Griffin, Tim Rep Ag

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creature of rove, bailled house 2014, now lt gov ark, set up for gov/pres run? AG 2022

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To boost Trump, GOP attorneys general charge into battle over state election rules

Zachary Roth

March 18, 2024

A loose coalition of Republican-led states, often led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, shown above, has advanced a string of arguments that appear designed to lay the groundwork for GOP legal victories in the event of a contested presidential vote. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)

With less than six months before voting begins, the legal jousting over the rules for the 2024 election is already underway. And former President Donald Trump’s campaign is getting support from allies who have stayed mostly under the national radar: red-state attorneys general.

In court filings made in recent months, these chief state legal officers have advanced a string of arguments — some strikingly far-reaching — that appear designed to lay the groundwork for Republican legal victories in the event of a contested presidential vote, or to otherwise boost Trump and the GOP.

Often led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a loose coalition of Republican-led states has submitted briefs urging judges to:

Throw out certain mail ballots,

Weaken long-standing protections against racial discrimination in voting,

Green-light gerrymandered district maps,

And empower partisan state legislatures, rather than courts, to set election rules.

“These are all setting up an argument, potentially, to say that the 2024 election was flawed because of all these state practices that are questionable,” said Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee who has written in depth on the role of state AGs. “The AGs just have been critical in pushing these arguments.”

Marshall’s office did not respond to a request to comment for this story. But last month Marshall also led a coalition of red states in submitting an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to pause Trump’s election subversion trial tied to the events of Jan. 6, 2021 — a stance that aligned the group perfectly with the interests of the Trump campaign.

And in 2020, many of these same state AGs, including Marshall, sought to have the courts overturn Trump’s election loss.

An election decided in the courts?

The danger of outright election subversion this year appears to have receded somewhat, election law experts have said, thanks to important federal legislation and the results of the last midterms. But the chances that the election will be contested, and ultimately settled in the courts, remain very high.

In that scenario, advocates and experts say, these Republican AGs look well-placed to provide the kinds of conservative legal arguments that could prove pivotal, both by directly influencing court decisions and by infiltrating the broader public debate.

But many of these claims, democracy advocates warn — especially those that support new voting restrictions, reduce the power of minority voters, or undermine courts’ authority to set election rules — could threaten fair elections.

“A huge part of the overall anti-democracy movement is really based on continuing to find ways to use legal tactics as a jumping-off point to spread the election denier message,” said Lizzie Ulmer, senior vice president of strategy and communications for States United Democracy Center, a pro-democracy group.

“There are good and pro-democracy state AGs on both sides of the aisle. But the truth is there are AGs in office right now that have the potential to do real harm. And we’ve seen that in the past and we’re seeing it today.”

Growing politicization

The involvement of the Republican AGs in elections cases with national stakes marks the latest step in a decades-long trend toward AGs taking on more politicized roles.

In less polarized times, experts say, state AGs mostly presented as apolitical prosecutors, and frequently teamed up across party lines to tackle issues of public concern.

That began to shift in earnest during the George W. Bush administration, when Democratic AGs used a series of splashy lawsuits against Wall Street firms and corporate polluters, among others, to advance national policy and political goals — and to boost their own national profiles.

But in the Trump era, the shift has intensified. Several close observers said a key moment came in 2017, when Republicans sought to oust then-Virginia AG Mark Herring, a Democrat — ending a long-standing custom in which neither party spent money targeting incumbent AGs of the other party. Herring ultimately won re-election, but that cycle saw record campaign spending on AG races.

In Republican-led states, the politicization of AG offices reached its height around the 2020 election, centered around the Republican Attorneys General Association, an advocacy group for Republican AGs. In the leadup to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the group’s fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent robocalls urging people to gather for a march to the U.S. Capitol to “stop the steal” and “protect the integrity of our elections.”

Marshall, the Alabama AG, served as chair of RLDF at the time, and has said he was unaware of the robocalls. He has declined to say whether RAGA or RLDF staff were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and his office has denied public records requests by the Alabama Political Reporter for his calendars covering the period.

Along with other Republican AGs, Marshall sought to cast doubt on the 2020 election results, telling Newsmax not long after the vote: “We obviously have concerns about some of the issues, specifically of irregularities and fraud in other places.”

On Dec. 10, 2020, Marshall and other Republican AGs joined Trump for a meeting at the White House. A day earlier, Marshall had announced that Alabama would join a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to overturn the results in Pennsylvania and three other states narrowly won by Joe Biden. Seventeen Republican-led states ultimately signed on to the Texas case.

Idaho AG disagreed

One state that didn’t join the suit was Idaho, whose AG at the time, Republican Lawrence Wasden, saw the Texas lawsuit as an improper attempt to use the AG’s office to make policy — and to interfere in other states’ business.

“The policy-making function under both the state and federal constitutions is clearly put in the hands of the legislative branch of government,” Wasden told States Newsroom. “The AG is an executive officer, and does not have those powers. That’s not how we should make public policy.”

After 20 years in office, Wasden lost his 2022 re-election bid in the Republican primary to former U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador — a defeat Wasden attributes to GOP voter anger at his decision not to join the Texas case. But he hasn’t wavered in his view that it was the right call.

“If Texas can control or influence the outcome of the election in Pennsylvania, then California can influence the election in Idaho,” Wasden said. “And that is not how federalism works.”

Labrador was elected attorney general later that year, and has signed Idaho on to several of the elections cases brought by Republican AGs.

As for Marshall, in 2021, he withdrew Alabama from the bipartisan National Association of Attorneys General, saying the group had “moved too far to the left.” The next year, Texas, Missouri, and Montana followed suit.

In 2022, Marshall declined to say, when asked under oath while testifying before Congress, that Biden was “duly elected,” answering only that “he is the president of this country.”

