Things are moving right along in the wake of the HJC v. Miers decision last week.

White House Counsel Fred Fielding has already responded to Rep. John Conyer's (D-MI) letter requesting "quick compliance" with the ruling and an answer to the subpoena issued to White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten for documents relating to the politicization of the Department of Justice.

Fielding (predictably) demurred, citing the recent motion for appeal, but he did comply to Conyer's other request: a meeting between the two parties to try to "work cooperatively to resolve these issues." From Fielding's letter to Chairman Conyers:

However, the fact that the Executive has noticed an appeal in this matter does not signify that we think further litigation is the exclusive path forward. . . this Administration has responded to more than 650 Congressional inquiries and investigations, and through negotiation and accommodation with Congressional committees has been able to resolve all but a very few of them. . . Toward that end, and hopefully as a prelude to meaningful discussions between us, I propose that members of our respective staffs meet as early as next week to re-commence discussing possibilities for reaching an accommodation between the Branches in this matter.

Remember, at the beginning of the week, when the New York Times reported that "at least 10 people" had access to that critical flask of anthrax linking Dr. Bruce Ivins to the 2001 anthrax attacks?

At the time, we thought that was really significant. Ten people? How did the FBI eliminate the other nine people as suspects to know Ivins was the guilty one?

But then on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the number of people with access to that anthrax was much higher.

In addition, more than 100 people had access to the anthrax in question, a larger number than many had previously believed.

Now today, the Washington Post reports that the flask in Ivins' lab was not the only one containing that particular strain matched to the 2001 letters.

FBI officials said the powdered bacteria mailed to news outlets and Senate offices had a distinct genetic heritage that precisely matched anthrax spores Ivins kept in a flask in his laboratory. But the officials also acknowledged that 15 other labs had the same strain, known as RMR-1029.

At this rate, by the end of next week, we'll find out that this strain of anthrax is typically found in most 10th-grade science labs.

Ron Suskind's bombshell report -- that the CIA essentially forged a letter in late 2003 linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11 and nuclear weapons -- has been getting knocked around all week.

And so far, it's holding up well under scrutiny.

The specific allegations first reported on Monday say former CIA Director George Tenet ordered a former Marine and CIA agent to create a letter indicating that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta was trained in Iraq and also that Iraq was receiving suspicious shipments from Niger (the implication being the now infamous "yellowcake uranium").

The assignment for the agent, Rob Richer, the former number-two in command at the Operations Directorate, was to track down Saddam's former intel chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush, in Jordan and convince him to write the letter in his own handwriting on Iraqi government letterhead, backdated to July 2001.

The order to concoct the letter was drawn up on White House stationary, Richer told Suskind. The book says the CIA ultimately carried out the order, but it does not say how.

The fake letter became public in December 2003 and fueled global media speculation about an Iraq-al Qaeda link. At that time, the U.S. military had failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and American domestic support for the war was fading.

The story's veracity took a hit early in the week when Richer, who is now retired, issued a public statement Monday denying any involvement. Well, actually, the White House issued that statement for him, along with its own vague denial that Suskind's report was "absurd."

Today Suskind took the unusual step of publishing a transcript of his taped interview with Richer in June. Richer left the agency in 2005, saying that he lacked confidence in the agency's leadership.

Also today the story got new legs -- and additional details -- from Joe Conason's column in Salon. Conason takes us back to the time of the bogus letter's first appearance.

That letter first popped up in a credulous report in London's Sunday Telegraph, where the reporter cites a key source as Ayad Allawi. You might remember him, the CIA lackey who was propped up as Iraq's interim prime minister in 2004, only to see his political career end when Iraqis held elections a year later.

Conason also notes that Allawi was visiting CIA headquarters just a few days before that story broke in the Telegraph.

The most interesting question raised about Suskind's accuracy came yesterday from Philip Giraldi, a former CIA agent, writing in the American Conservative. According to him, the Bush Administration did order up a forged letter, but did it through the Pentagon and Doug Feith's Office of Special Plans. Giraldi notes the the military has its own false documents center used to draw up fake papers for special ops officers traveling under cover as businessmen.

That does sound plausible, given that the CIA was always more circumspect of the Saddam-al Qaeda links that were popular with the neocons in Feith's office across the river.

Looking back at all the aftershocks this week, what stands out for us is the narrow, legalistic denials that the White House and others coughed up this week.

