CREW never had much confidence in Special Counsel Scott Bloch.  Last April after Bloch announced plans to investigate the White House political operaition, Melanie Sloan said:

Having transformed OSC into a virtual black hole for legitimate complaints of retaliation, Bloch is decidedly not the right person to tackle the issues of misconduct and illegality that surround top White House officials. There is a serious question as to whether Bloch will just provide cover for an administration that has been covering for him.

Yesterday's Bloch's deputy, James Byrne, resigned.  Seems he shares some of CREW's concerns:

Byrne's reasons for quitting are outlined in a July 10 letter to Bloch. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

In it, Byrne writes that the Office of Special Counsel needs a leader who does not put political agendas and personal vendettas ahead of its mission and employees.

Obviously, the House Ethics Committee should grant Rep. Rangel's request for an investigation of his fundraising practices.  CREW's Melanie Sloan sees a violation of the rules:

"I will be calling for it to be expedited so that I can get on with my work," said Rangel, who has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference today to address the controversy.

Rangel has written letters on congressional stationery and has sought meetings to ask for corporate and foundation contributions for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York. Some of those he has approached have business interests before his committee, which has broad jurisdiction over tax and trade matters.

House ethics rules allow lawmakers to solicit money for certain kinds of nonprofit groups but bar the use of official resources, such as office equipment and supplies. They specifically ban the implied endorsement that accompanies use of congressional letterhead.

John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington separately called this week for the ethics committee to look into Rangel's fundraising.

"It totally violates the rule," Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group, said this week.

Today, CREW has released its newest study, Those Who Dared: 30 Who Stood Up for Our Country, recognizing the brave individuals who have acted and spoken out against unethical and dishonorable conduct in the Bush administration.  The full report can be found here.

The actions of those named in the report are as varied as the people themselves and cut across the federal government.  Some, like Glenn Fine at the Department of Justice and John Higgins at the Department of Education, are inspectors general who have been the only check on agency-wide corruption, misconduct and undue political influence. Others are included for a single act of courage, such as Army Specialist Joseph Darby who turned over to authorities the now infamous pictures of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib, and former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who rushed to Attorney General Ashcroft’s hospital bedside to prevent top White House officials from pressuring the Attorney General to approve an illegal surveillance program.

In creating the list, CREW reviewed hundreds of news articles, inspector general reports, and congressional reports, and considered the impact of each individual’s actions, the changes they wrought, and the risks they faced. 

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said:

As the Bush administration draws to a close, CREW commends those who stood up against the full weight of the federal government to do the right thing, risking their livelihoods and, in some cases, even their lives.  These individuals personify the American values of honesty and integrity.  Although some have already been recognized as heroes, others have been vilified for daring to say what no one else would. By publicly recognizing the courage of these people, CREW hopes others will be encouraged  to join the fight against government misconduct.

While CREW has tried to be comprehensive, there may well be inadvertent omissions. CREW will update Those Who Dared on-line as other individuals who exhibited the same level of integrity are identified.

Yesterday, CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Secret Service for records of all visits Stephen Payne made to the White House and residence of the vice president, following on the heels of a revelation by The London Times that Mr. Payne, a lobbyist and top Bush fundraiser, has attempted to sell access to top administration officials in exchange for contributions to the Bush library.  We know a thing or two about obtaining visitor records from the Bush administration.  CREW recently won a court victory in our lawsuit to obtain White House visitor records .

Interesting that Dana Perino already cited the ongoing litigation as a reason to deny access to Payne's visitor records.  That just doesn't make sense:

Rep. Rangel announced that his campaign is moving from an apartment in his building.  Controversy has arisen because the apartment is rent-stabilized and under NY law should be available as primary housing, not business:

Representative Charles B. Rangel has decided to move his campaign office out of one of four rent-stabilized apartments he leases in Harlem, his spokesman said on Monday.

Mr. Rangel has faced intense scrutiny since The New York Times reported last week that a developer had allowed him to lease rent-stabilized apartments in the Lenox Terrace luxury apartment complex at a time when some tenants are being evicted from such apartments around the city.

One of the units — a one-bedroom apartment that he paid for with money from his re-election fund and from a political action committee — had been used as a campaign office, despite city and state guidelines that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used solely as a primary residence. Because that apartment is rent-stabilized, Mr. Rangel paid $630 per month, while similar market-rate units in the building rent for $1,700 a month and higher.

In a fiery news conference on Friday, Mr. Rangel said he saw nothing improper with having three rent-stabilized apartments — all adjacent on the 16th floor — for his family’s residence, but said he would review the propriety of using the fourth apartment as an office.

Mr. Rangel’s spokesman said the congressman would not discuss details of his decision.

“Mr. Rangel has indicated that he is not willing to say any more,” the spokesman, Emile Milne, said.

Via The Houston Chronicle, we learn that House Government Reform Chair Henry Waxman wil investigate the report that Bush pioneer Stephen Payne offered meetings with top Bush administration officials in exchange for contributions to the Bush Library:

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, informed Payne late Monday that his panel would look into the report.

"If true, this raises serious concerns about the ways in which foreign interests might be secretly influencing large donations to the library," Waxman wrote in the letter to Payne.

