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Jake Tapper is ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent based in the network's Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.
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A Kennedy Steps Into the U.S. Attorney Controversy
May 05, 2007 4:22 PM
Daily Kos has a POST stating that Friday night in Montpelier, Vermont, investigativer reporter Greg Palast "announced that he received a phone call...from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that US Attorney replacement Timothy Griffin, Rove's former assistant, is under investigation for election fraud."
But according to a close associate of Griffin's with knowledge of the situation, this charge is false.
"This is just the latest example of this reporter's effort to create 'news' using partisan political rhetoric instead of facts," the Griffin associate says. "Today's allegation of an investigation helps perpetuate the reporter's conspiracy theory but his conclusions are as false as his original story."
Adds a second source close to Griffin: "This is more fantasy by Greg Palast. It is completely false."
- jpt
May 5, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (15)
Nemo, don't be so naive, neither ABC nor NBC nor CBS, CNN and especially FOX would report that John Conyers' Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed the caging lists. These networks don't seem to have the temerity needed to report evidence that is in a book sitting at #32 on the NY Times bestseller list for weeks. This is the whitewash of the real news. This was reported as mainstream news in England and elsewhere. The full story suggests not only felony voting fraud, but also the complicity of the DOJ, as Tim Griffin was the sender of the emails himself. So was was Gonzales corrupt or incompetent? You decide...
Posted by: Gusamerica | Jun 4, 2007 11:53:48 PM
So, Jake, how does it feel to be one of the "Liberal Main street media"?
Posted by: chuck | May 7, 2007 2:01:31 PM
THE President And The Vice President Is NOT destroyingG America It's The Democrats who Dont care about america or the safety of america get your facts straight Folks democrats Do not care About america or Anything this country was founded on They hate Freedon And The hate God what This nationa Is going thro we wnat the ALL Illegal Ailens to GO back home they do Not belong here The Democrats Are Spreading Propganda In this country with Their Lies with the help of the Liberal Main street media
Posted by: Patti | May 7, 2007 9:44:51 AM
Reference: Monica Gooding's 08/24/2006 email to Kyle Sampson regarding the need to avoid Congressional questioning of Timothy Griffin:
"He'd likely have to endure some questioning in his role in massive Republican projects in Florida and elsewhere by which Republicans challenged tems of thousands of absentee votes. Coincidentally, many of those challenged votes were concentrated in black precincts."
Posted by: WakeLtd | May 6, 2007 10:16:24 PM
Sorry Jonathan, but everything you wrote is nothing more than the Michael Moore-Far Left-made up-garbage filled talking points.
(1) With the exception of a couple of very tragic incidences, the real war crimes and mass murder are those committed by the Islamic terrorists and the Iraqi sectarian death squads. The prime example was the recent discovery that a school, for which construction was nearly completed, was found to have been wired with hidden explosives. The plan was the destroy the school as soon as it was filled with children.
(2) The Iraq war was not "invented." After 8 years of failed diplomacy, in 1998, Congress authorized President Bill Clinton to overthrow Saddam Hussein because he was an "imminent threat," due to the "WMD programs that he has." That is what President Clinton, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Christopher Dodd and many other Democrats said -- over two years BEFORE George W. Bush took office.
(3) President Bush did not invade Iraq in order to provide profits for any cronies. He did so because he believed the threat that Saddam Hussein posed based on the EXACT SAME intelligence that President Clinton had. Iraq did have WMDs, because he used them on his own people.
(4) President Bush has neither perverted nor subverted the U. S. Constitution. First, in October of 2002, Congress gave President Bush the authorization "to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to: (a) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and (b) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions regarding Iraq." The NSA's warrantless surveillance program is entirely Constitutional. The 4th Amendment protects the people against "unreasonable searches and seizures." The use of the term "unreasonable" clearly implies there is such a thing as reasonable searches and seizures. Otherwise the founders would have prohibited "all searches and seizures." And what is more reasonable then searching and seizing communications and financial records between terrorists abroad and individuals within the United States?
(5) The Bush Administration is NOT a false administration. You may not want to acknowledge it, but George W. Bush WAS ELECTED President of the United States in 2000 and, AGAIN, in 2006. If anyone tried to steal the 2000 election it was the mainstream media's attempt to delay calling the early Bush victories and overhyped the early Gore victories. They held off calling states for Bush that they knew he would win by double digits. And the networks called Gore the winner of Florida an hour BEFORE the polls on the panhandle were closed. About an hour later, the networks reversed the call and announced Bush the winner. All of that was an attempt to discourage Republican voters in states where the polls were still opened and suppress their votes. It worked, but fortunately not enough! Then Vice President Gore decided to cherry-pick a handful of counties for recounting, hoping to find enough votes to overturn the election. He failed! Several media teams recounted the votes and they all verified that George W. Bush, did in fact, win Florida and the national election.
President Bush thoroughly understands the dire consequences of us pulling out before the Iraqi government is able to sustain, govern and defend itself. Sadly, the 50-55% of the American people who want us to immediately pull out of Iraq either can't fathom these consequences, or they don't care about the consequences. If we pull out prematurely, there will come a day that all of you will complain: "Why didn't President Bush do more to prevent "this" from happening?" With "this" being IEDs, car bombs, suicide bombers, maybe chlorine bombs or worse, in a neighborhood near you! Obviously, not pulling out now and fighting until Iraq is able to defend itself won't guarantee that "this" will never happen. But allowing the Islamic extremists to have any moral victory much less a military victory, will bring us to the gates of Armageddon.
