Shorter Karen Hewitt: Foggo and Wilkes Are BFFs

by emptywheel

To get a sense of the snark with which the government (including Carol Lam replacement Karen Hewitt) responded to Dusty Foggo's motion to sever his trial from Brent Wilkes and move his trial to VA, I offer this paragraph:

Defendant Foggo next argues that transfer is appropriate because it is clear that the majority of the events and transactions at issue occurred in another jurisdiction. See Defendant Foggo’s Motion at 11.11/ Based upon a completely inaccurate and misleading characterization of the events underlying the instant indictment, he argues to the Court that this case’s “natural center of gravity” lies in the Eastern District of Virginia and that “the interest of justice demand” that he be tried in that district. As shall be discussed below, such faulty logic would similarly suggest that the effects of gravity caused the apple to fall from Newton’s head up towards the tree branch.

Somebody should have warned Hewitt that, along with evolution and global warming science, Republicans have thrown out just about every other form of reality-based science. Or perhaps it's just that someone on the legal team is a big science geek, because shortly after the paragraph above, they have Foggo spinning into a black hole:

Foggo’s position on the cases’s natural center of gravity falls further into a black hole when he forwards in its support the curious argument that four out of seven wire fraud counts and all three of the money laundering counts originate outside of California.

He he he.

Rules of physics aside, though, the government appears to have little patience for Foggo's argument. They make the following arguments against Foggo's motion to move venues.

• Foggo says his loving wife would have to be inconvenienced by traveling to San Diego for his trial, even though she is used to him being away and (the government adds a footnote to this effect) she's not so loving anyway and they're willing to provide proof of that fact.

By popular request, here's the comment and the footnote:

First off, the rosy picture defendant paints of his married life is not necessarily an entirely accurate depiction.6/

6/ The government is prepared to supply the court with evidence on this point if the Court feels it is necessary and the defense wishes to contest this assertion.

• Foggo says the witnesses (many of them in Europe or elsewhere overseas) would have to travel too much--but doesn't mention they'd have to make two trips, one to VA and one to CA if the trial were severed.
• Foggo claims few of the events have any relation to San Diego, but ignores almost all of them relate to a Wilkes company in San Diego and/or involve the transfer of money/communications through San Diego.
• Foggo cites a retired FBI agent talking about the costs of transferring classified documents from the CIA--but most of those documents have already been transferred.
• Foggo complains about the cost of travel and lodging to San Diego, but one of his buddies has an unoccupied house in San Diego.
• Foggo complains that the few newspaper articles that appeared prior to the indictment prejudiced any San Diego juries against him, even though requests for change of venue change due to much greater media coverage--"1,900 newspaper articles, two documentary films, two books, telephonic surveys, and other extensive media coverage"--have been rejected by the Ninth Circuit.

But my favorite part of the whole motion is where the government rebuts Foggo's claim to have nothing to do with Wilkes.

Foggo is a life-long friend of Wilkes. They were both members of the Hilltop High School football team, roommates at San Diego State University, and best men at each other’s weddings. Each named their son after the other. They and their families socialized frequently. Numerous individuals have reported statements by Wilkes and Foggo that they “love” each other as “brothers” and as each other’s “best friend in the whole wide world.”

In addition to their close personal ties, Wilkes and Foggo also had significant financial ties. Wilkes and Foggo frequently discussed Wilkes’s desire that Foggo should join ADCS after leaving the CIA. In both 1995 and 1999, Foggo met with people at ADCS and Wilkes openly referred to Foggo as ADCS’s future Chief Operating Officer. At ADCS’s Poway headquarters, opened in late 2002, an executive office three doors down from Wilkes’s was left empty for years as it was expressly reserved for Foggo. In fact, an ADCS internal document (that appears to have been created on May 12, 2004) refers to a desktop computer in “Dusty’s Office.” For his part, in the Spring of 2005, Foggo indicated in a loan application that he had a “big” employment offer from a San Diego company.

Equally significant, Foggo also mentioned to a number of his associates that he was considering running for Duke Cunningham’s seat in Congress when Cunningham stood down. As part of this plan, Foggo indicated that prior to running for office he would return to San Diego to raise funds and make contacts. Foggo said that he had spoken to Wilkes about those plans. Moreover, at least one ADCS executive indicated that Wilkes mentioned his plans to have Foggo take over ADCS in the event that anything happened to Wilkes.