Take a close look at what Tony Fratto, deputy White House press secretary, told Politico:

"The allegation that the White House directed anyone to forge a document from Habbush to Saddam is just absurd."

Is it false, or just absurd? Did they direct anyone to forge any documents? From Habbush to someone else? Or from someone else to Saddam? Sounds like an attorney wrote that one.

And here's what Tenet said in a statement also issued by the White House.

"There was no such order from the White House to me nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from CIA ever involved in any such effort."

In the transcript Suskind released today, he asked Richer about what kind of paper trail is created when setting an operation like this in motion. Richer said there was only one, closely guarded, piece of paper that originated from the White House.

Rob: It probably passed through five or six people. George probably showed it to me, but then passed it probably to Jim Pavitt, the DDO, who then passed it down to his chief of staff who passed it to me. Cause that's how--you know, so I saw the original. I got a copy of it. But it was, there probably was--

Ron: Right. You saw the original with the White House stationery, but you didn't--down the ranks, then it creates other paper.

Rob: Yeah, no, exactly."

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was supposed to be released from jail today, but instead he faces a new set of felony charges relating to his allegedly shoving a sheriff's deputy into his partner last month. The two deputies were reportedly trying to deliver a subpoena to a friend of the mayor when the incident occurred.

Attorney General Mike Cox -- the first Republican AG in 48 years -- charged the Motown mayor with two counts of felonious assault for "assaulting ... police officers in the furtherance of their duties."

The new charges are separate from those relating to the "Text Message Scandal," which resulted in indictments for obstruction of justice and perjury.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Kilpatrick attorney James Thomas said they were going to fight the new charges as they fought in court today with "law and common sense." He said of the new charges, "it's just an allegation, let's take it step by step." At the suggestion the latest case was on the fast, track, he laughed and said, "Mike Cox could dismiss it in one day."

Kilpatrick comes from a strong political family in Detroit. His mother is U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D), who is currently running for re-election.

Late update: The DFP reports that Kilpatrick was released from jail and arraigned on his new charges this morning. The mayor was fitted with a tether, and forced to pay $50,000 bond in order to secure his release on the two new felony charges.

Kilpatrick has also been forbidden to travel, which includes his planned appearance at the Democratic National Convention later this month.

U.S. military documents show that at least 17 detainees at Guantanamo Bay were forced to repeatedly move from place to place to cause disorientation and sleep deprivation. This program, called the "frequent flyer" program, occurred even after it was banned in March 2004. (Washington Post)

The Mayor of a Maryland suburb is demanding that the Department of Justice investigate a July 29th police raid when police fatally shot his two dogs. The raid was apparently targeting a drug-trafficking scheme in which drugs were delivered to unsuspecting people, such as the mayor, to be picked up later by drug dealers. (AP)

After spending last night in jail, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick may face a new criminal charge for confronting a detective trying to serve a subpoena. He was released from jail today after violating the terms of his bond. (AP)

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Concerns about the FBI's circumstantial case against military microbiologist Bruce Ivins are reaching Capitol Hill.

Last night, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a three-page letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey and FBI Director Robert Mueller III, asking them to respond to 18 questions about virtually every aspect of the probe.

In the House, Rep. Rush Holt, a Democrat who represents the New Jersey district where the anthrax-laced letters were mailed, says he's talking to other House members about a combined inquiry involving the judiciary, intelligence, science and technology, and government oversight committees.

Grassley has some pretty good questions. For example:

Was Dr. Ivins ever polygraphed in the course of the investigation? If so, please provide the dates and results of the exam(s). If not, please explain why not.

And

What role did the FBI play in conducting and updating the background examination of Dr. Ivins in order for him to have clearance and work with deadly pathogens at Ft. Detrick?

Read more for the full text of the letter.

Read more »

From the AP:

The government is still searching for evidence that Bruce Ivins was solely responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks despite declaring the case solved.

Search warrants and other documents filed Thursday in federal court in Washington show the FBI wants to look through computers Ivins used at his local library before he killed himself last week.

A reporter yesterday asked United States Attorney Jeffrey Taylor what evidence -- hard evidence -- the FBI had against Bruce Ivins in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

"We have a flask that's effectively the murder weapon," Taylor said.

But this is not like Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick.

A lot of ambiguity remains because the FBI's investigation hinges on the complexities of microbiology and genomics.

