Wampum

The Colorado US Attorney's office was added to the ever expanding ranks of federal prosecutors targeted in the US Attorney purge. McClatchy and the Washington Post both added the acting US Attorney in Denver, William Leone, to one of Kyle Sampson's January 2006 lists. Leone had been the top Assistant USA in the office when former US Attorney John W. Suthers was appointed Colorado's Attorney General in January, 2005. Leone, however, unlike the other targeted USAs, was only an interim appointment - why fire him when you could push him back to AUSA by appointing a permanent USA?

And speaking of that permanent USA, a few weeks ago, I wrote a post on Colorado US Attorney Troy Eid, and his Greenberg Traurig, and hence, Jack Abramoff, connections. Interestingly enough, Eid must be under some pressure, as yesterday, he put out a press release:

Statement by Troy A. Eid, United States Attorney, District of Colorado

"The role of a United States Attorney is entirely apolitical, and must be free from outside influence or pressure. That is how I have always approached this position, and I will keep doing so as long as I serve.

"It has been widely reported that I was a partner at Greenberg Traurig ("GT"), the same "lobbying" firm where convicted felon Jack Abramoff worked. This attempt at guilt-by-association is like saying that anyone who has worked for the FBI is tainted because one renegade former agent, Robert Hansen, was convicted of spying.

"GT is one of the world's largest law firms, and like many others it does engage in lobbying - but at heart it is a full-service, litigation and transactional law firm. There were more than 1,600 attorneys in 34 offices when I was there from Oct. 2003 to Aug. 2006.

"Abramoff and I overlapped in the same firm for only a few months of my GT employment. During that time, while he was a non-lawyer lobbyist in the DC office, I was a litigation partner in the Denver office focused on environmental law. We did not work together.

"After Abramoff was terminated from the firm, I was asked by the managing partner, Cesar Alvarez, to serve on the internal committee that proposed changes designed to help avoid future wrongdoing. At the time I was chairing the Colorado Board of Ethics, and I was selected because of my expertise on ethics issues.

"It has also been suggested that the fact that I worked for GT had something to do with the slow pace with which my Presidential nomination took place. The fact is, my background check took two months - standard for U.S. Attorneys.

"The reason for the hold-up in naming a new U.S. Attorney in Colorado had nothing to do with background checks or investigations, but with the politics of whittling down the list of the three finalists recommended and supported by Colorado's two U.S. Senators.

"At one point I publicly withdrew from the nomination process, which had dragged out too long, only to be asked to reconsider. My entire Senate confirmation process took less than two months, and the vote was unanimous.

"There is no greater professional honor than to serve as Colorado’s top federal law enforcement officer. I am very grateful to President Bush and the United States Senate – and especially to my colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado – for this high privilege."

As I mentioned in my previous post, Eid's claims of "but I didn't know Jack" fall flat, as Eid was involved in at least two lobbying cases with Team Abramoff, including Edward Ayoob, Stephanie Leger Short, Kevin Ring, Michael Smith, Pat Wilson, Shawn Vasell, Duane Gibson, Todd Boulanger and Neil Volz. Just because Jack Abramoff's name was not listed on the lobbying documents does not mean he wasn't involved - that was his inner circle at GT, and he had direct input into every client they took.

Eid claims that in the few months he and Abramoff overlapped at GT, he was merely a litigation lawyer working on environmental cases. Which, of course, explains his emailing Gale Norton regarding the Mashpee, as Italia Federici, head of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy assured us, working with Indians is as environmental as you can get. And the other Team Abramoff client which listed Eid as a lobbyist? From Wikipedia:

Convergys (NYSE: CVG) is a multi-national corporation that provides management consulting services, outsourced billing, customer care and employee care, and transaction management software. Most of its clients are companies in the communications, financial services, technology, and employee-care market.

Lots of environmental litigation going on there.

If what Eid means by "environmental" is helping El Paso Gas to undermine Navaho tribal sovereignty, then we're back to the Indian=environmentalist argument. I guess El Paso's other lobbyists in the rights-of-way battle on Indian lands, including former Interior Solicitor William Myers and former Assistant Attorney Generals of Environment and Natural Resources Tom Sansonetti and Kelley Johnson would also be considered "environmental" lobbyists.

Something is really fishy in all this, and clearly Eid is worried, if he's putting out press releases. Time to keep digging.