Posted by: James Danley | May 6, 2007 5:46:58 PM
Why do we only have to be concerned with whether laws have been broken or not? How about just concerning ourselves with whether or not our legal system is being run in an evenhanded, fair, and judicious manner. Everything that's come out so far in this investigation has shown that that is not the case, and furthermore, that it has been polluted with partisan politics by third and fourth level functionaries at DOJ who appear to be taking orders directly from the White House and cutting their superiors out of the loop to provide the plausible deniability.
John Ashcroft may have been a divisive AG, but at least he only covered the breasts of the statue of Justice at the DC HQ. Even he wouldn't pin a GOP campaign button on that silly shroud. Politicizing the criminal justice system in this country sort of transcends criminal in my estimation. It the very values of the country.
Also, to chalk this up to Mexican-bashing is so ludicrous that it can't possibly be taken seriously. How can you accuse the Dems of Mexican-bashing vis a vis Gonzales when the GOP's immigration reform advocates wrote the book on it.
Posted by: Howard West | May 6, 2007 5:16:54 PM
Circumstantial evidence is unrelated facts that, when considered together, can be used to infer a conclusion about something unknown. Circumstantial evidence is usually a theory, supported by a significant quantity of corroborating evidence. Circumstantial evidence is not considered to be proof that something happened but it is often useful as a guide for further investigation. Your tax dollars at use.
Posted by: Rick | May 6, 2007 4:56:02 PM
what's wrong with imitating a u,s. attorney, if you're a rove appointee there is no real need to actually be able to do the job. you're just there to fire all those disloyal to the bushies and replace them with idiots just like you. until the entire federal government is crippled and those jobs outsourced to immensely profit loyal bushies rove's work is not done.
george like ronnie can't be trusted with anything more than reading the prepared script and like ronnie can be left in the dark about anything you want. two presidents so completely empty are the rare bonus the neocons needed so desperately. hence the rove puppet presidency, brought to you by lies, treachery, torture, pedophilia, and greed greed greed.
as mr. limberger points out every day on his radio show; the dumber the audience the bigger the ratings. no matter how smart they were when they started listening by the end of the show you are definately dumber. not that ratings will subtitute for viagra, or oxycotin. life is so unfair.........
Posted by: jim | May 6, 2007 1:18:54 PM
How desperate can you be to fill space if you are reporting third-hand rumors?
Posted by: John Kantor | May 6, 2007 6:30:55 AM
When the leaders and visible people of a country are not the Peaceful Laws found in the first five books of the Bible, we compromise our very existence. There are those who say that those Laws are old fashioned and done away with, but the last time I looked, just about all the lasw of the United States and most countries for that matter, are based on those "old absolete laws of the bible. The leaders of America need to be taught the moral Laws that teach respect for human lives and to love our neighbors as ourselves. They also teach us to respect other peoples property and to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves.
Now, what is "absolete and old-fashioned" about that?
Posted by: Ed | May 6, 2007 3:31:08 AM
Horale Nemo - don't play the race card on this one. I am latino, I am an atorney, and I opposed the nomination of this first so-called Mexican-American for Attorney General on the grounds that he was not qualified and disqualified, at the same time, by his propensity to blingly do Bush's bidding. I contacted Mexican American groups and voiced my opinion - i was not prescient - just able to decipher the obvious based on Gonzo's record. So just drop the race card on this one - it's a transparent ploy just like when Gonzo talked about "the obstacles" he had to overcome! What a crock! Feel sorry for me because i am a Mexican-American minority - horse caca I say to that!
Posted by: Vato Judicios | May 5, 2007 9:46:46 PM
Why should I leave? Bush and Cheney are not Americans. They are destroying America. Evolultion continues and the rethuglican subspecies is an evolutionary dead end.
Posted by: Jonathan | May 5, 2007 8:34:21 PM
Dear Nemo Judicious,
There is too much mud, based in high crimes - including war crimes and mass murder through an invented war, created to that Bush-Cheney cronies can profiteer to the hundreds of millions - steady perversion and subversion of the Constitution, and other nearly endless felonies by this false administration - for any of us to dig our way out of. The only solution is for the entire pack of Bush-Cheney rethuglicans to be tried, found guilty, and punished, if there would ever be punishment sufficient.
Posted by: Jonathan | May 5, 2007 6:03:15 PM
The entire Gonzalez "mud raking," is a waste of taxpayer time and money. Nobody has so far presented ANY evidence of a crime or even any action, by the most liberal analysis, unethical in any way, shape or form. It not only highlights the Democrats' propensity for Mexican-bashing at all levels, it also clearly demonstrates (among other things,) the Democratic party's complete lack of introspection and continuing need for reform.
Posted by: Nemo Judicius | May 5, 2007 5:59:08 PM
Is this really reporting?
You are citing a post on a blog?
Aren't you supposed to independently verify.
Posted by: Matt | May 5, 2007 5:02:00 PM
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