And it's not just that we don't understand those details. The FBI did not release them.

What the FBI tells us is this: the anthrax started out in a wet, almost liquid form. Then somehow Ivins -- and only Ivins -- converted that into the fine, weapons-grade powder that was sent through the mail and killed five people.

That's an exceptionally elaborate process for just one person, said Brenda Wilson, a microbiology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She did post-doctoral research on anthrax.

"I don't believe that he could do this all on his own. It does require more people than one," Wilson told TPMmuckraker.

"First you have to lyopholize it," Wilson explained. "Lyopholiziation is a drying process. But then after you dry it down, in order to make it weapons-grade, you have to do a lot of grinding and stuff -- it's like a milling process. And during the milling process you need to add substances to it, like sillica, that sort of coats the spores and makes them less sticky."

"People would notice what he was doing. People would be aware of him doing it. I know what people are doing in my lab. Even if he wanted to be sneaky about it, people would know that things were done."

"I could see if someone else made it and he took it and did something with it. That I could believe," Wilson said.

Officially, the U.S. does not have or keep any weapons-grade anthrax. President Nixon ordered the dismantling of U.S. biowarfare programs in 1969 and the destruction of all existing bioweapons, including anthrax.

Wilson pointed out the FBI talked about the flask of "wet" anthrax but there is no evidence they found any other remnants of the weapons-grade version beyond the letters sent in the mail.

"Where is the original batch? We know somewhere it had to be made and put into those envelopes," she said.

We also talked to George Weinstock, a professor of genetics and the associate director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

Compared to Wilson, Weinstock comes from a different field of science, so he had a different set of questions about the Anthrax investigation.

His main question was: How exactly did the FBI link the weaponized anthrax from the letters in 2001 to the flask of "wet" anthrax in Ivins' lab?

When matching DNA, it's much easier to prove something doesn't match than proving it does, he said.

We hear a lot about DNA matching in people -- such as paternity testing. But matching spores of anthrax is different. They're not as complex, so the odds of two sets of anthrax spores sharing the same genetic code is much higher.

In court documents, the FBI said it tested roughly 1,000 samples of anthrax before concluding that Ivins' anthrax was a parent strain of the anthrax in the letters.

Based on that level of testing, what are the odds that the "forensic microbiologists" got a false match?

"This might put the chance at one in 1,000. Think about one in 1,000 if it was a paternity suit? Whether that would stand up in court, I don't know. You really need to look at a much larger sample to have accurate statistics," he said.

"We need more information about these particular spelling mistakes" in the spores' gene sequence, Weinstock said. "We just don't know that information and it wasn't presented in the affidavit."

Murray Waas confirmed today something we've suspected for a long time: that the Justice Department has widened the net in the Inspector General's U.S. attorneys firing probe to include allegations that senior White House officials made false statements to Congress.

From the Huffington Post:

The Justice Department investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys has been extended to encompass allegations that senior White House officials played a role in providing false and misleading information to Congress, according to numerous sources involved in the inquiry.

. . . Federal investigators have obtained documents showing that Kyle Sampson, then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and Chris Oprison, then an associate White House counsel, drafted and approved the letter even though they had first-hand knowledge that the assertions were not true.

The letter referenced was sent from the Justice Department to Congress on February 23, 2007 and denied Karl Rove's involvement in the replacement of fired U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins by Rove protege Tim Griffin.

Just a month later, however, the DOJ was forced to admit that the February letter had been "contradicted by Department documents."

Most notable in those "Department documents," was an email between Sampson and Oprison on December 19, 2006 in which Sampson wrote that getting Griffin appointed was "important to Harriet, Karl, etc." The email from Sampson, who was chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales at the time, directly contradicted the DOJ's earlier denial.

Sampson bumbled his way through an explanation of this discrepancy during his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in March of 2007.

We pulled the video from our archives. Take a look:

From the AP:

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A military jury has sentenced Osama bin Laden's former driver to 5 1/2 years in prison for aiding terrorism, making him eligible for release in just six months. Salim Hamdan was acquitted of conspiracy in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.

Late Update: Here's an interesting detail noted over at ProPublica:

Even after Hamdan's "sentence" is up, the military can continue to hold him as an enemy combatant. He can be freed when one of two things happen: 1) the government decides that he is "no longer an enemy combatant" 2) the war on terror ends.

Nothing can ever be easy with these two.

