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President Left Calling Card in Wecht Jury Home Visits: Mary Buchanan's FBI Problem
The US Attorney in re the Wecht Case knew or should have known the FBI had a credibility problem.
The government would ask that we believe Buchanan supposedly knew something about the FBI, enough to supposedly order them to do something.
FBI agents "interviewed" Wecht Jury Members at their home, prompting Congressman Conyers to seek information from the Attorney General. AG Mukasey has not responded.
What Buchanan failed to mention in re the FBI home visits of Wecht Jury members was the small problem with Special Agent Bradley W. Orsini. Orsini at one time was a steller, sterling FBI agent, highly trained, weapon ceritified. With enough talent to be the FBI director, potential Senate nominee to lead the Department of Justice.
The Wecht Jury members raised concerns they were contacted at home by the FBI agents.
Buchanan has yet to explain why she alone directed the FBI to do anyting given the cloud already hanging over the FBI. It defies reason for the US Attorney, on their own, to ignore the FBI discipline problem and send them to the homes of Wecht Jurors.
Special Agent Bradley W. Orsini discipline problem was so bad, Buchanan claimed the access to Orsini's personal data would be an invasion of privacy. Buchanan's "concern" and stellar legal arguments were not lost on the court, promptly ordering Orsini's records unsealed. And the White House is surprised the prosecutors didn't convince the jury?
This wasn't a minor problem with the FBI. This agent alone had four (4) DOJ OPR invesetigations into that agent between 1997 and 2000. Who does Buchanan, on her own, supposedly think is the "best" group to contact the Jury members?
We're asked to believe the first agency the US Attorney thought of when getting information from jurors were agents whose peers' idea of a "professional interaction" include:
Singing other agents' names to investigation reports because, "It was a convenience and a shortcut" -- Send these people to take notes about why Jury members were doing things?
Falsifying a chain of custody forms Prohibited sexual relations -- Send these people to jury members homes?
Threats against a subordiante -- Send these people in groups before jury members at home?
Damage government propery with fists by punching holes in office walls -- Send these people to jurors homes?
Made unprofessional and insensitive remarks -- Send these people to talk to jury members?
Buchanan knew or should have know the above conduct was linked direct to one of the FBI agents involved with the case. It defies reason to suggest she didn't know. Buchanan said of the FBI agent:
The release of his personal information "would constitute an invasion of Agent Orsini's personal privacy".
Buchana's response? Rather than respecting the court order or the privacy of the jury members, she sends the tainted FBI back into the nexus, as if to dare the public: "Watch us." Did she get, 'em?
It defies reason to believe a US Attorney who knew there were problems with the FBI, and who hoped to keep that agents' records sealed, to then inexplicably reverse herself, cast aside caution, send the FBI in, and do the opposite with the juror names that she did with the FBI agent's case file. How many reversals has the President made on the Constitution, Iraq WMD, and "mission accomplished". His head has spun so many times, we need not question whether its still connected.
It defies reason to believe the US Attorney hoping to preserve the privacy of an FBI agent over discipline problems would reverse herself, unleash the FBI, and violate a court order. Buchanan most likely attempted to block the order to interact with the Wech Jurors, and knew there would be a very bad public relations problem.
We've seen this president ignore discipline problems and DOJ OPR findings before. He blocked the DOJ OPR from reviewing the FBI. This President's idea of a loyal FBI agent is one who lies, abuses people, and misleads the FISA court.
It gets better. Who are the people who abused the NSLs and conducted warrantless searches? That's right, the FBI. The same FBI that were
"infected with deliberate and reckless falseshoolds"
Nobody should be surprised why the DoJ can't give a straight story on the FBI interviews of Wecht Jury members. They've gagged the DOJ OPR that might find the truth. Nobody but the President could be stupid enough to believe anyone could get away with using the same FBI agents -- who violated the Constitution and engaged in multiple disciplinary problems the DOJ OPR documented -- to conduct home visits of jury members.
This is the President's calling card he's leaving with Iraqi civilians. Send in the reckless to abuse people, and find someone else to blame. War crimes in Iraq. Jury tampering in America.
Same peas. Same stench of criminal activity. Only the President could issue such a stupid, reckless order to ignore common sense and DOJ OPR findings. His answer to bad news in the wake of his reckless decisions: Send in the people you would think would be the least helpful.
This is the same story as with the Iraq WMD, Iraq, and Guantanamo. This President creates a mess, and people are too shocked to believe this President might be involved. Prisoner abuse, torture, war crimes, illegal invasion: We've got those DOJ OLC memos.
But the President directing the FBI to conduct non-permitted jury contact. Child's play. There are holes in the wall to prove it. The chiars were destroyed. There were no WMD's under the President's carpet in his office. "Never happened."
Comments (5)
Wow. You are about ten months too late on this one. It appears that perhaps you are finally reading up on the case in question.
