Judicial 'Memogate' Extends to Kerry Campaign, Report Claims

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 4/08/04 | Robert B. Bluey

[kattracks]

(CNSNews.com) - The campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is being linked to the Senate Judiciary Committee's "Memogate" controversy, which involves alleged Democratic efforts to delay the confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees.

Mary Beth Cahill, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), left her Senate job last November to become Kerry's campaign manager. But in April 2002 when Cahill worked for Kennedy, her name was attached to a controversial memo spelling out a plan to delay the confirmation of Julia Smith Gibbons to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Washington Times reported Thursday.

Cahill was reportedly one of five Kennedy aides carbon copied on the April 17, 2002, memo, which recommended Kennedy delay Gibbons' confirmation process to influence an affirmative action case pending before the 6th Circuit.

The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF), which has pursued a Senate investigation into the matter, called for Cahill's resignation Thursday if she was in any way involved with the plot.

"John Kerry, as the standard bearer of his party seeking the highest and most respected office in the land, has an obligation to the American people to reveal Cahill's involvement in this matter," said Jeffrey Mazzella, executive director of CFIF.

Kerry's campaign spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, did not return a call seeking comment.

At issue in the Gibbons' memo is whether Kennedy's former Judiciary Committee attorney, Olati Johnson, inappropriately asked the senator to delay Gibbons' confirmation hearing in order to prevent her from joining the 6th Circuit in time to rule on the affirmative action case.

Prior to joining Kennedy's office, Johnson had worked as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which was a defendant-intervenor in the affirmative action case involving the University of Michigan and before the 6th Circuit Court.

Johnson wrote the memo after receiving the request from Elaine R. Jones, her former boss at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, according to CFIF. Kennedy's chief counsel, Melody Barnes, also allegedly approved the memo, CFIF reported.

At the time the memo was written on April 17, 2002, the affirmative action case was pending before the court. But by the time Gibbons was confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2002, the appeals court had already issued its ruling.

A copy of the controversial memo is posted on CFIF's website. But the Washington Times obtained a second page that listed the people to whom it was carbon copied.

In a story that ran in Thursday's paper, Times writer Charles Hurt reported that one of the five Kennedy aides who received the memo was named "Mary Beth." According to Senate financial records, Hurt reported, the only "Mary Beth" on Kennedy's staff at that time was Cahill.

Kennedy and his aides have tried to dismiss the issue. At a Wednesday press conference, when CNSNews.com asked the senator about the memo, Kennedy was quickly escorted from the room by his staff.

"No. I'm not gonna, uh, re, uh," Kennedy muttered.

Hurt cornered the senator as he made his way back to his office, but Kennedy shifted the topic away from the alleged conspiracy to block Gibbons' confirmation and toward allegations that Republican staff members on the Senate Judiciary Committee had read Democratic strategy memos.

"I am so troubled, as other members of the Judiciary are, in the fact that Republican staffers would burglarize this confidential material in the Judiciary Committee. ... We can't have staffers - in this case, Republican staffers - believing they can basically commit criminal crimes in order to advance a political agenda," Kennedy said, according to the Times.

Mazzella said the revelation that Kennedy's aides recommended delaying a confirmation hearing solely to influence the court's decision should trigger a Senate Ethics Committee investigation.

"This scandal is quickly evolving into one of the most egregious in the history of the United States Senate," Mazzella said. "Given Senator Kennedy's active involvement in the Kerry campaign and Cahill's knowledge and possible involvement in 'Memogate,' Kerry should immediately and publicly address this issue."

Mazzella added, "What was yesterday a dark cloud of corruption hanging over Senator Kennedy's office is today raining on John Kerry's campaign."

See Earlier Story:
Kennedy Dodges Questions on Judicial 'Memogate' (April 7, 2004)

E-mail a news tip to Robert B. Bluey.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.

[deport]

Has this or will this get publicized in the main stream press? Bet it doesn't make much of a wave much less a ripple.

[Sal]

I got this mental picture of a team of handlers grouped around him, all of them with little brandy barrels around their necks.

[Mo1]

One currently is working for Kerry, and the other is on the short list.

As in VP?

[Cold Heat]

As in VP?

Don't know, when asked about it she reportedly only grinned?????????

[Kryptonite]

Gorelick is angling for Attorney General.

[Kryptonite]

She was a deputy AG for Klintoon, before joining Fannie Mae and then quitting amid the scandal.

[Kryptonite]

What did Cahill know and when did she know it?

[baseballmom]

Something had to give, and it was the FBI. On Aug. 22, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick summoned the FBI's Jim Kallstrom to Washington for a come to Jesus meeting.

Jamie Gorelick has NO business on that commission., she has been an obstructionist hack for some time. Check out this link concerning TWA #800. I absolutely believe the Clinton admin covered this up, and the OCK bombing too. They were both terrorists attacks on our country.

How Richard Clarke concocted the TWA 800 'exit strategy' ... and why

[baseballmom]

D'oh, that would be OKC bombing.

[pointsal]

Don't worry. Our FEMA-minded press corps will turn this into another right-wing plot.

[Mo1]

Ok .. thank makes sense

Thanks for the info

[Lady Jag]

[mabelkitty]

So why are the Dems so worried about the judicial system - they have corrupt Senators keeping the system humming along with illegal activities.

[MamaLucci]

I have to wonder if it isn't the knowledge that President Bush KNOWS about the TWA and OKC coverups, that has the entire democrat apparatus hysterical, much as the corruption at the UN coming to light has the socialist global village in an uproar.

[MizSterious]

" Does this mean Kerry will be having surgery on his other shoulder next week?"

Could be. Maybe they should try to do an integrity transplant while they have him open. He could use one.

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[BlessedByLiberty]

WOW!

On the radio this morning they played a clip of Kerry extolling the Clinton economy, threby hooking his campaign to the Legacy d'Clinton. Let's see the Kerry campaign hires an operative who has helped block the judicial process - yes he's going to follow the Clinton "respect for or adherence the law is not for we elites" policy.

Gleeful sigh!

[Sacajaweau]

btt

[Terry Mross]

Republicans: "You democrats broke the law!"
Democrats: "You have no right to know that!"
Republicans: "We're sorry."

[SevenDaysInMay]

I heard Hatch's cowardly comments on Snow's radio show yesterday. Hatch is too c.s. to even read the extant memo.

Senator Chappaquiddick should be up on all appropriate charges while cheating Teddy is condemned at every media opportunity by lawful office holders.

IMO, TMK should be prosecuted using any/all possible federal and state criminal/civil statutes.

Hatch should resign.

When the Senate fixed Bill Clinton's trial, we learned that fascism is thriving in America. The Clintonazis' DNC-Politburo is corrupting every lever of power across our once Constitutional Republic.

IMO, our nation and our culture as we know it is at THE fork in the road.

Can the souls of 40 + million aborted children help us make the right decision?

We can take one direction and prosecute our own massive corruptions while fighting evil islamists to their deaths or take the childish way out covering ourselves with elites' smarmy internationalist criminally corrupt socialism as under the Clintonazis - only to be destroyed by nuclear wielding islam as it continues its world conquest as commanded by their koran.

America shall not have a magic carpet ride in our future.