The Justice Department, on behalf of Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten, filed its request for appeal today in the July 31 ruling in House Judiciary Committee v. Miers et al.

While the appeal is resolved, however, the DOJ also requested that the judge grant a stay on the subpoenas, allowing Miers and Bolten to continue to evade the House Judiciary Committee.

From the AP:

Without a quick stay of the ruling, Miers and Bolten may be forced to testify before an appeal can be heard, the two said in a court filing. Democrats have announced they would schedule hearings in September, at the height of election season.

"Whatever the proper resolution of the extraordinarily important questions presented, the public interest clearly favors further consideration of issues before defendants are required to take actions that may forever alter the constitutional balance of separation of powers," the Bolten and Miers request said.

A stay would also benefit Republicans, since the subpoenas expire at the end of the year, not long before Bush leaves office.

Late Update: Also today, White House Counsel Fred Fielding sent a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that despite the court order last week, the White House will wait for the outcome of its appeal before responding to further subpoena request.

Once again, the House Judiciary Committee is trying to get the Republican National Committee to turn over a stack of documents for its probe of the firing of U.S. attorneys for political reasons.

The HJC's interest in the documents comes after previous Justice Department emails revealed that Karl Rove and his aides often used the RNC email accounts to communicate about the U.S. attorneys.

The committee subpoenaed the RNC for the documents last year. The RNC refused and the House Judiciary Committee chair, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), threatened the chairman of the RNC with contempt of Congress.

Today, Conyers takes up the fight again with a fresh letter to the RNC. Conyers reiterates the request and points to last week's court ruling when a federal judge dismissed the White House claims to blanket immunity from Congressional oversight.

Although the case did not address the RNC specifically, Conyers says the ruling gives the RNC no excuse for not complying with the 13-month-old subpoena.

From The Hill:

A U.S district court judge said Thursday that Sen. Ted Stevens's (R-Alaska) criminal case could be wrapped up before the end of October while announcing an expedited schedule for jury selection.

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan indicated that 150 potential jurors could be contacted as early as this week and that jury selection would begin Sept. 23. That process could last two days, but the trial could begin as soon as Sept. 24.

"What we don't have is a lot of time between now and the commencement of the trial," Sullivan said, adding that the case would take "approximately four weeks."

Under that scenario, a jury might have enough time to offer a verdict before Election Day, when Stevens is seeking his seventh full Senate term. The longest-serving Republican senator has pleaded not guilty to charges of allegedly concealing more than $250,000 worth of gifts from an oil-services company.

Stevens missed Thursday's procedural hearing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, campaigning instead in Alaska, where he faces six primary challengers on Aug. 26. If he wins, the 84-year-old Stevens would face 46-year-old Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich in the general election.

The judge is expected to rule on Stevens' motion to hold the trial in Alaska rather than Washington at an August 20 hearing.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was ordered to jail today, for violating the terms of his bond.

From ABCNews in Detroit:

The mayor violated his bond when he went to Canada July 23 without informing the court, a condition of his bond. The judge also pointed out that the mayor had to make many calls and arrangements for his trip to Canada and could have easily called the court to alert it of the trip.

The 36th District Court judge stressed that he was treating Detroit's mayor in the same way he would "John Sixpack."

The order is the latest in what has been dubbed the "Text Message Scandal". In January of this year, the Detroit Free Press obtained a series of text messages between Kilpatrick and his Chief of Staff Christine Beatty. The messages contradicted both Kilpatrick and Beatty's testimony under oath that they had not engaged in a sexual relationship.

In March, Kilpatrick was charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice, two counts of misconduct in office and four counts of perjury.

Late update: It appears that Kilpatrick will be spending the night in jail.

An excellent interactive timeline of the events can be found at the Detroit Free Press.

Late Late update: From the AP: The mayor is on his way to jail, where he will be outfitted in a green jumpsuit and kept in a restricted area.

The FBI has uncovered a medical fraud scheme in which hospitals in L.A. used homeless people to pose as patients in order to get a full patient-load and obtain government money. Some hospital officials involved are now being charged with draining the government of millions of dollars in health services. (AP)

An Iraqi official from Prime Minister al-Maliki's Dawa Party defended the Iraqi government's spending, saying critics are overlooking progress in Baghdad. The estimated $79 billion government budget surplus was revealed earlier this week in a GAO report. (AP)

The White House said it was pleased with yesterday's conviction of Salim Hamdan, despite the military commission's acquittal on several of the more serious charges for Osama bin Laden's driver. Although some critics have questioned the military commission's process, the White House continued to defend the system as "fair and appropriate". (AP)

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In trying to make the case that military scientist Bruce Ivins was a lunatic who sent anthrax through the mail and killed five people, federal agents disclosed a batch of emails Ivins wrote before and after the attack letters were sent.

