Don Siegelman

The Office of Special Counsel says in a new report it found no evidence to support a whistle-blower’s claims that the U.S. Attorney’s office for Middle District of Alabama acted inappropriately in its public corruption prosecution of former Gov. Donald E. Siegelman (D) and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.

The OSC launched the investigation following allegations by Tamarah Grimes, a former paralegal in the office, who alleged officials in the district did not report improper jury communications, among other things. The OSC is an independent agency with jurisdiction only to look into Grimes’s claims that she was retaliated against as a whistle-blower. She was fired in July, which she said was due to her attempt to expose the misconduct – a claim the DOJ denied.

Grimes also claimed the Middle District caused the government to incur unnecessary costs due to gross mismanagement. She said victim impact funds were misused and that U.S. Attorney Leura Canary abused her authority by obstructing an Office of Personal Responsibility investigation into the conduct of Assistant U.S. Attorney Randolph Neely. She also said officials launched a DOJ Office of Inspector General investigation into her conduct following her whistle-blowing.

Tamarah Grimes

Then-Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey ordered an investigation, which was headed by Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis and conducted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ronald R. Gallegos of Arizona and Steven K. Mullins of the Western District of Oklahoma. After DOJ determined Grimes’ claims were unfounded, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and House Judiciary commercial and administration law subcommittee  Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) requested an additional investigation.

The second investigation by OSC “confirmed DOJ’s initial investigation findings that no improper communication with the jury occurred,” according to this analysis of disclosures, agency investigations and reports, by William E. Reukauf, associate special counsel at OSC.  The report is broken into eight parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8. Reukauf signed off on the second investigation in a letter to President Obama.

Siegelman argues he was targeted for prosecution for political reasons. He has appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court.

The Democratic National Committee released a new You Tube ad that included footage of testimony Chris Christie gave to the House Judiciary commercial and administrative law subcommittee in June. The hearing was about controversial court-monitoring contracts he awarded when he was New Jersey U.S. Attorney. Christie’s camp at the time complained the hearing was held for political theater, and he eventually stalked out of the hearing. And sure enough, here’s Christie’s testy back-and-forth with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), appearing in the DNC ad.

The ad also highlights a heated exchange between the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor and a cancer survivor at the New Jersey Politics forum at Rider University on Sept. 16.

Check out the ad:

Chris Christie has until Sept. 4 to more fully answer questions from a House member about controversial court-monitoring contracts he awarded when he was New Jersey U.S. Attorney, PolitickerNJ.com reported this afternoon.

Steve Cohen (Gov)

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), chair of the House Judiciary commercial and administrative law subcommittee, submitted questions for the record for Christie to answer after the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor stalked out of a June panel hearing about the deals. Christie answered the queries, but the House member from Tennessee said the responses from the former U.S. Attorney were “particularly unsatisfactory.”

The subcommittee chair wrote in a letter to Christie:

Chris Christie (Gov)

“For all but two of your questions, you responded with a general assertion that the questions were answered in your oral and written testimony. At time you cited page numbers in the unofficial hearing transcript, which on further inspection appear not to contain anything responsive, and which in any event will be confusing to those who will have only the official published hearing record, of which your letter will be part. Finally, even for the two questions for which you provided answers, the answers are incomplete.”

Read Christie’s answers here.

The questions from Cohen focused on a no-bid contract worth up to $52 million that Christie awarded to a firm owned by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Democratic Reps. Steve Cohen and John Tanner have submitted recommendations to the White House for U.S. attorney candidates in the Western District of  Tennessee, reports the Memphis Commercial Appeal.  But the lawmakers declined to say whom they had recommended. The Commercial Appeal noted a number of attorneys and other local figures mentioned for the position:

Since President Obama’s election in November, the following lawyers have been mentioned for the post: assistant city attorney Gerald L. Thornton; Edward L. Stanton III, a former congressional candidate and assistant city attorney now with FedEx; assistant U.S. attorneys Victor Lee Ivy, Vivian R. Donelson and Linda Nettles Harris; and Shelby County lawyers Joseph F. ‘Jef’ Feibelman, David J. Cocke, John M. Farris, Regina Morrison Newman, Jason G. Yarbro and Dale H. Tuttle.

So far, President Obama has announced six U.S. Attorney nominees in New York, Washington state, New Hampshire, Vermont, Alabama and New Jersey. There are 93 U.S. Attorney offices in the country. The prosecutors face Senate confirmation.

Former New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s poll numbers in the Republican primary for governor are soaring.  A Quinnipiac University poll shows Christie leading his opponent Steve Lonegan in the Republican primary by 23 points.  The winner of the GOP primary will face incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine (D) in the general election, who is struggling with low approval ratings.

Meanwhile, House Democrats postponed a subcommittee hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday to examine Christie’s involvement in steering a lucrative court-monitoring contract to former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law said he put off the hearing  because Republicans had expressed concerns it was a political move intended to hurt Christie’s chances in the Republican primary.

The hearing has been moved to June 25. For more details on the controversy surrounding Christie, click here.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), House Judiciary Committee chair, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chair of the House subcommittee on constitution, civil rights, and civil liberties, submitted a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that asks him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration officials behind the “torture memos.”

The letter was signed by House Judiciary Committee members Reps. Robert Scott (D-Va.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Mel Watt (D-N.C.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), Pedro Pierluisi (D-Puerto Rico), Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Daniel Maffei (D-N.Y.), in addition to Conyers and Nadler. The only House Judiciary Committee Democrats who did not endorse the letter were Reps. Howard Berman (Calif.), Rick Boucher (Va.), Bill Delahunt (Mass.), Brad Sherman (Calif.) Charles Gonzalez (Texas) and Adam Schiff (Calif.)

“As a country committed to the rule of law, we must investigate and demand accountability for acts of torture committed by or on our behalf,” the letter said. “Appointing a special counsel to undertake this task would serve the interests of the Department and of the public in ensuring that the necessary investigation is thorough and impartial, and that the United States fairly investigates serious and credible accusations of misconduct, even where high-ranking government officials may be involved.”

Holder has not said if he will investigate Bush officials responsible for the memos including their authors, Steven Bradbury, Jay Bybee and John Yoo, but left the possibility open at a hearing last week.

“If I see evidence of wrongdoing, I will pursue it to the fullest extent of the law,” Holder said.

Nadler met with Holder last week to urge him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the memo authors. Conyers said he plans to hold hearings on the memos once a long-anticipated Office of Professional Responsibility report that is expected to be critical of DOJ lawyers who authored the memos is released.

“We’re coming after these guys,” Conyers told The Huffington Post last week.