Either Brent Wilkes has had an unrequited boy crush for Foggo that has lasted fifty years and extended to their sons, or these guys--and their trials--are inseparable.

They're going to look cute sitting next to each other at trial.

Addendum
I also like this footnote. You see, if you read through the responses the fired USAs gave to HJC questions, you see one after another USA explaining that budget cuts mean AUSA positions remained unfilled, and as a result, the FTEs DOJ used to calculate cases meant nothing. Hewitt sticks in a footnote to that effect herself:

To the extent that some district courts have suggested that the government “has, for all
practical purposes unlimited financial resources [as it can] mint money,” see United States v. Coffee, 113 F.Supp 2d 751, 757 (E.D. Pa. 2000), the government respectfully disagrees. It would appear that the Coffee court had not analyzed the latest Department of Justice budgets, which do not even allow for funding all AUSA positions and require constant monitoring of travel and other case related travel costs.

Having seen Lam fired, I guess Hewitt doesn't want to wait around for them to fire her before she starts to make this case herself.

Comments

[freepatriot]

ouch

and (the government adds a footnote to this effect) she's not so loving anyway and they're willing to provide proof of that fact.

really, they put that in the brief ???

call central casting, I think we got the Martha Mitchel role covered

this is getting REALLY fun

[mesquite]

Ms. Hewitt left out the shorter travel time San Diego presents for Ms Palfrey - assuming the Shirlington Limo connection is what got her busted. Josh @TPM suggested sex trafficking as an appropriate charge for Wilkes and associates a while back. Will be interesting to see if they can turn Wilkes for evidence on more members of Congress and Loyal Bushie officials. Glad to see San Diego USA office taking a "take charge" approach.

[Markinsanfran]

As another science geek (my day job), I think I will have to cite these guys for violation of the laws of physics :-)

[emptywheel]

From the filing:

First off, the rosy picture defendant paints of his married life is not necessarily an entirely accurate depiction.6/

6/ The government is prepared to supply the court with evidence on this point if the Court feels it is necessary and the defense wishes to contest this assertion.

[P J Evans]

They did some really fine snarking there!

[Sojourner]

Could it be that maybe -- just maybe -- some of the replacement USAs still see crime for what it is, regardless of party affiliation? Just reading through Hewitt's response to the petition, I got the feeling that Foggo requested a severance of the trials thinking that a 'fix' was in that could help it happen. I sure would hate to have Ms. Hewitt coming after me!

[freepatriot]

uhm, is this beginning to sound like "All The President's Men" meets "Brokeback Mountain" to anybody else ???

Numerous individuals have reported statements by Wilkes and Foggo that they “love” each other as “brothers” and as each other’s “best friend in the whole wide world.”

it's like we're watching some Broadway medly come to life

[randiego]

That is definitely some USDA Grade A Snark.

however, I still think that having Monica as the one that covered up the Justice statues is the best I've heard yet.

Go to tpm muckraker for details.

[emptywheel]

FWIW, Sojourner, I suspect the response was written by one of the AUSAs, But, yes, that's part of why I'm following this--to see how it gets pursued. The AUSAs on the case were the ones on the original indictment (plus one, plus Hewitt), so I'm sure they want to see this through.

freepatriot

That's not even the half of the Brokeback material. There's this quote from the actual indictment, from an email from Foggo to Wilkes:

As you know I do have influence with him [the CIA Contractor] and know I could get him to listen ... that said if this issue is beyond repair in your mind--I am now, have been in the past, and will continue to as long as I breath [sic]--be your partner...so what do you want me to do?

[ab initio]

Despite the snarky response by Ms. Hewitt I think we should reserve judgment until we see how aggressively the case is pursued and more importantly how far they will investigate the cash & hookers for contracts and "right wing" abuse of power.

There's more behind the Dukestir, Wilkes, Foggo, Wade, the Greek, et al. More than just corruption. And inquiring minds want to know. And would like to see these guys serve a good long time.

[William Ockham]

Just to add to the snark count, I particularly like this line:

Put more prosaically, Foggo’s gravitational center cannot hold.

I hope the author of that line intended everything I read into it. The antecedent to this line is a matter-of-fact (literally) recounting of the reasons why the case is centered in San Diego. The antecedent is therefore as "prosaic" as you can imagine, but the line itself is an allusion to a Yeats poem. It's poetry, not prose. Talk about your double-back flip slam dunk literary device. It gives me hope for the legal profession.