The feds presumably plucked them from thousands of emails Ivins sent over the past several years. They paint a picture of a disturbed and well-medicated individual. They're laid out in a 25-page affidavit that federal agents drew up last fall when asking for search warrants.

The affidavit, unsealed and disclosed publicly yesterday, spotlights one email from just a few days after the first anthrax letter was sent. The affidavit draws a parallel with the phrasing in one of the unsigned anthrax letters, which read: "We have this anthrax...Death to America...Death to Israel," according to the court document.

Sept. 26, 2001, [Ivins wrote] "Of the people in my "group" everyone but me is in the depression/sadness/flight mode for stress. I'm really the only scary one in the group. Others are talking about how sad they are or scared they are, but my reaction to the WTC/Pentagon events is far different. Of course, I don't talk about how I really feel with them - it would just make them worse. Seeing how differently I reacted than they did to the recent events makes me really think about myself a lot. I just heard tonight that Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas. You [REDACTED].

In that same September 26, 2001 email, Dr. Ivins states "Osama Bin Laden has just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans" -- language similar to the text of the anthrax letters postmarked two weeks later warning "DEATH TO AMERICA," "DEATH TO ISRAEL."

The affidavit does not provide the full context of Ivins' Bin Laden remark here. And, as Glenn Greenwald at Salon noted, alarmist reports about Bin Laden and Islamic radicalism were common in the daily press at that time.

The affidavit does not disclose any of the emails' recipients.

Other emails featured in the affidavit include:

"June 27, 2000, "Even with the Celexa and the counseling, the depression episodes still come and go. That's unpleasant enough. What is REALLY scary is the paranoia...Remember when I told you about the "metallic" taste in my mouth that I got periodically? It's when I get these "paranoid" episodes. Of course I regret them thoroughly when they are over, but when I'm going through them, it's as if I'm on a passenger on a ride...Ominously, a lot of the feelings of isolation - and desolation - that I went through before college are returning. I don't want to relive those years again...I've been seeing the counselor once a week."

Read more for additional emails.

Read more »

The first anthrax-laced letter was sent out on Sept. 18, 2001.

And according to the FBI, Dr. Bruce Ivins was probably plotting and preparing his anthrax attacks for several weeks before that -- starting back as early as August 2001.

Among the pile of circumstantial evidence that federal agents compiled against Ivins was a log of his frequent night hours in the lab in 2001. (The military lab at Fort Detrick has electronic locks with swipe cards that allow detailed monitoring of people who have access to the stocks of the world's most dangerous biological agents.)

And the chart the FBI compiled shows that he began spending a lot of extra time in the lab at night in August.

Ivins explained to the FBI that he was having family problems at the time and preferred working late to going home.

On March 31, 2005, Dr. Ivins was asked by Task Force Investigators about his access to [the lab known as] B3 and could provide no legitimate reason for the extended hours other than "home was not good" and he went there "to escape" from his life at home.

Ivins provided that alibi back in March of 2005. The FBI didn't buy it. Which raises questions about why it took the FBI another two and a half years to ask for a search warrant for Ivins' home.

For a comprehensive timeline of the whole anthrax investigation, check out Marcy Wheeler's over here.

The big turning point in the FBI's seven-year investigation came when scientists confirmed that the anthrax used in the 2001 letter attacks came from a specific flask stored at the military lab at Fort Detrick in Maryland.

"The key breakthrough was the science that focused their attention laser-like on that flask," said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor at a news conference today.

It was a flask that was "created and solely maintained" by Dr. Bruce Ivins, the key suspect who killed himself last week. Others at the lab also had access to the flask, officials said.

The FBI identified the flask as the source no later than March 2005, according to a set of court documents unsealed today.

But it was not until October 2007 that federal agents went to a judge seeking a search warrant for Ivins' home.

Identifying the source of the anthrax used in the attacks took several years.

In 2002, federal agents first asked for a sample from Ivins' jar of anthrax. He provided one but the FBI says it was bogus, possibly an effort to obstruct the investigation, according to the search warrant.