Months later, Marshall was elected chair of RAGA. Now, he’s leading the charge among Republican AGs on election cases with an eye on 2024.

Weakening voting protections

Marshall has battled on behalf of strict voting laws in his own state.

His office energetically, and successfully, fought off a 2020 court challenge to an Alabama law that bars people with past convictions from casting a ballot. In that year’s election, he also succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to block an effort to allow curbside voting, which voting advocates said could offer easier access for elderly and disabled voters .

But it’s Marshall’s work on behalf of Republicans looking to influence election rules far beyond the Yellowhammer State that could have an even greater impact.

In January, Marshall led a coalition of 17 red states that submitted an amicus brief supporting a bid by national Republicans to require Pennsylvania to reject mail ballots with incorrect or missing dates.

In Pennsylvania’s 2020 election, there were over 10,000 such ballots, and how the case is resolved could help determine the winner of this pivotal swing state, if the result is very close. Democrats have voted by mail at significantly higher rates than Republicans in recent elections.

But the impact could be broader still. A district court found last year that the missing or incorrect dates are irrelevant to establishing a vote’s legitimacy.

That means, the court ruled, that under the materiality provision of civil rights law — first included in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, then extended to cover non-federal elections in the Voting Rights Act the following year — a missing or incorrect date can’t be used as a reason to reject a vote.

In their brief, Alabama and the other states called the district court’s ruling “seriously misguided.”

They argued that the materiality provision should be read more narrowly, and doesn’t bar states from imposing reasonable ballot integrity measures. And, they claimed, the provision contains no “private right of action,” meaning it can be enforced only by the U.S. Justice Department, not by the civil rights groups involved in the Pennsylvania case.

By itself, making the materiality provision harder to use would likely have only a limited impact, since it hasn’t been among the tools most commonly used to protect voting rights, noted Cameron Kistler, counsel at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan democracy advocacy group.

But, he said, it comes in the context of other ongoing conservative legal attacks on voting protections — including attempts to weaken the Voting Rights Act, and suggestions by the Supreme Court that it may lower the level of scrutiny it applies to voting laws that are accused of harming voters.

“The tools that you’d use to ensure free and fair elections are slowly being pulled away,” said Kistler. “When you take them all together, that’s when it starts to get really problematic.”

Voting Rights Act

As if to prove the point, a separate amicus brief submitted in December by Marshall’s office argued that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — the law’s most important plank, since the Supreme Court neutered Section 5 a decade ago — also contains no private right of action.

Marshall and his allies were urging a federal appeals court to reverse a ruling striking down Louisiana’s congressional map as a racial gerrymander under Section 2.

The notion that Section 2 contains no private right of action had until recently been seen by many advocates as outlandish. But a federal judge endorsed it in a separate 2022 case involving an Arkansas redistricting plan, brought by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, who has signed his state on to several of Marshall’s amicus briefs. That decision was upheld on appeal in December.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)

The issue is likely to come before the Supreme Court. A ruling for Arkansas could dramatically limit the power of the VRA to stop racial discrimination in voting.

Separately, Marshall has sought to defend Alabama’s own redistricting plan. In arguing that the state should not have to draw a new map with an additional majority-Black district, his office adopted an interpretation of the VRA that, experts said, would have made it all but impossible to use for stopping racial gerrymanders.

Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a prominent election law scholar at Harvard Law School, has called Alabama’s approach to the question “directly contrary to 40 years of precedent.”

The claim was too extreme even for the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which ultimately ordered Alabama to create a new map.

In response, Marshall signaled an agenda that went well beyond Alabama.

“There should be nothing more offensive to the people of our great state than to be sidelined in 2023 by a view of Alabama that is stuck in 1963,” he said in a statement. “This racial agenda is pressed by left-wing activists, not just in Alabama, but in any Republican state where it might advantage Democrats.”

And he compared the ruling, which aimed to empower Black voters, with Jim Crow.

“If this brazen and divisive commandeering is permitted without even a whisper of concern from other quarters, America’s congressional elections as we know them will never be the same,” Marshall continued. “We will be grouped together by race alone, with counties and cities split down the middle—the same way that we were so wrongfully segregated once before.”

Marshall also led a coalition of 18 GOP-led states that filed a 2021 amicus brief supporting Arizona’s defense of a law requiring voters who don’t sign their mail ballots to do so by 7 p.m. on election night.

The issue may seem minor, but Marshall’s brief invoked a far more fundamental question, arguing that state legislatures, not the courts, are in charge of setting election rules.

“The U.S. Constitution is unambiguous about the right of state legislatures to determine the manner of holding elections within their respective states,” wrote Marshall. “Accordingly, state legislatures, not federal courts, are vested with the legal authority to determine state election laws. Court attempts to micromanage election laws duly passed by state legislatures conflict with our constitutional structure and legal precedent.”

When North Carolina brought a version of this claim — known as the Independent State Legislature Theory — to the Supreme Court last year, experts warned that it could radically reshape election law, giving partisan state lawmakers almost unfettered power to make the rules. The Justices ultimately rejected the argument.

Why AGs enjoy influence

Advocates say it’s difficult to assess whether, and to what extent, courts are swayed by amicus briefs. But, they add, the role of state AGs as their state’s chief legal officer gives their claims an invaluable sheen of authority.

“State AGs are taken seriously because of the governmental role they play, in a way that parties, who do not have a governmental role, typically are not,” said Dax Goldstein, a senior counsel at States United Democracy Center. “So there’s a real difference between a sitting AG filing a brief and (Donald Trump lawyer) John Eastman filing a brief.”

In addition, since a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in a case where a group of states led by Massachusetts sued the George W. Bush administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, states have enjoyed more power than individual plaintiffs to bring lawsuits on public policy issues.