Agent Orsini was removed from the investigative team after the first search warrant was executed. He was removed due to his disclipinary issues. The most telling was that he falsified the custody signatures of other agents on 302 forms. This action, in previous cases, decimated the chain of custody and validity of such documents. Additionally, Agent Orsini had been reprimanded for attempting to get other agents to perjurer themselves in his disciplinary review defense. By the time of the trial, Agent Orsini was removed from the Wecht case and the prosecution refused to call him as a witness.
As for your other claims, please stop attempting to defend the actions of US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan in this case. Mary Beth Buchanan overreached in this case and filed criminal charges where at most the infraction was criminal. When the case blew up in her face, Mary Beth Buchanan publicly admitted that she sent the FBI in to set up investigations.
Your argument that Mary Beth Buchanan is somehow innocent and GW Bush is directly running the show in the Wecht case is absurd.
It is clearly looking as if you are writing blog postings in support of the DOJ and Mary Beth Buchanan.
May 19, 2008 8:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
At the time of the Wecht juror interviews, Agent Orsini's disciplinary records had been unsealed and published extensively in the media for over four months. Agent Orsini had been promoted to a desk job position with no staff oversight. Agent Orsini had also been removed from the Wecht case due to the negative impact he would have on the proceedings. Because of Agent Orsini's involvement in another case in the Pittsburgh area, a jury acquitted a man.
As for your assertion that Agent Orsini has enough talent and potential to be FBI director, you either did not review the agent's history or you have a very poor opinion of the qualities one needs to demonstrate to be FBI director. Agent Orsini was demoted and transfered from Newark to Pittsburgh prior to the Wecht case due to his extensive disciplinary issues.
You clearly do not know Mary Beth Buchanan. She is an extremely controversial and aggressive US Attorney. She often takes a very liberal view of the law. In one 60 Minutes interview, she stated that she did not care what the law said, she only needed to convince 12 people she was right.
As for the reversal, it is purely a tactical move on her part. When the Wecht lawyers requested access to the disciplinary records of Orsini, the only response that Buchanan's Office had left in the appeals process was to argue the information was privileged.
Nice opinion based on just assertions and allegations. So your theory is that the President of the United States directly involved himself in a highly public case out of Pittsburgh involving the former county coroner. A case that already had congressional review going on. A case that was already a media juggernaut. A case that had prominent former members of government, such as Former AG Thornburgh openly questioning the motives of why the case was filed. What motivation would he have to do so?
I can not believe you are attempting to defend US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan's actions in this case. You need to read up more on the case to see how egregious her overreach her was. Why don't you review AG Thornburgh's affidavit concerning the pre-trial conference between Wecht's attorneys and Mary Beth Buchanan and Stalling.
As for the argument that Buchanan or one of her lieutenants would not request the FBI agents assigned to the Wecht Case/Investigation to set up juror interviews, it overlooks key issues.
1) Mary Beth Buchanan's Office was dealing with the public relations fall out of having a high profile case go bust. As such, the DOJ was in full damage mode to attempt to find out what went wrong. While the public outcry of FBI contacting jurors was an issue, the potential that such use of the FBI would compel the jurors to divulge information to the interviewers would surely be the motive for their use.
2)While you argue that the public relations backfire would be unwarranted in this case, you overlook the actions of the prosecution directly following the release that the FBI was utilized in this fashion. Since the public relations outcry, the prosecution has put within filings that they may request an out of town jury to be seated. One could speculate that the public relation storm was created strictly for this purpose.
As stated prior, you have added nothing but disinformation to the Wecht case and the issues of the case. Now you are attempting to shield oversight and review of Mary Beth Buchanan and her office's controversial and some alleged unethical and criminal in the case through falsely asserting that the president has to be involved. As in prior instances, your analysis is lacking and serves as more of a distraction protecting those that need to be reviewed.
Additionally, I request that you review the entire case prior to posting again. You do not have a grasp of even the rudimentary facts in the case apparent from postings such as this where you falsely claim Orsini was still involved in the case at the time of the juror interviews.
Since it is obvious that you plan on continued posting with your disinformation campaign on this case in an attempt to shield those allegedly implicated in malfeasance, the very least you could do is attempt to know the facts of the case.
May 19, 2008 8:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
". . . most likely . . . ."
That sums up your approach yo every BS "issue" you bellow about in long-winded screeds of CONJECTURE.
May 19, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
He isn't attempting to protect Buchanan; he is attempting, as a typical conspirabunker, to claim that Bushit, who is dumber than a rock, reckless, and unaware of what he's doing, is simultaneously in charge of jiggering the functioning of the universe.
His pseudo-law analyses are unadulterated horseshit.
May 19, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
JNagarya,
I agree with your viewpoints. You should wait for the chorus of loons to jump in. Waiting on Al, bushicide, and Joane....
May 19, 2008 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
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