The feds were suspicious enough in April 2004 to send an FBI agent back to the military lab in Fort Detrick to seize the flask of anthrax, known as "RMR-1029." The flask was sealed with evidence tape and carried out by FBI contractors.

Nine months later, on March 31, 2005, the FBI confronted Ivins with their belief that he had not given them the sample they asked for.

"Dr. Ivins was adamant in his response that there had been no omission from his [REDACTED] submission, and he insisted that he had provided RMR-1029 to the FBI in his second submission samples in April 2002," according to the affidavit.

Even after that conversation, it took more than two years until they sought a search warrant for Ivins' home.

So what took so long?

Reporters posed that question to Taylor at this afternoon's press conference.

It's important to remember how complex, complicated, this investigation was. At the outset we had to identify the universe of persons and labs that might have access to this type of anthrax, once we identified what type of anthrax it was. And then over the years there were efforts to shrink the size of that pool. ...

We've got a video of the rest of his response.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is making good on his promise "to travel to any place in the state. . . to listen to Alaskans." On Saturday, Stevens visited the small town of Ketchikan, for their annual blueberry festival and gave an interesting quote to the Ketchikan Daily News (sub. req.):

"This is an indictment for failure to disclose gifts that are controversial in terms of whether they were or were not gifts. It's not bribery; it's not some corruption; it's not some extreme felony."

Interesting defense, senator. We wonder how that will go over with the judge.

From the AP:

Army scientist Bruce Ivins "was the only person responsible" for anthrax attacks in 2001 that killed five and rattled the nation, the Justice Department said Wednesday, backing up the claim with dozens of documents all pointing to his guilt.

Documents made public alleged that Ivins, who committed suicide last week, had sole custody of highly purified anthrax spores with "certain genetic mutations identical" to the poison used in the attacks. Investigators also said they had traced back to his lab the type of envelopes used to send the deadly spores through the mails.

Ivins killed himself last week as investigators closed in, and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said, "We regret that we will not have the opportunity to present evidence to the jury."

The newly released court documents are available here.

Lifting the veil on one of the two remaining Justice Department OIG reports, Murray Waas for the Huffington Post reports that Hans von Spakovsky, among other former Justice Department lawyers, has been subpoenaed by the OIG to testify about politicization of the Civil Rights Division.

Investigators for the Inspector General have also asked whether [Brad] Schlozman, while an interim U.S. attorney in Missouri, brought certain actions and even a voting fraud indictment for political ends, according to witnesses questioned by the investigators. But it is unclear whether the grand jury is going to hear testimony on that issue as well.

One person who has been subpoenaed before the grand jury, sources said, was Hans von Spakovsky, who as a former counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights was a top aide to Schlozman.

As Waas points out in the article, the DOJ forcing former members of its own ranks to testify is an "extraordinary step."

Both Schlozman and Spakovsky are being investigated for violating civil service laws in making hiring decisions based on political affiliation.

Jason Torchinsky is also reported to have been subpoenaed, though sources tell Waas that Torchinsky is not under investigation and has been only asked for witness testimony.

Two previous reports by the OIG have both found that hirings were politicized at various points at the Justice Department. The first report showed the politicization of the Attorney General's Honors Program, while the second, released last week, focused on the politicized hiring surrounding Monica Goodling and others at the DOJ.

New details about the FBI investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks have only reinforced a long-standing trend -- the more we hear about the probe, the more botched it sounds.

Today the Washington Post reports that FBI agents harassed Ivins's daughters and offered his son millions of dollars to help convict Ivins in the anthrax killings. That's according to a friend and former co-worker whom Ivins confided in last fall.

It was around the time that FBI agents showed Ivins' 24-year-old daughter pictures of the victims who had died in the 2001 anthrax attacks and told her, "Your father did this," the scientist said. The agents also offered her twin brother the $2.5 million reward for solving the anthrax case -- and the sports car of his choice.

Talking abrasively to potential witnesses might not be uncommon for criminal investigators. But offering money and a car?

Also according to the same scientist, FBI agents had approached Ivins and his family in public. The Post reports:

One day in March, when Ivins was at a Frederick mall with his wife and son, the agents confronted the researcher and said, "You killed a bunch of people." Then they turned to his wife and said, "Do you know he killed people?" according to the scientist.

