Rove accusing lawyer "ends up dead"

[Swiss Miss]

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=701
Such an inspiring story for any aspiring lawyer...

Lawyer Ends Up Dead After Taking On Rove
Wednesday December 27th 2006, 10:26 pm

It’s fishy as hell.
Paul Sanford, a prominent Aptos, California, attorney, who accused Karl Rove of treason in the Plame outing case, took a leap from the Embassy Suites Hotel in Monterey Bay on Christmas Eve. Police describe it as “probable” suicide, even though it appears Sanford was not depressed.

“Friends and associates expressed disbelief at the news of Sanford’s death and that it was ruled a suicide, saying Sanford seemed happy and had made many plans for this week and in coming months. [Business associate and friend Shawn Mills] said he and Sanford recently decided to open a shared law office to serve Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, something Sanford was looking forward to doing,” reports the Monterey Herald. “Mills said he had spoken to Sanford’s wife, Paula, and that she also was in shock. He said Sanford, a father of two, was a devoted family man.” Sanford “would never have intentionally put his family through that trauma. Something’s not right, it doesn’t make sense.”

On July 25, 2005, in the James S. Brady Briefing Room at the White House, Sanford asked then press secretary Scott McClellan about Karl Rove, accused at the time by Joseph Wilson, the husband of Valerie Plame, of outing his wife as a CIA employee in retaliation for Wilson’s op-ed published in the New York Times. Wilson criticized the citation of bogus yellowcake documents used as flimsy justification for invading Iraq and murdering more than 650,000 Iraqis.

McClellan was flummoxed by Sanford’s question:

McClellan: Go ahead.
Sanford: Yes, thank you. There has been a lot of speculation concerning the meaning of the underlying statute and the grand jury investigation concerning Mr. Rove. The question is, have the legal counsel to the White House or White House staff reviewed the statute in sufficient specificity to determine whether a violation of that statute would, in effect, constitute treason?
McClellan: I think that in terms of decisions regarding the investigation, those are matters for those overseeing the investigation to decide.

Special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, decided not to charge Rove in the case, even though the former Donald Segretti dirty trickster understudy raised enough suspicion to warrant being called before a grand jury five times. Neocon Lewis “Scooter” Libby was charged with obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to the FBI. A few weeks later, on July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil suit against Cheney, Libby, Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials, for their alleged roles in the public disclosure of her classified CIA employment.

In addition, Sanford was “a champion of the downtrodden, he represented homeless people in Santa Cruz, and fought for free speech,” according to Mills. As well, he hosted a radio talk show at KOMY, an Air America affiliate, although he was not associated with the bankrupt network. Sanford and Mills also hosted the “Paul and Shawn Show” on Saturdays at the Seaside, California, radio station KRXA.

Of course, there is no evidence Paul Sanford was pushed from “at least nine floors” above the large ventilation grate where he met his fate. As well, there is no evidence he committed suicide, or did he fit the profile of a suicide. However, there is plenty of evidence Sanford was a thorn in the side of the neocons, committing the ultimate sin of accusing one particularly nasty top drawer neocon, Karl Rove, of treason.

[waltky]

This should please a lot of Democrats...

Rove to Step Down by Month's End
Aug. 13, 2007 - Rove's Resignation an Amicable Breakup; President's Top Adviser Says 'It's Time,' but Some Wonder If Rove Is Dodging Congress

Call it an amicable breakup. Upon Karl Rove's announcement today that he will resign from his role as political adviser to President Bush, White House officials called Rove "a great colleague, a good friend and a brilliant mind," noting that his departure at the end of August will be a big loss for them.

Before the Bush administration existed, Rove was there. He was Bush's most trusted political adviser — the so-called "Architect," the man with the plan. But after so many years of service, why leave now? Rove told the Wall Street Journal, "I just think it's time," adding that he is leaving "for the sake of his family."

In 2000, Rove helped propel Bush to the White House, in part by positioning him as a "compassionate conservative" and family man, the antidote to President Clinton. He helped the president's party gain seats in Congress in 2002 and 2004, for which the newly re-elected president gave him credit, publicly thanking the "architect Karl Rove."

Refused to Testify

See also:

Rove exit could launch new political strategy
August 14, 2007: WASHINGTON -- The departure of Karl Rove, the longtime adviser to President Bush who announced yesterday that he is leaving at the end of this month, could provide an opening for the White House and the Republican Party to move away from Rove's signature policy of relying on the party base and appeal more to independents who will probably determine the outcome of the 2008 election, analysts said yesterday.

While Bush and others have heralded Rove as the architect of Bush's 2000 victory and 2004 reelection, some GOP critics have derided him for failing to stop the Democrats from seizing control of Congress from Republicans in 2006. That reversal of fortune led some GOP activists to suggest that Rove -- a powerful political opera tive who once envisioned "permanent" Republican control in Washington -- had overrelied on the most conservative voters and ignored voters with more moderate views who can swing an election.

"It was pretty evident that following the same focus-on-the-base strategy wasn't going to work but they did it again in 2006," said GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio, who is not allied with any presidential campaign. Unless the party draws more independent voters in 2008, he said, "it could be a horrible election for Republicans both congressionally and presidentially."

It is not clear, however, that Bush will forge a new path away from the influential adviser and friend of more than 30 years. White House spokesman Tony Snow said it is "hard to say" if things will change at the White House when Rove leaves Aug. 31. "You won't have Karl Rove. He is an extraordinary presence in the White House," Snow said, stressing that Rove is "committed to the president. He is not operating independently or differently from what the president wants."

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[waltky]

What did the President know and when did he know it??...

Bush Withholds CIA Leak Records
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2008 - President Claims Executive Privilege To Keep Congress From Seeing Cheney Interview Report In Plame Case

President Bush invoked executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing the FBI report of an interview with Vice President **** Cheney and other records related to the administration's leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003. The president's decision drew a sharp protest Wednesday from Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of House Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over the documents. "This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person," the California Democrat said. "If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?"

Waxman left little doubt he would soon move for a committee vote to hold Mukasey in contempt of Congress. Bush's assertion of privilege prevented Mukasey from complying with the House subpoena for records bearing on the unmasking of Plame at a time that the administration was trying to rebut criticism from her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, of Bush's rationale for going to war in Iraq. Cheney's chief of staff in 2003, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was later convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about his role in leaking Plame's name and CIA affiliation to a reporter. Last July, Bush commuted Libby's 2½-year sentence, sparing him from serving prison time.

In grand jury testimony played at his trial, Libby acknowledged he told the FBI early in the Plame probe that "it's possible" he spoke to Cheney about whether to share information with reporters about Wilson's wife. Other records sought by the House committee include notes about Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, during which he made the case for invading Iraq in part by saying Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore in Africa to make a nuclear weapon. In the spring of 2003, Wilson claimed publicly that he had gone to Africa for the CIA to investigate the report and advised the administration it was false months before Bush cited it in the State of the Union speech.

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