While Congress, press and bloggers have concentrated on the 8 (or maybe 9 if you count Minnesota) fired US Attorneys, it has always seemed to me that the really big story is that of the vast majority US Attorneys who were not fired and who, by their conduct, proved themselves to be “loyal Bushies.†What did the loyal Bushies do? Well, it appears that one answer seems to be emerging.
In Wisconsin, US Attorney Steven M Biskupic, a well-regarded career prosecutor was, it appears on the “to be fired†list. He was saved from life in the private sector at the last minute it appears. [1] Why do you think? What did he do, if anything, to demonstrate his loyalty? Did he, perhaps, indict a Democrat in a setting which threatened to change the course of an election?
Well, as it happens, he did. Biskupic caused a Grand Jury to indict Wisconsin state civil servant Georgia Thompson for a contract steering charge which seemed to implicate the state’s Democratic Governor Jim Doyle while the 2006 elections were going on. (The claim was that Thompson had awarded a contract for state employee travel to one agency because its owners were Doyle contributers.) Biskupic secured a conviction and, harshly, Thompson was imprisoned while her appeal was pending.
At oral argument, four months later, the appellate judges took the view that the case was (in the words of one of them) “beyond thin.†Instantly after oral argument, the US Court of Appeals took the extraordinary step of ordering the immediate release of Ms Thompson and directed an order a acquittal. (The order is here [2] and an audio file of oral argument is here [3] for those of you who want to know what appellate defense attorneys dream of).
The decision has gotten some notice from left legal writers such as this from Talk Left [4] and today’s NY Times sports an editorial comment by Adam Cohen [5].
The good news for Ms. Thompson is that she’s been offered her old job back and that the State of Wisconsin will pay her legal fees. For the rest of us is left the question, what else have the “loyal Bushies†done and to whom?
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