“States have a greater ability to bring legal challenges than private citizens do,” said Kistler. “So when you have these super active state officials with a greater ability to bring cases than private parties and a judiciary that’s willing to entertain the cases, it makes a difference.”

Nolette, the Marquette political scientist, noted that if the AGs’ series of briefs in election cases appear coordinated, it’s no accident.

“There’s a lot of strategy that goes into planning these far-reaching arguments,” Nolette said, adding that AGs of both parties use their partisan organizations — the Republican Attorney Generals Association, and the Democratic Attorney Generals Association — to align their efforts and figure out the venues where they might have the most chance of success.

“It’s almost like buying a lottery ticket, trying to boost the chances of those arguments taking hold somewhere,” Nolette continued. “And once they get one district court judge to agree with it, then it moves them to a different state of respectability. It’s like, well, a federal judge has agreed with us, so this is a legitimate argument, even if it was considered totally out there in previous years.”

Ralph Chapoco contributed to this report.

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ggl 7 26

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Attorney General: Matter of public interest that independence of decision-makers is protected For full story see the link in the comments below

:{Click Here for the Full CSGOPOTD Archive:(style="font-weight:700"):}:

Running for an open Democratic seat, Tim Griffin defeated progressive champion Joyce Elliottto win the election to represent Arkansas’s second district.

Tim Griffin worked on the two George W. Bush presidential campaigns and was the RNC’s chief opposition researcher during John McCain’s 2008 campaign . In 2000, he saidof his opposition research department: “We think of ourselves as the creators of the ammunition in a war…. We make the bullets.” Conservative columnist Robert Novak calledGriffin “a protégé of Karl Rove, who is a leading practitioner of opposition research — the digging up of derogatory information about political opponents.”

Hereceived notoriety in 2004 for his work to advance the false smears propagated by the discredited group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Griffin again came into controversy when President Bush appointed him U.S. Attorney as part of his ongoing efforts to politicize the Department of Justice. “In December 2006, U.S. Attorney Bud Cummings was fired from his district in Northeast Arkansas and replaced with Tim Griffin,” writes investigative journalist Shannyn Moore. In hiring Griffin and other U.S. Attorneys, the Bush Administration used of the USA Patriot Act to avoid confirmation hearings and votes by the U.S. Senate. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNaulty later testified that “Cummings was fired to make a place for Griffin at the urging of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers,” the former White House Counsel. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s Chief of Staff that “getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”

Paul Charlton, who was also ousted in the Bush Administration’s purge of U.S. Attorneys, said that Griffin “spread the rumors around the White House that Bud Cummings was not a good U.S. Attorney” in order to get him fired. Another U.S. Attorney who was pushed out during the purge, David Iglesias, maintainsthat Tim Griffin “never should have been U.S. Attorney, he was fundamentally unqualified.”

When defending Griffin’s nomination, the Bush Administration used misleading talking points that significantly exaggerated his experience as a prosecutor.

Griffin continued his deeply political work while serving as a U.S. Attorney, but was forced to resign in 2007 when he was caught in a “vote caging” operation to prevent minorities from voting. TheBBC uncovered emails sent by Griffin during the 2004 campaign which included ‘caging lists‘ to bar typically marginalized groups voting, and Griffin’s “caging lists were heavily weighted with minority voters including homeless individuals, students and soldiers sent overseas.”

Iglesias said that Griffin’s management of the vote caging maneuvers represented “reprehensible conduct and it may be illegal.” As a result of his disreputable background, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) rated him one of the “most corrupt” candidates for Congress.

When he was not working in the Bush Administration or for GOP campaigns, Griffin was a high-paid consultant and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars while working for “lobbying and consulting firms on shadowy causes,” including the corporate astro-turf campaign that was fighting Alaska’s Clean Water Initiative.

Throughout his congressional campaign, Griffin closely followed the Karl Rove-playbook of appealing to both corporate interests and the Religious Right. Griffin wants to repealhealth care reform and once supportedthe elimination of corporate taxes in favor of a regressive national sales tax. At a candidate forum, he even went out of his way to laud the state’s relatively low wages for workers and anti-union laws.

An opponent of equal rights and a woman’s right to choose, Griffina constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that employers should be allowed to fire their employees due to their sexual orientation, and has pledged to protect the discriminatory Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). The fervently anti-choice group Americans United for Life Action boosting Griffin and criticizing his opponent, saying that she does not care about “the life of an innocent child.”

After a long career of dirty tricks, corporate astro-turfing, and Rovian politics, Griffin is a of the Republican leadership and set to become a star member of the GOP’s freshman class.

AG "escalator" made his bones on Oppo research?

rove scams in AG, house 2010 TP takeover, tried for lt gov ark 2014 lost? has it now 2016 but rev dr purple strats

Mercury Public Affairs? (also peddles as bi-partisan but dems are minor?)

gov asa h backpedals madly on reig free bill //indiana/ walmart

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/karl-rove-sarah-palin-tim_b_175557.html

...

Old bumper stickers asked, “If we call it ‘tourist season’ can we shoot ‘em?” The ‘visitor’ who captured my interest is Tim Griffin. In an interview last month published in a small Arkansas weekly, Mr. Griffin claimed to have come to Alaska “more than 20 times last year.”

Who is Tim Griffin? Why was he here? Prepare for less than savory answers.

From September 1995 to January 1997, Griffin worked with Special Prosecutor David Barrett in his investigation of Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of HUD. For two years after that, he was Senior Investigative Counsel for the House Committee on Government Reform. During his time there, the committee was very active. They issued 1,052 dead-end subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton Administration and the Democratic Party. The cost to taxpayers? More than $35 million.