The only person to say publicly that Ivins talked like a homicidal sociopath was Jean Duley, Ivins' therapist, who was cooperating with the FBI investigation.

In fact, it was an FBI agent who suggested that she contact authorities about a so-called "Peace Order" and make those allegations available in public documents.

Duley got involved with the investigation after Ivins launched into a homicidal tirade during one of their therapy sessions, she said. Ivins talked about the possibility of facing capital murder charges soon and his desire to kill people and "go out in a blaze of glory," Duley told Maryland court officials.

Fearing Ivins may hurt someone, Duley contacted the local police in Frederick, MD. That one call from Duley led local police to remove him from the military research facility in Ft. Detrick and take him to a local mental health facility. (Duley sought a restraining order because Ivins threatened her when he learned she had contacted the police, she said.)

The Frederick Police response offers a stark contrast to the FBI, which was apparently concerned enough about Ivins to put him under surveillance more than a year ago, but not to seek to revoke his security clearance at Fort Detrick, where he handled deadly biological agents like bubonic plague.

The flawed investigation has already forced federal taxpayers to pay out nearly $6 million to settle a lawsuit filed against the Department of Justice by Steven Hatfill, the other scientist the feds accused in the case who had nothing to do with it.

This afternoon, we're expecting more details of the investigation. The FBI says these newly unsealed documents will prove their case against Ivins. We'll see.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed Brian Benczkowski to serve as his chief of staff, replacing Brett Gerry the Justice Department announced today:

Benczkowski, 38, currently serves as chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip.

[He] will succeed Brett Gerry, who will be leaving the Department after more than four years in the Executive Branch, and who has served as the Attorney General's chief of staff since his confirmation.

. . . "I am happy that Brian Benczkowski has agreed to serve as my chief of staff," Attorney General Mukasey said. "Brian has been one of my closest advisers in the Department since my confirmation process, and his exceptional judgment and extensive experience in the Department will be of great value to me and to the Department in the upcoming months."

Regular TPMmuckraker readers might remember Benczkowski as a mouthpiece for the DOJ on the ambiguity of torture and the word "exclusive" as it pertains to FISA.

Samuel Israel III, the convicted hedge-fund manager who faked suicide and went on the lam to avoid going to prison, will plead guilty today in U.S. District Court.

From Reuters:

Israel, bearded and dressed in a baggy brown tee-shirt and light pants, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith in White Plains, a suburb of New York City. He agreed to waive an indictment on a charge of failure to surrender for service of a prison sentence.

The magistrate judge told Israel: "I understand that you have decided to enter a plea of guilty." Israel told the judge he did want to plead guilty, but Smith said the formal plea would have to be entered before the district judge.

Reuters and CNN are reporting that Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hadam, has been convicted. No word yet on whether it's on all 10 counts of conspiracy and abetting terrorism.

Late update: From Reuters:

A jury of U.S. military officers convicted Osama bin Laden's driver on charges of providing material support for terrorism on Wednesday but acquitted him on charges of providing material support for al Qaeda in the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War Two.

The case of Yemeni driver Salim Hamdan, who faces life in prison, is the first full test of the controversial Guantanamo tribunal authorized by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives on terrorism charges outside the regular civilian and military courts.

Sentencing is scheduled for this afternoon.

Late late update: We know that the convicted on "providing material support for terrorism" and acquitted on "providing material support for al Qaeda" seems confusing and maybe a bit contradictory. The AP puts it another way that might clear things up:

The Pentagon-selected jury deliberated for about eight hours over three days before convicting Salim Hamdan of supporting terrorism. He was cleared of the conspiracy charge.

From the AP:

The chief judge of Washington's federal courthouse on Wednesday unsealed hundreds of pages of documents in the FBI's nearly 7-year investigation of anthrax mailings that killed five people.

The move by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth came after consultation with Amy Jeffress, a national security prosecutor at Justice, and as FBI Director Robert Mueller prepared to brief the families of anthrax victims on details of the case.

