The Daily Background

In response to questions from a reader, I am publishing excerpts from the Department of Justice document dump released Monday night. In my March 19th article “Exclusive: Cunningham complained about Lam to Attorney General before he plead guilty,” I asserted that Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) had leaked an altered draft report on US Attorney Carol Lam’s record of prosecuting illegal immigration related cases.

Lam was later fired by the Department of Justice for supposedly failing to devote enough resources to prosecuting immigration-related cases, despite having received a job review from the DoJ which said she was “an effective manager and respected leader” who had drawn up “appropriate” strategic plans and district priorities.

In early March, Issa told a local San Diego paper that he accepted “maybe one twentieth” of the responsibility for gettng Lam fired.

Issa launched a press offensive against Lam shortly after she alerted the Department of Justice that she was continuing to investigate the corruption case which landed Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham in prison on an eight-year, four month sentence.

Congressman Issa, who sent a press releases to the media about Lam also appeared on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” to complain about Lam and leaked a draft report to the Associated Press, which Lam says was “altered” and mis-portrayed. The Associated Press published an article damaging to Lam on May 18 titled “Report says Border Patrol demoralized by lack of smuggling prosecutions.”

The officials in charge of the Border Patrol office the report supposedly originated from had never seen the report in question before it was leaked by Congressman Issa.

Emails released by the Department of Justice indicate officials were worried about the fallout specifically from the AP report because it was viewed as so potentially destructive, at a time when Congressional Republicans were making illegal immigration a major political issue. The AP article, coupled with the CNN coverage led to a flurry of emails back and forth within the Department of Justice between officials who were unsure how to react to the unexpected negative media coverage and whether or not to defend Lam.

In response to an inquiry from the DoJ about the flurry of negative media coverage, Lam sent a private briefing letter to Attorney General Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty telling them that Congressman Issa’s behavior was inappropriate and that he was misleading the media about her record. Lam’s entire letter, which flew around the DoJ rapidly and was forwarded to nearly 20 individuals, is reprinted below with relevant portions highlighted.

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