In September 1999, he became Deputy Research Director for the RNC — special ops for George W. Bush’s campaign. Griffin was a legal advisor working closely with Attorney Ben Ginsberg of Patton Boggs, LLP for the Bush-Cheney 2000 Florida Recount Team. In a BBC documentary, Digging the Dirt, Griffin stood next to a sign reading “ON MY COMMAND — UNLEASH HELL (ON AL),” and stated, “We think of ourselves as the creators of the ammunition in a war,” he said. “We make the bullets.”

From March 2001 through June 2002, he was Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff. In 2004, Griffin was a key player and reunited with Attorney Ben Ginsberg in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against John Kerry. Ginsberg resigned from his position with George W. Bush’s re-election campaign after his Swift Boat involvement became public. Griffin began serving as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs at the White House in April 2005. His duty was “organizing and coordinating political support for the confirmation of Judge John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

For a year, beginning in September 2005, Tim Griffin was on military leave from the White House. He served as a prosecutor for Judge Advocate General (better known as JAG) and then went to Iraq. He claimed to have prosecuted 40 cases. Among those was a case allegedly against a soldier gone berserk on his commander. Griffin claimed he put the soldier in the clink for 25 years. The truth is, Griffin served only as assistant trial counsel to three cases that never went to trial. Apparently, Tim Griffin’s tall tales were training for those he might later tell in Alaska over a beer in some local bar.

In 2006, due to a little known provision in the USA PATRIOT Act, George W. Bush & Company fired a handful of US Attorneys and replaced them without Senate confirmation. In December 2006, US Attorney Bud Cummings was fired from his district in Northeast Arkansas and replaced with Tim Griffin. In February 2007, Paul McNaulty, Deputy Attorney General, testified Cummings was fired to make a place for Griffin at the urging of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, further cementing Griffin’s cozy relationship with the Bush administration.

On May 30, 2007, investigative journalist, BBC Correspondent and best selling author, Greg Palast, turned over 500 emails to House Judiciary Committee ChairmanJohn Conyers. The emails were inadvertently sent to the wrong email address during the 2004 campaign. Those wrongly addressed emails revealed the caging of over 70,000 voters in Florida. The targets of registration scrubbing were Black soldiers and poor Black and Hispanic citizens. Disenfranchising voters based on race has been a felony since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Palast’s information had been published for nearly 2 years, but on the day it went to Washington, Tim Griffin resigned from his Rovian created job as US Attorney in Arkansas.

Except for short stints working for the presidential campaigns of Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson, Tim Griffin was off the radar. Until, of course, he showed up in Alaska, which brings me back to my question: Why would Tim Griffin come to Alaska over 20 times last year?

Attached to my email was a news article from the Northwest Arkansas News Source dated February 22, 2009.

...

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2015/01/20/tim-griffin-cashes-in-with-consulting-job

Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin shared first with Michael Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette yesterday the expected news that he'd cash in on his congressional service as so many others have done and go to work for a high-powered political outfit whose subsidiaries include a lobbying firm.

Griffin came equipped with a legal opinion that no state law prevented Griffin from going to work, at an unspecified rate, for a consulting firm. Of course. (CORRECTION: I wrote in error originally that there perhaps was a way for a lieutenant governor to lobby in the state. There is a specific statutory prohibition on that, though it's unclear if it applies only to state lobbying, rather than federal lobbying.)

Federal law prohibits a congressman from immediately becoming a lobbyist, though in time,the roll is long of those who do. In the meantime, he's doing what the likes ofMike Ross, Tim Hutchinson, Blanche Lincolnand many others have done. Take a "strategic communications" or "governmental affairs" or "consulting" job. If the work doesn't technically fit the definition of lobbying, be sure that the aim is the same. It's to take congressional time, experience and contacts and put them to work to advance the interests of major corporate clients who can better support the Griffin family than taxpayers.

Griffin has always been a political creature. He holds a law degree, but his time in actual nuts-and-bolts legal work has been scant. He spent most of his early working years as a political hit man for the Republican Party, including the Rove White House. He's done "consulting" work previously, including on behalf of major polluters hoping to exploit Alaskan natural resources.

The lipstick put on this pig of a consulting gig by a friendly legal opinion doesn't make it any more or less than what it is — selling his congressional service to the influence-peddling industry.

Take a ganderat the long list of otherswho've gone down this path.

Griffin said his "consulting" work won't conflict with his public job. No, because there's nothing to do in the job. It does give his corporate clients a man with a phone and office right inside the Capitol dome, however. Convenient. He must use his cell phone to handle calls, though, not a state phone line. And maybe step out in the hall.

His paymaster isPurple Strategies of Alexandria, Va. He's described in the D-G as "an Arkansas-based senior adviser for communications and growth strategies for business clients." He said he's going to help big clients like BP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "solve complex problems" and "grow and compete." The firm was founded by a Republican and a Democratic strategist to pull clients from both ends of the political spectrum. Griffin falls on the end of founder Alex Castellanos, who was media man for George W. Bush when Griffin worked in Bush's war room.

Nominally, House members must wait a year to become full-fledged lobbyists and senators two years. But dozens have slid seamlessly into jobs that, to the naked eye, seem remarkably similar. USA Today wrote in 2013, the last time it tallied the "revolving door" syndrome:

Sixteen lawmakers who left Congress recently have landed posts with groups that seek to influence policy — despite rules aimed at slowing the revolving door between Capitol Hill and lobbying firms, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

Former House members are barred from lobbying their former colleagues for a year; and former senators, for two years. There are no restrictions, however, on providing behind-the-scenes advice to corporations and others seeking to shape federal legislation.

Griffin said if any conflicts arise he'll consult the Ethics Commission and his lawyer and recuse if necessary. If he'd just vow not to come to work at all, everything would be copacetic. The state got by without Mark Darr for a year, none the worse for the wear.

