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The Smoking Gun
On May 10, 2006, US Attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she was going after Republican defense contractor Brent Wilkes and CIA administrator Kyle "Dusty" Foggo in connection with the Randy "Duke" Cunningham bribery case. The next day, as the investigation was widened to include House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Ca.), Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department decided to shut her down.
One day after being notified of the expanded investigation, Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson (who resigned last week) sent an email to William Kelley in the White House counsel's office requesting a meeting to discuss "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam."
They had a real problem, alright: A US attorney who put justice and the American people above loyalty to the Republican Party. Now, they have a bigger problem: a Democratic Congress with subpoena power and the appearance that Gonzales, Sampson and a bunch of White House officials obstructed a federal investigation.
Who determines which federal investigations to go after? Wouldn't that
ultimately be the responsibility of the Attorney General? And therefore
obstruction could not exist if the Attorney General decided not to pursue
the case?
I don't think it works that way, Byamo. Lam already told the Justice
Department she had reason to believe Wilkes, Foggo and Lewis were guilty.
If she gets pulled off, then it's obstruction of justice.