Melanie Sloan provided some perspective to the Chronicle:

Even so, as as result of The Sunday Times report, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group, fired off a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking him to look into whether Payne violated federal laws that bar soliciting contributions in return for influencing government officials.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said that "it is not permissible to sell meetings with Bush administration officials."

Sloan also said that it is unlikely that Payne would have made the pitch without approval from others close to or within the administration.

"He wouldn't get paid that way if he couldn't deliver," she said.

Today, CREW sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking for an investigation into whether lobbyist Stephen Payne violated any criminal laws by offering to arrange meetings with top administration officials in return for a contribution to the Bush library and a substantial commission for serving as a go-between, and whether any administration officials broke the law by participating in a scheme to sell meetings for contributions.  The letter to DOJ can be found here.

The Times of London has reported that a Times investigator asked Mr. Payne to arrange meetings in Washington for an exiled former central Asian president. Mr. Payne can be seen on videotape saying that such meetings can be arranged for “somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush library.” The balance would go to Mr. Payne’s lobbying firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners. When asked which officials might be available to meet for that price, Mr. Payne replied, “Cheney’s possible, definitely the national security adviser [Stephen Hadley], definitely either Dr. Rice or . . . I think a meeting with Dr. Rice or the deputy secretary [John Negroponte] is possible . . .”

Mr. Payne is a top Bush donor who raised more than $100,000 for the 2000 presidential election and another $200,000 for the president’s 2004 re-election campaign. He is also a member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council and has accompanied President Bush and Vice President Cheney on foreign trips.

Federal law prohibits public officials from directly or indirectly demanding, seeking, receiving, accepting, or agreeing to receive or accept anything of value in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act. If Mr. Payne was authorized by any member of the Bush administration to trade meetings with top level officials in return for financial contributions to the Bush library, those officials may have violated the bribery statute. Similarly, by offering to serve as a conduit to deliver contributions to the Bush library in exchange for meetings with administration officials, Mr. Payne may have violated federal law.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today:

It is clear from this week’s reporting that Mr. Payne is attempting to capitalize on his relationship with the President of the United States in a way that suggests United States foreign policy may be for sale to the highest bidder. Although the White House has denied any connection between official administration action and contributions to the library, considering Mr. Payne’s close ties to the White House, this simply is not credible. The Justice Department should immediately investigate if this administration is complicit in this or other contribution-for-meeting schemes with Mr. Payne.

We had a major victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday.  Here's a sampling from the major news outlets:

NY Times: Setback for White House on Visitor Logs:

The Bush administration was dealt a setback on Friday in its efforts to keep records of White House visitors under wraps when an appeals court refused to throw out a lawsuit seeking access to the material.

Washington Post: Court Chips Away at White House Secrecy

A federal appeals court dealt a blow yesterday to White House efforts to keep secret the names of people who visited Vice President Cheney.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the White House had prematurely appealed a decision by a federal judge last year that visitor logs are public records.

Associated Press (reprinted in over 75 publications): Court tosses White House appeal on visitor logs

A federal appeals court on Friday set back the White House's efforts to keep the names of its visitors secret.

The Washington court threw out the government's appeal in the case in which a watchdog group is trying to find out how often prominent religious conservatives visited the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence.

Today, CREW successfully moved ahead in its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for public access to Secret Service records of top conservative religious leaders who have visited the White House. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision in CREW v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security, dismissing the government’s appeal.

After learning of the decision, CREW's chief counsel Anne Weismann said:

We are pleased that the D.C. Circuit is requiring the government to provide these Secret Service records that the White House has been trying to hide from the public. The American people are entitled to know who has been influencing the White House.

Anne is right, of course.   

Basically, the district court rejected the Bush administration’s argument that the records belong to the president, not the Secret Service, and are therefore not subject to the FOIA. Today’s opinion holds that the court does not have jurisdiction to resolve the government’s appeal because the district court has not ordered the government to release any records, simply to process CREW’s request.

The D.C. Circuit also resoundingly rejected the White House’s argument that requiring the government to process the request and invoke exemptions would place a constitutionally impermissible burden on the president or vice president. The court found that CREW’s request is “narrowly drawn” and that requiring the administration to rely on the FOIA’s exemptions to protect claims of executive privilege “is a routine occurrence, not a uniquely intrusive burden.” As a result of the court’s ruling, the Secret Service will now have to process CREW’s request.

Another prominent Alaska public official was indicted yesterday.  Alaska has been a hot bed of corruption and federal investigations, which is why the Anchorage Daily News wonders who is next?

The indictment of state Sen. John Cowdery culminates another investigation of a public official targeted in federal raids, subpoenas and wiretaps in Alaska over the last two years.

But what of the far more powerful and prominent elected officials also in the sights of the FBI, IRS and other federal agencies, men like U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, his son Ben, and U.S. Rep. Don Young?

Ben Stevens, the former Alaska Senate president, was probably the best known among those whose legislative offices were searched in a series of raids on Aug. 31, 2006. Nearly a year later, the FBI and IRS searched Ted Stevens' home in Girdwood, in part to document an extensive addition built by Veco Corp. employees and contractors. Young is also under investigation for his ties to Veco and for an earmark he sponsored for a Florida highway interchange sought by a key campaign contributor.

Ben and Ted Stevens and Young say they have done nothing wrong, and federal prosecutors and agents won't say where their investigations are going or when they might get there.