Griffin should let a reporter spend a week with him on his consulting job to get a better idea of specifically what it entails. Nothing to hide, right?

Same challenge for former Rep. John Burris, who's also hit the Capitol revolving door to become a "consultant." Please don't call him a lobbyist. That wouldn't be legal.

UPDATE: I asked Griffin's office for a copy of the legal opinion he received. I got this response from his chief of staff, Annamarie Atwood:

The opinion was not done in Lieutenant Governor Griffin’s official capacity, but I will pass along this request to him.

I hope he provides it, in the interest of transparency, since it has a direct bearing on his taxpayer-financed job. In the past, Griffin has rarely responded to questions from press critics.

UPDATE II: I take it all back. Griffin promptly responded to my request for a copy of his attorney's ethical advice.

Here's that memo from Jane Duke.

:{04.02.15 | Griffin: ‘Good Government’ Amendment Now Goes to Voters

Says, will ‘continue to advocate’ for this ‘common sense reform’

LITTLE ROCK –Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffintoday issued the following statement after the legislature approved Sen. Eddie Williams’ (R-Cabot) proposed constitutional amendment, Senate Joint …

===

wiki

2014 election

Main article: Arkansas elections, 2014

Griffin was the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas in the 2014 elections. He defeated two Republican challengers in the primary election, both outgoing members of the Arkansas House of Representatives,Andy Mayberryand Debra Hobbs, taking 63.4% of the vote to Mayberry's 20.6% and Hobbs' 16%.^[33]

In the general election on Nov. 4, 2014, Griffin defeated in the lieutenant governor's race the Democrat John Burkhalter, the former chairman of both the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, a post once held by later Republican Governors Winthrop Rockefeller and Frank D. White, and the Arkansas Highway Commission. In the last week of the campaign, news broke that Burkhalter as a young man had worked many temporary jobs, including that of a male stripper in Little Rock using the designation "Metro Express". Burkhalter is since the owner of a piping company, with a wife and two daughters, both involved in competitive dance.^[34]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2010

On September 21, 2009, Griffin announced that he was running for Congress, to replace Democrat Vic Snyder who stepped down after 14 years in Congress.^[26] He defeated the Democratic nominee Joyce Elliott, Majority Leader of the Arkansas Senate. Elliott's campaign highlighted Griffin's past controversies such as the Bush campaign's voter caging efforts and his being named one of the "Crooked Candidates of 2010" by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.^[27]

Griffin won with 58% of the vote.^[28]

2012

Griffin won reelection with 55.19% of the vote, over former state representative Herb C. Rule III.^[29]

Legislation sponsored

Authority for Mandate Delay Act (H.R. 2667; 113th Congress) (H.R. 2667) - Rep. Griffin introduced this bill on July 11, 2013 in response to a July 2, 2013 announcement from the Obama Administration that they would be delaying one of the key requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(commonly known as "Obamacare").^[30] Their decision was that the requirement that all companies which employed more than 50 workers must offer an employee health insurance plan or pay a fine, scheduled to begin January 1, 2014, would now be delayed until 2015.^[31] This decisions was immediately criticized for exceeding executive authority.^[32] In response to the Obama Administration's decision, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that Congress would need to formally approve any delay.^[30] When he explained why he had introduced the bill, Rep. Griffin argued that, although he believed the Obama Administration's unilateral decision to delay the mandate was illegal, he still believed delaying the mandate was a good idea in order to save jobs and protect workers.^[30]
Griffin, along with Rep. Ander Crenshaw and Rep. Candice Miller, introduced the Save Our Military Shopping Benefits Act in 2014. The bill would prohibit the military from closing or cutting commissary stores and exchanges on bases in the United States.^[33]

Committee assignments

Congressman Griffin serves on the following committees and subcommittees:

Committee on Ways and Means
- Subcommittee on Human Resources
- Subcommittee on Social Security

Republican Study Committee

On January 16, 2014, House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security held a hearing with the head of Social Security and the Social Security inspector general. During the hearing, Congressman Griffin challenged statistics presented by the Social Security Administration Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin. In her testimony, Acting Commissioner Colvin said that 99% of all Social Security disability payments are correctly made without fraud.^[34]

===

http://en.paperblog.com/tim-griffin-arkansas-gop-rep-stands-by-keystone-after-mayflower-oil-spill-486712/

TAR SANDS? WHAT TAR SANDS?: With the Mayflower spillstanding as ugly testimony to the perils of pipelining, U.S. Rep. Tiny Tim Griffinof Koch Energy is rallying for House passage of theKeystone XL pipeline, an environmentally disastrous project through America's heartland designed mainly to help the Koch billionaires move dirty, problematic tar sands to refineries for export. Its a nominal economic benefit. It's fraught with peril to the Nebraska aquifer. Canadian provinces have refused to approve pipelines over THEIR land. But Tiny Tim thinks it's just great for the US of A, because he's wholly beholden to the Kochs, whose tar sand folly has produced a mountain of nasty byproductin Detroit.

House Republican leaders plan to move forward Wednesday with a vote on the bill, claiming that it would provide jobs and energy security to the nation.

“I wish the president would set partisan politics aside and take a bipartisan step toward jobs and all-American energy independence by approving a modern, high-tech infrastructure project: The Keystone pipeline,” said Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Little Rock.

TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline project is designed to carry tar sands crude from Canada to Gulf Coast refiners. The State Department is expected to issue a decision later this year on whether to approve it.

The Arkansas congressional delegation has supported the Keystone pipeline inlarge measure because the steel pipe would come from Welspun Tubular in Little Rock.

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/05/22/morning-report-exxonmobil-caught-city-directors-get-big-pay-raise-the-return-of-ken-starr

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tim_Griffin

===

Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.) said Wednesday that he wasn't backing off his support of the Keystone XL pipeline, just five days after an ExxonMobil pipeline rupture forced the evacuation of more than 20 homes in his district.

