Actually, TWO DOJ Employees Quit This Week

by emptywheel

It's funny how, now that we're so attuned to BushCo's Friday news dumps, something reported on Friday attracts more notice than something reported on Thursday.

On Friday, we learned that Rachel Brand, one of the last remaining DOJ clique-members (and a tangential one at that) will resign on July 9.

Rachel Brand, the assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy, will step down July 9, the department said in a statement. The statement did not give a reason for her departure, but Brand is expecting a baby soon.

I can understand not wanting to expose a near-child to the cesspool that is DOJ right now.

On Thursday, we learned that Scott Schools, technically an employee of EOUSA and currently interim USA for San Francisco, will resign around July 13.

Scott Schools, who became the interim U.S. attorney in San Francisco after Kevin Ryan was fired in February, will leave within weeks to return to South Carolina as a county prosecutor.

Schools, 45, was nominated Wednesday by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to be the solicitor, the equivalent of a district attorney, for Charleston and Berkeley counties. He will succeed Ralph Hoisington, who died of cancer June 9. Schools said Hoisington was an old friend with whom he once shared a law office.

The appointment requires confirmation by the state Senate. Schools said he will remain at his San Francisco post at least through July 13 during the confirmation process. Schools, a Republican, would face election to a new term as solicitor next year if he decided to run. He was noncommittal about a candidacy Wednesday.

I'm actually more intrigued by Schools' resignation than Brand's. From the reporting on Schools, it sounds like Bush might actually be nearing a nomination to serve as USA for San Francisco.

The leading candidate is widely reported to be San Francisco attorney Joseph Russoniello, who was U.S. attorney in San Francisco from 1982 to 1990. An aide to former Mayor Willie Brown said an FBI agent showed up recently to ask Brown about Russoniello, who had listed him as a character reference.

So it appears that Schools, facing the end of his time as USA for San Francisco, is going from being Federal prosecutor for all of Northern California to being the County prosecutor, just for the next year, for Charleston (though if he gets re-elected, then he might comfortably settle in in a beautiful city far from the sewage of DC). But this really appears to be a way to avoid returning to DC to work in the EOUSA, the office the manages US Attorneys. (For those interested, here's an article on how this might impact Barry Bonds.)

In any case, does anyone want to go by DOJ sometime in late July and turn the lights out?

Hat tip to eyesonthestreet for the news about Schools and *xyz and zAmboni for the links.

Comments

[earlofhuntingdon]

Schools new gig may be a solid rung on the ladder of SC state politics, but I suspect it's not a step up in responsibility or status as a prosecutor. It looks much more like an "any job but here" decision for a mid-senior lawyer at Justice. Not only does Bush corrupt the machinery of American federal justice, he lets it rot in the rain.

The "If I Had a Dream Speech" published by Ted Sorenson a few days ago was good. But it argued against follow-up prosecutions of today's political criminals in favor of looking ahead. I disagree. Wounds don't heal unless they are debrided, disinfected and sewn back up. I think we can and must do both, lest we encourage them to do it again in a few years time.

[Ruth]

Isn't it weird though that Rachel Brand is quiting rather than going on maternity leave?

[Ruth]

Isn't it weird though that Rachel Brand is quiting rather than going on maternity leave?

[joel hanes]

Marginally OT

EW, is there any place on the Web that you know
that documents the investigative threads that
Carol Lam was pursuing at the time she was fired?

If BushCo was motivated to stop her, that leads me
to believe that she was onto something that will lead
to the White House if pursued.

[joel hanes]

Synchonicity

There's intriguing Cunningham/Lam/Kontogiannis news from Laura Rozen
link

[eyesonthestreet]

Scott N. Schools, a Strom thurmond accolite, is a scion of the Piggly Wiggly grocery stores(no yo can't make this stuff up) family and is originally from Charleston, even listing his address there:
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2835437_1?noconfirm=0

and his past: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4365658940856201943&hl=en
(on this video, go to the center and that's where the Schools story starts)

and something to be proud of:

"As the first assistant U.S. Attorney in South Carolina, Schools tried the state's first two federal death penalty cases, obtaining death verdicts after a six-week jury trial in the case against Chadrick Evan Fulks in June 2004 and after an eight-week trial versus Brandon Basham in November 2004. He also worked on some of the "Operation Lost Trust" Statehouse sting of lawmaker prosecutions."

and how the republicans operate : "(Gov. Mark) Sanford's office declined to comment on the selection process, but the pick bypassed Hoisington's two lieutenants."

You gotta love 'em, move the tools around as needed.

link to Charleston paper announcing his appt:
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/jun/28/sanford_names_choice_succeed_hoisington/

[eyesonthestreet]

oops, was not a Strom thurmond accolit, but was running the USA office in Charleston for 28 year old Strom Thurmond Junior.

[emptywheel]

joel

I've long said that Lam's transgression, per the Republicans, may have been that she got close to MZM more than anything else. MZM was the company that got its first contract for SOMETHING in OVP. And then it went on to get a cut of the CIFA business that involved spying on citizens.

[joel hanes]

Here's some interesting and suggestive data.
Wonder how much of this money went to MZM ?

Angry Bear: Executive Office spending graph

[Mimikatz]

Russoniello was in the DA'a office in San Francisco before he was USA. During the Reagan Admin, when Ed Meese was AG, as I recall, Russoniello was a zealous prosecutor of porn in SF (a fool's errand if there ever was one). He was pretty straight-laced then, although as I recall he wasn't crazy as a prosecutor.

But the point is, this is a guy who has been around the block. He isn't some porky, fresh-faced little Regent U Law School/Federalist Society type like so many of the folks they put in, nor is he an up and comer in Northern CA, someone who could run for Congress in some outlying suburb some day. He is safe, and that's about all one can say.

[Mauimom]

"I can understand not wanting to expose a near-child to the cesspool that is DOJ right now."

Unfortunately, during those last weeks of mom's pregnancy, even while in utero that "near-child" probably absorbed lots of bad karma from the DOJ cesspool.

Kinda like mom smoking Republican crack while preggers.

[keith poe]

Scott Schools has declined the offer of the solicitors position in SC and will remain in San Francisco as the interim US attorney. I got info from www.charleston.net. And also, to Mr. Haynes, I grew up around the Schools family in Charleston and they are undoubtedly the kindest most considerate people on the planet. Please don't embarrass the rest of us by spewing generic platitudes of all republicans. You just end up sounding like Rush or Sean or any of their talking heads.

[RICH]

How about the other local politicians and well known dignitaries that played in the snow with T-Rav. I noticed that the P&C has very little about this story, jeez I wonder why. Who are they trying to protect. I hear this story hits close to home with them, those in the know, know what I’m talking about. The party in the battery, the hidden cameras, those who flipped and mentioned names. A good investigative reporter could have a field day with this story and probably sell a screenplay. City Paper and The State-keep on top of this story because you own it. The P&C doesn’t want to get dirty with this one.