The documents that Lamberth authorized to be released include at least 14 search warrants aimed at Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins, whom federal investigators were closing in on as he committed suicide last week. The records include the government summaries used to justify the search warrants, the warrants themselves and summaries of what FBI agents seized in each search.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office says that the Iraqi government may finish the year with a $79 billion surplus. The majority of the excess funds come from unspent money since 2005, as well as oil revenues and the Iraqi government's general inability to execute budgets. In response to the report, many U.S. senators complained that the Iraqi government should being paying for their own reconstruction efforts. (AP)

An attorney for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman called Monday for a Justice Department oversight office to investigate U.S. Attorney Leura Canary's role in Siegelman's prosecution and belated recusal. Siegelman's attorney wants to know why Canary, who has connections to Karl Rove and Siegelman's successor Gov. Bob Riley (R), ever became involved in the prosecution, in light of the obvious conflict of interest. Canary says she welcomes the investigation. (AP)

After the first day of deliberations by jurors in the military commission of Osama bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan, the judge presiding over the case admitted he may have made errors by not properly instructing the jury about war crimes. Despite the possibility of a mistake, the judge ruled out a mistrial, saying it was too late for such action. (Reuters)

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Looks like its not only Colorado Senate Candidate Bob Schaffer (R) whose troubled by his son's Facebook page.

From the Dayton Daily News:

University of Dayton officials said Tuesday, Aug. 5, they are considering charging student Justin Schaffer for a violation of the Standards of Behavior for posting offensive information on his Facebook page.

The 19-year-old son of Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer of Colorado on Monday apologized for an entry that had the words "High Five ... Who's Gay" over a photo of a waving Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. It also had a picture of the Pyramids with the words "Slavery Gets (expletive) Done."

UD said the Code of Conduct standard calls for students to respect all members of the community and the community at large.

Sister Annette Schmeling, vice president of student development and dean of students, said she will have an initial conversation with Schaffer about the postings and "explore the ways his Facebook page is not showing respect."

"We are addressing it and we expect to begin the adjudication process before classes start on August 20," Schmeling said in a written statement.

Over at the main TPM blog, Josh has a pretty thorough summary of the implications a "Slavery Gets Shit Done" image has on a candidate who has previously been tied to sweat shop labor in the Mariana Islands.

Of all the officials who pleaded guilty to crimes related to the corruption ring surrounding Jack Abramoff -- and there have been many -- Italia Federici has probably gotten off the lightest.

Federici, 38, served as a go-between for Abramoff and high-ranking officials in the Department of the Interior. She avoided jail time by agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors back in June 2007, when she pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation.

Now a federal judge has ruled she won't have to serve the 60 days in a halfway house that was supposed to be a part of her four years of probation -- for now at least. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle agreed yesterday to hold that part of her sentence "in abeyance" while Federici remains on probation until 2011.

Federici's cooperation last year was key to the conviction of Steven Griles, formerly the deputy secretary of the Interior Department (and also her ex-boyfriend). Griles was sentenced to 10 months in prison last year.

The son of Colorado GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer is causing his dad a little embarrassment on the campaign trail this week.

Nineteen-year-old Justin Schaffer publicly apologized for putting up posters on his Facebook page including one declaring "Slavery Gets Shit Done."

Among the Facebook page additions are a plethora of images that mock Barack Obama -- painting him as Muslim, elitist, homosexual and a terrorist. One even goes so far as to compare the presumptive Democratic candidate for president to the cereal-box character "Count Chocula."

The page also includes several pro-gun images. One "bumper sticker" shows an image of Jesus holding an M-16 in front of a Confederate flag, with the words "What Would Republican Jesus Do?" Another features a bevy of different kinds of guns with the words, "Celebrate Diversity" underneath.

Schaffer, an economics major at the University of Dayton, issued an apology to a local news station in Colorado that first reported the story:

"I do not agree with the sentiment or content of the offensive material, especially the 'bumper sticker' that references slave labor. It is clear that my actions were juvenile, disrespectful, and a mistake on my part.

"The offensive materials directly contradict the values that my parents taught me and are forbidden in my parents' home. My Facebook page is solely my responsibility, and I am saddened that my actions have reflected poorly on my sisters and parents."

His father spoke to 9NEWS on the phone after an event in Glenwood Springs Monday evening and said, "My wife and I have initiated a process of firm and severe discipline with our son."

"Cap'n Bootyplunder," as one friend referred to the younger Schaffer in a wall post, is just 19, yet a number of his "bumper stickers" refer to drinking games and alcohol. His interests include "being cool, girls."

The images come from a website called www.schafferfamilyvalues.com, where an unknown party mirrored Schaffer's Facebook page so it could be displayed publicly.

A few highlights from "Justin Schaffer's Adventures in Facebook" a