[marksb]

It must be damned irritating to the GOP to have this going on. Imagine the yelling into the cell phone: "What the hell---I thought we fixed all this US Attorney stuff?"

But Ms. Hewitt does have a way with words. I can see in her future posting late night on FDL, or maybe authoring SCOTUS majority opinions?

[emptywheel]

ab initio

One thing the filing references is a deal that would have gone through if FBI had not raided Wilkes' office in 2005. That is not described in the indictment. So I suspect this case will consist of some slow leaks as to what the rest of that stuff is.

WO

Yes, I saw that too, Yeats. I was torn between making an argument about science or the extended metaphor in this filing and opted for the former. I hope Markinsanfran will forgive the lawyers who authored this their indiscretions of science in favor of the metaphor.

[freepatriot]

so it's not just me

that's good to know ...

[bmaz]

EW is correct; there is little chance Ms. Hewitt personally authored the response pleading, undoubtedly the work of line attorneys. I would hazard a guess that its 50:50 as to whether Hewitt even reviewed it before filing. There is simply an immense amount of written work going out of a USA office that size every day. There sure is a coterie there that has their dander up thought, eh? I said this some time ago in reference to Arizona, I think there is no question but that the career prosecutors (you know, the ones still left that take their real jobs seriously) have been emboldened by the straightjacket put on DOJ Main by the roiling scandal and the fact that in many cases, take SD and AZ for instance, the office is still being run, effectively, by the fired USA's team. If it were anyone but the Bush crowd, I would say there is no way they would risk screwing with these underlings either; but with this group, I put nothing past them.

[sojourner]

EW, is there any way to contact you privately re: your previous post this afternoon?

[emptywheel]

sojourner

emptywheel at gmail dot com

[Dismayed]

This is f-ing rich! The greatest literary minds can't make this shit up. LMAO

[Jackie Blue]

Habeas snarkus!

[TheOtherWA]

First off, the rosy picture defendant paints of his married life is not necessarily an entirely accurate depiction.6/

6/ The government is prepared to supply the court with evidence on this point if the Court feels it is necessary and the defense wishes to contest this assertion.

Oh my. Something tells me the gov't knows about some sort of, ahem, activities that Foggo may not want public. This is gonna get sooooooo good!

[Astrid]

I suspect DOJ has been using its purse strings to stymie inconvenient investigations by USAs around the country. This article from July 2006 includes a link to a letter sent by Henry Waxman and John Conyers to AG Gonzales expressing their concerns that USA offices around the country were suffering severe staffing shortages and a chronic lack of resources that essentially forced them to forgo important prosecutions.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2006/07/where_has_all_t.html

Waxman and Conyers' letter is well worth reading in its entirety, but here is the gist of their inquiry:

"We have multiple questions about these reports of shortages in U.S. Attorney offices.

"One basic question is where has the money gone. According to budget information from the Department of Justice, appropriations for the U.S. Attorneys account have increased from $1.349 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $1.588 in fiscal year 2006. This is an increase of 15%, representing an increase in real dollars even after inflation is taken into account. The disparity between increased funding for U.S. Attorneys overall and drastic shortages in staff and supplies in individual offices raises questions about Justice Department management.

"As ranking members of the Government Reform and Judiciary Committees, both of which are responsible for oversight of the Department of Justice, we ask that you provide the following information and documents by August 14,2006:

"1. The funding levels for each U.S. Attorney office for each year from FY 2001 through FY 2005;

"2. For each U.S. Attorney office, the number of authorized Assistant U.S. Attorney positions and the number of positions currently unfilled;

"3. A description of the process used for allocating the total appropriation for the "United States Attorneys" account among the 93 U.S. Attorneys' offices;

"4. An identification of (a) any funds appropriated to the "United States Attorneys" account that were not allocated to a U.S. Attorney office and (b) any funds allocated to U.S. Attorney offices from sources other than the "United States Attorneys" account;

"5. Copies of all directives and guidance issued by the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys or the Criminal Division to U.S. Attorneys since January 2001 regarding budget cuts, hiring freezes, or cost-saving measures."

It would be interesting to know what response, if any, Conyers & Waxman received to this request.

It is also interesting to note that "The List" -- the heavily redacted hand-written document released in the first March 2007 document dump (that can be partially deciphered by reversing the back side of the page and reading the bleed-through) -- mentions "USAs financial help," among other topics that seem to have been considered in fulfilling this year's Attorney Gate document request. That line was redacted, however, so did they realize it was important/damning and then literally and essentially cover it up?

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