposed with the recent arrest of Miami attorney Ben Kuehne on unrelated charges, there does seem to be an interesting pattern of DOJ probes of prominent Democrats. Justified or not, the Acevedo case bears watching.

Is a prominent Democratic attorney in Miami being targeted by the Bush crime syndicate?

Maybe I need to adjust my tin-foil hat, but this story has all the earmarks of a Drunky McStagger political hit:

Ben Kuehne is a top-tier Miami defense lawyer, the type other attorneys rely on for legal advice. Member of the Florida Bar's Board of Governors. Ex-president of the Dade County Bar Association. Counsel to former Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 vote recount.

Now, Kuehne stands accused of a crime for the advice he gave to a defense team headed by another high-profile Miami lawyer, Roy Black, in a Medellin cocaine cartel smuggling case. And his unprecedented indictment on money-laundering and obstruction of justice charges as part of a U.S. sting operation is sending shivers down the spines of defense attorneys nationwide.

"I tell you frankly it scares the life and soul out of me, and to all others," said defense attorney Milton Hirsch.

Some defense attorneys say lawyers will stop taking cases involving defendants whose financial situations are murky because of fears they could someday face charges themselves.

"This will affect many types of white-collar criminal cases, not just drug kingpin cases, and may well impact the ability of defendants to hire talented and zealous lawyers," said Miami defense attorney Neal Sonnett, who recently represented former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff in a fraud case.

Kuehne, 53, is accused of writing opinion letters that Colombian drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa had enough money free from the taint of drug trafficking to pay some $5.2 million in legal fees. For his advice, Kuehne was paid just under $200,000 by Black's firm and others involved in Ochoa's defense.

Now, of course, I don't know the facts beyond what is stated in the article. However, it's what comes out later in the article that, well, sends shivers down my spine:

The case is being handled by the U.S. Justice Department in Washington rather than the Miami U.S. attorney's office. In a statement, the Justice Department said it "approaches with great care" any possible prosecution of a defense lawyer.

"However, when there is clear evidence of wrongdoing, the department will honor its commitment to the pursuit of justice. Attorneys are not immune from prosecution for money laundering simply on the basis that they represent criminal defendants," the statement said.

See, it's the fact that DOJ in Washington has to take this on rather than leaving it with the local U.S. Attorney's office -- as is customary -- that raises red flags with me. Moreover, as a recovering attorney myself, this sort of thing is extremely troubling: if you can be charged with obstruction of justice and money laundering for what appears to amount only to providing a legal opinion -- which, after all, is your job if you're a lawyer -- then you're on a slippery slope, and pretty far down it for that matter.

Perhaps, as I have said repeatedly, I don't know all the facts, and maybe Mr. Kuehne was engaged in far more than merely writing opinion letters. But the Bush crime syndicate has hardly earned the benefit of the doubt over the last seven-plus years, so I'm inclined to see a political motive ... do you?

Obama calls out racist at DoJ

Is it just me, or do Republicans have absolutely no filter? That is, they say whatever comes to mind without thinking of the consequences.

The latest example is from the head of the the Justice Department's voting rights division, John Tanner:

John Tanner's remarks came during an Oct. 5 panel discussion on minority voters before the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles. Tanner addressed state laws that require photo identification for voting, saying that elderly voters disproportionately don't have the proper IDs.

"That's a shame, you know, creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance," Tanner said, according to video posted on YouTube. "Of course, that also ties into the racial aspect because our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first.

"There are inequities in health care. There are a variety of inequities in this country, and so anything that disproportionately impacts the elderly has the opposite impact on minorities. Just the math is such as that," Tanner said.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has called for Tanner's firing, and rightly so. How anyone can say something like that, I'll never know ... but how a high-ranking official in the federal government can say it in the context of his own duties, well, that's simply unconscionable and unforgivable.

Tanner must go.

(ed. note: The DoJ's Tanner is not the same person as Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.).)

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Monica Goodling

Today Monica Goodling will testify before the House Judiciary Committee about her role in the Justice Department U.S. attorney firing scandal.

Hopefully they'll really give her something to cry about.

Monica Goodling, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former White House liaison, broke down in tears in a colleague's office as a furor rose about her department's firings of eight federal prosecutors, according to interview excerpts released Tuesday.

"'All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department,'" Goodling said during a March 8 conversation, according to Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis.

Margolis told House and Senate investigators of the conversation during a private meeting earlier this month.

During the 30- to 45-minute encounter, Goodling proceeded "to bawl her eyes out" and repeat the phrase, Margolis said.

[...]

Goodling, Margolis told the investigators, repeated the phrase about serving President Bush, the administration and the Justice Department.

She went on to "cry more, and more, and more, and more and more," Margolis recalled, according to the excerpts.

"She was certainly shaken to her core," he added during the interview May 1. "She thought her career was over, or at least her career in Justice."

If so, she was right.

Oh, boo fucking hoo.

Monica, you committed a crime.* What happened to all your evangelical training from Messiah College and Regent University School of Law? Didn't you learn right from wrong?

The only reason you're not up shit creek as much as your bosses is because you're going to be granted immunity. If you're smart enough to have a law degree (and I know what it takes, honey ... except I graduated from a real law school), and you're smart enough to work in the Justice Department, then you're smart enough to know when you're doing something illegal.

Cry me a river, Monica. Your hypocrisy is not pretty, and you've got no one to blame but yourself.

So, while I pop some popcorn for the show today, I extend congratulations to you, Monica -- today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

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* Allegedly.