Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

This morning’s Washington Post discusses e-mail correspondence released by the Justice Department from “a Senior [J]ustice official.” In that e-mail — released by the DOJ in some 3,000 pages Monday — “Sen. Schumer’s counsel told [Deputy Attorney General Pual McNulty] that the issue has basically run its course. ”

Who is Schumer’s counsel that the DOJ alleges told McNulty ?

Was it Mark O’Donoghue? His bio at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle shows the he works in the firm’s New York office and “is chairman of Senator Charles E. Schumer’s Judicial Screening Panel.”

He’s an international corporate finance lawyer who works with the law firm’s clients in Latin America, “particularly in the oil and gas, energy and chemicals sector.”

Did O’Donoghue counsel Schumer on the matter, or was it another lawyer for Schumer in D.C.?

In a unanimous voice vote this morning, the House Judiciary Committee approved supoenas seeking to force White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, and other staff to testify under oath about what, if any, involvement they had in the firing of eight (8) U.S. Attorneys around the country.

What is surprising is that Rep. Darrell Issa (Rep. - Cal.), one of 37 Committee Members. member of the Committee, was reportedly involved in questioning fired U.S. Attorney Carol Lam (of the Southern District of San Diego) about her immigration record.

Issa has not, so far, suggested that he would recuse himself from any House Judiciary Committee proceedings on this matter. Given the frequency of his name coming up as the investigation has evolved, however, the congressman’s recusal seems appropriate.

Technorati: U.S. Attorneys, Alberto Gonzales, White House Counsel, Karl Rove, John Conyers, Harriet Miers, Darrell Issa, Carol Lam

American Enterprise Institute resident scholar and think-tank analyst Norman Ornstein continued reiterating his position that the White House and Dept. of Justice must deal with a “self-inflicted” set of problems created by the apparently politically-charged firings of U.S. Attorneys around the country.

Ornstein told NPR Radio this morning that the White House failed to “lance the boil,” and must deal with the consquences of their actions.