"Well, first of all, pipelines, despite this accident -- just like we have car accidents -- despite this accident, pipelines are the safest way to move oil, to move energy products. They are safer then moving it in trucks … and they are safer than putting them on a train," Griffin told local radio station 96.5 FM. "The fact is, I don’t think anyone has quit driving their car, using plastics in their home, or flying on airplanes since this spill. And as long as we need energy, we are going to need energy. And we have to find the safest way to deliver it. And this is a horrible accident but pipelines are the safest way [to transport oil]."

The pipeline released up to 10,000 barrels of oil into Mayflower, Ark., when it burst Friday, prompting the evacuation of 22 homes. Exxon Mobil reversed the pipeline to carry heavy Canadian crude from Illinois to Texas in 2006, because of increased production and the Gulf Coast's ability to process the fuel.

Griffin cited former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's maxim to never let a good crisis go to waste, saying that opponents of Keystone are using the Friday spill for their agenda against the project. "I think some people are trying to say, well if there is a car crash no more cars ... if there is an accident with a pipeline, more no pipelines ... If we follow that logic, we are all going to be riding bicycles. That might be fine for some folks but it may take a while to get to Memphis on a bicycle," he said.

The Mayflower spill has drawn obvious parallels to the proposed Keystone XL project, which would carry Canadian tar sands crude from Alberta to Texas through the heartland of America. The Huffington Post's Lynne Peeples reported Monday that a leak was possible within 50 years of the pipeline's creation, and even if safety systems stopped it within minutes, it could cause damage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/tim-griffin-keystone_n_3005709.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

===

palast bbb: tim griffin bill no regs till unemployment under 6% (replay kyoto) reg freeze for jobs act hr 4078 aka nuke destruct act 52

Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: Karl Rove and the Republican Dark Art of Election Theft

September 20, 2012 |

The following is an excerpt from Greg Palast’s new book, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps [2], including a comic book by Ted Rall and an introduction by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (7 Stories Press, 2012).

Congressman Tim Griffin is a big, BIG supporter of the XL Pipeline. And the Kochs are big, BIG supporters of Congressman Griffin. Koch interests lined up $167,183 for Griffin’s run in 2010. Let me put that in perspective: for $167,183, the average member of Congress would be willing to wash your car—with his tongue.

That kind of money doesn’t come into a GOP candidate’s hands without the helpful hand of Karl Rove.

If you remember, voting-rights attorney Kennedy said Griffin "should be in jail.” A federal prosecutor expressed the same sentiment to me. How Griffin ended up in Congress, not in prison, is the more intriguing story.

It was well after midnight, in the first week of October before the 2004 election, when the e-mails started pouring in.

The chieftains of the George W. Bush reelection campaign were copying me on their most intimate and confidential messages—and Ollie, my research director, pissed me off by waking me in my cheap motel room to tell me this whacky-ass news. I was in the middle of nowhere USA with my election investigation for BBC going nowhere, so I wasn’t in the mood for this bullshit.

But it wasn’t bullshit. It was a miracle. Karl Rove’s right-hand man, Tim Griffin, Bush’s research director (read, smear director), had sent the data for some sick scheme to the chairman of the Bush reelection campaign in Florida, Brett Doster. Griffin, instead of sending copies to GeorgeWBush.com [3], their internal e-mail domain, sent copies to "GeorgeWBush. [4]ORG [4], to my friend John Wooden’s joke site. Wooden passed them on to us for forensic analysis.

Here was the GOP leadership with their pants around their ankles, exposing their cheat sheets.

Holy Mama! Do I have to believe in God, now?

What we’d been handed proved to be an electronic back door into the darkest corners of a criminal vote-suppression machine.

By the morning, we had booked flights to Washington, DC, and Tallahassee, Florida, while Ms. Badpenny, in charge of our investigations, began the decoding work. We knew there was a scheme afoot, but what exactly was it?

Smoking-gun memos rarely read, “Louie, this is how we cheat the public,�� or “Brett, here’s the plan to steal Florida.” If they do say that, they’re fake.

These e-mails’ clues were a bit tougher than most to crack. That pudgy little wad Griffin had written to Doster several e-mails with the cryptic subject line "Caging.xls," with Excel files attached, and terse messages like ��Here’s another list."

Each was a very selective list of voters, names and addresses. What struck me right off were names like Rodriguez, Washington and Goldberg—typically Hispanic, black and Jewish. Badpenny and the crew mapped the addresses, and sure enough, it was a perfect scattergram of poor, minority neighborhoods and townships with Gone With the Wind names like “Plantation, Florida.” There was also that list of Yiddish names from retirement homes: the GOP was certainly targeting the Elderly of Zion.

But for what?

At the Bush headquarters in Florida’s capital, campaign director Doster agreed to an interview. But when BBC required me to disclose we had his “caging” e-mails, Doster fled like a bunny into his Tallahassee offices and sent out his mouthpiece, Mindy Tucker Fletcher, clutching a supersized cup of Coca-Cola as big as a mortar shell. She brought a flunky to nod at whatever she said, and a sneering list of explanations, beginning with a corker: the “caging” lists, she said, were a compilation of Republican donors.

Really? Including these folks? Here were the Bush-Cheney “donors” who all lived at the State Street Rescue Mission: Page after page of names contained residents of homeless shelters.

Want to try again, Mrs. Tucker Fletcher?

A“caging list,” she explained, was a term of art in the junk mail business referring to returned letters. I knew��that. The Republicans, she said, didn’t want to send duplicates to wrong addresses.

You don’t say! So Mindy, you’re telling me that Karl Rove’s top attack dog is now running the mailroom via confidential messages to state party chairmen—for address corrections?

Why don’t I give you one more try, Mrs. Tucker Fletcher. Could these, by chance, be lists used to systematically challenge the registrations of voters of color?

Mindy Tucker Fletcher grinned and said, carefully, “This is not a challenge list. That’s not what it’s SET UP to do.”

Bingo.

You see, we’d already made a couple of visits to experts before stopping by Fortress Bush. After sending the lists to America’s junk mail king Mark Swedlund, who’d helped me on many an undercover investigation, I had a damn good idea what these were��an opinion confirmed, without prompting, by Ion Sancho, Florida’s county elections supervisor, the recognized expert on voting systems—and vote heists. ��They couldn’t be anything but challenge lists. And if they are, they’re breaking the law.”

More than one law, actually, especially if the targets have a racial or religious profile. And it would be breaking a consent decree: years earlier, theRepublican National Committee was caught challenging black voters en masse at polling stations and had promised, under penalty of perjury, not to do it again.

Now it looked like they were doing it again, but in a most sophisticated way. Bobby Kennedy explained the game: “They send out letters to poor black and Hispanic voters, first class, with instructions to return, don��t forward, if the letter is not deliverable. The returned [“caged”] letter is then used as ‘evidence’ the voter’s listed address is fraudulent, and the Republican functionary then gets the name struck from voter rolls, or the absentee ballot, if mailed in, is not counted.”

Targeting the black, Hispanic and Jewish vote this way is not just icky and racist, it’s against the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Kennedy’s late father Bobby Sr., the US attorney general, and his uncle, President John Kennedy, helped draft. Bobby Jr., looking at the evidence, suggested hard time for Griffin and Rove.

But who was going to prosecute Griffin and company, anyway? Was the Bush Justice Department going to tell Mr. Griffin to “spread 'em"? Mr. Griffin, of the Bush campaign? Mr. Griffin, assistant to the senior advisor to President Bush?

The Hysteria Factory...

Oops. He’s telling a United States attorney to indict citizens, and attacking his failure to “move” when the senator tells him too.

I asked the prosecutor if Rove had him removed as punishment for not bringing the fake cases. “If his intent was, ��look what happened with Iglesias,’ if that was his intent, he’s in big trouble. That is obstruction of justice, one classic example.”

Iglesias was screwing them bad. The captain and eight other prosecutors were getting all precious about bringing bogus cases. That was undermining the GOP’s attempt to obtain new voter ID laws. The failure to find illegal voters put the lie to their campaign to prove the nation’s top voter registration organization, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), had registered fraudulent voters. Getting ACORN was Republican operative Pat Rogers’ obsession, which he made into a national cause of the GOP and other politicians in the White Caucus as lawyer for the “nonpartisan” American Center for Voting Rights. It should have been called, American Center AgainstVoting. Everything the group proposed would cut the number of citizens voting by millions.

I wanted to ask Rogers why he brought in Rove and why he had Captain Iglesias gunned down. But Rogers didn’t want to answer my formal request for BBC TV. But I figured he couldn’t pass up the free champagne they would pour at a GOP victory party. At the soiree to which I obtained press credentials under another name, I caught Rogers in half-sip with an unseen microphone that captured his personal reviews of my reporting skills. “He’s an asshole,” he told a crony before greeting me warmly as the cameras rolled.

"Iglesias was not capable in his job.” Which was, apparently, hunting ACORN.

“ACORN hired a collection of people who fraudulently registered persons who are not eligible to vote. ACORN is working for the Democratic Party,�� said Rogers. (He wore a flag lapel pin the party handed to all the champagne sippers. They gave me one of the Republican freebie flags. I still have it in the wrapper. Take a look: Made in China.)

Had Rogers unmasked a conspiracy between ACORN and the Democratic Party—covered up from them by US Attorney Iglesias, a Republican? Wow!

“Conspiracy,” said Rogers mysteriously, “is a loose word.” Rogers is fond of loose words. He'd recently held a press conference waving a list of a half-dozen fraudulent voters registered by ACORN. With his full house of illegal voters, Rogers made a huge splash in the papers. Then Iglesias made a total ass out of Rogers, by not busting even one.

What the hell, even a jerk reporter like me will give Rogers a chance. I checked out all six of these ne'er-do-wells, these fugitives from justice. I began at a diner in Cerritos where I tracked Melissa Tais, notorious for allowing another voter with another signature to use her name so she and her confederate could vote twice.

Actually, what she'd done was fill out one registration form at an ACORN table, but never received the receipt. So, following the law’s requirements, she reregistered, this time signing while holding the form in her hand so the signature was a little shaky—resulting in two admittedly different-looking signatures.

So, did she vote twice? No. County officials hauled her into a hearing and it shook her up so much she wouldn’t vote at all. And that’s what they wanted.

But Iglesias wouldn’t play and ACORN continued to register Hispanic and low-income voters until 2009, when Andrew Breitbart (who has since returned to the bosom of Satan) blew up some cockamamie sting which had nothing to do with voting—and put ACORN out of the registration business. (ACORN's one-time lawyer, Barack Obama, averted his gaze as the media jackals savaged the poor folks’ group, then paid for his pusillanimity in 2010 when Congress flipped color from Blue to Red.)

The US attorney firings occurred just in time for the 2008 election. Iglesias wasn’t alone, of course. Tom Heffelfinger, Republican US attorney for Minnesota, was on the hit list for defending Native American voters from an attack by the GOP’s Minnesota secretary of state. Iglesias called his buddy in Arkansas who was taken down for similar pangs of conscience, but agreed to step aside without a fight so his friend, President Bush, could make his own choice.

And Bush’s choice was...Tim Griffin.

Now, instead of being prosecuted for crimes, Tim became the prosecutor. At Karl Rove’s behest, Tim Griffin was appointed US attorney for Arkansas.

For more Billionaires and Ballot Bandits visit www.BallotBandits.org [5].

oct 2010

After two years, and several resignations among Department of Justice staffers, in July, a special prosecutor wrapped up herinvestigation of the nine U.S. Attorneys fired in 2006.Bud Cummins, a Republican from Arkansas, was one of the U.S. Attorneys fired. Tim Griffin, another Republican, and the current candidate for Congress in Arkansas was named as his replacement.

Though no criminal charges were filed, the report indicates, "the process used to remove the nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 was fundamentally flawed."

The report itself makes reference to Mr. Griffin's alleged involvement with voter caging. Because of Mr. Griffin's candidacy, we sat down with him to discuss the allegations. He told KARK he was not concerned about the Department of Justice report when he decided to run for Congress.

The first time Mr. Griffin made reference to voter caging was in June of 2007, when he spoke at the Clinton School, shortly after resigning his post as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Mr. Griffin called the allegations completely and absolutely false.

"Caging, as you may know, I had to look it up, is a direct mail term for basically organizing returned mail," said Griffin at the Clinton School.

Voter caging refers to the practice of sending direct mail to addresses on the voter rolls, compiling a list of addresses from which the mail is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters' registrations on the grounds that the voters do not legally reside at registered addresses. In some cases, where it appeared to have a racial component, it has been declared illegal under the Voting Rights Act.

To understand the allegations against Mr. Griffin, we need to go back to 2004. During President Bush's re-election bid against John Kerry, Tim Griffin was working as an opposition researcher for the Bush campaign.

Meanwhile, in the course of that campaign, award winning BBC reporter, Greg Palast had been investigating claims of voting caging in America.

We came across Mr. Palast, and his work, after doing various internet searches for Mr. Griffin. We spoke to Mr. Palast from his office in New York.

"In October, just before the election of 2004, around midnight, my office received a series of about 50 e-mails, which were meant to go from a gentleman inside the Bush campaign, named Tim Griffin," said Mr. Palast to KARK.

Mr. Palast believes Mr. Griffin made a mistake. He says instead of sending the e-mails to georgebush.com, Mr. Griffin sent the e-mails to georgebush.org -- a bogus website. He says the e-mails sent by Mr. Griffin contained attachments labeled caging, and when opened they appeared to be voter lists.

"I had to open up the e-mails and attachments and take them to experts to give me an idea of what we were finding," said Palast. "When we went through it, we determined the list was racially biased. So if a soldier was sent to Iraq, and we called these families, they were legal voters, if they were sent overseas and they got a letter from Mr. Griffin's group, they would lose their right to vote."

During our interview, KARK asked Mr. Griffin about the allegations of members of the military being disenfranchised.

"Complete and absolute nonsense," said Griffin.

We asked Mr. Griffin if the e-mails were sent by him. He told us they were and then explained why they were sent.

"Mary Poppins was registered to vote. Mighty Mouse or Mickey Mouse was registered to vote," explained Griffin. "What the RNC was doing, and I worked for the RNC, but they were trying to highlight examples of registrations that were false."

We asked Mr. Griffin why the attachments were labeled caging. Mr. Griffin responded by saying that caging is a direct mail term, and he went on to say the attachments were sent by the Florida party.

The issue of voter caging and Mr. Griffin's alleged involvement was a matter of discussion during Senate and House Judiciary Committee hearings, which looked into the U.S. Attorney firings.

On February 6, 2007, Senator Mark Pryor made his concerns known about Mr. Griffin to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Griffin was appointed as interim U.S. Attorney, through a provision in the Patriot Act, which allowed appointment without senate confirmation. During his testimony, Senator Pryor said he addressed the voter caging allegations to Mr. Griffin.

"I informed him that due to the seriousness of this issue, this is precisely the reason why the nomination and confirmation process is in place," said Pryor.

Later, during that same Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrat Senator from New York, Charles Schumer, pressed the then Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, about the issue of voter caging and Mr. Griffin.

"If there was such an involvement, if he did do that at some point in his job -- in one of his previous jobs -- do you think that could be-- that should be a disqualifier for him being U.S. Attorney, in a state like Arkansas, where there are obvious civil rights suits," asked Senator Schumer.

"I think any allegation or issue that's raised against somebody has to be carefully examined, and it goes into the thinking as to whether or not that person is the best candidate for the job," said McNulty.

About a month later, under immunity, Monica Goodling a Department of Justice staffer, who also worked with Griffin on the Bush campaign, testified before the House Judiciary Committee, saying that Mr. McNulty had not been forthcoming during his testimony.

"Failed to disclose that he had some knowledge of allegations that Tim Griffin had been involved in vote caging during his work on the President's 2004 campaign," said Goodling.

Mr. Griffin pointed out to KARK that in the course of the investigation, neither the House Committee, nor the Senate Committee, that did their own separate investigation ever contacted him.

KARK contacted Senator Patrick Leahy's office to find out why Mr. Griffin was never contacted. We were told the focus of the investigation focused primarily on those who were involved in the decision to fire certain U.S. Attorneys, not the individuals who were appointed to fill those positions.

In reference to allegations of voter caging, according to legal documents KARK obtained, as far back as 1982, a federal court issued an injunction stopping the Republican National Committee from intimidating voters at the polls.

In 2004, an African American resident from Ohio filed a complaint, alleging that the RNC had violated the court's injunction, by participating in a compilation of voter challenge lists. The federal court in 2004 then issued an order, in which it barred the RNC from using the list to carry out voter challenges, and directed the RNC to instruct its agents in Ohio not to use the lists for such purposes.

Decision 2010: Tim Griffin and Voter Caging

Monday, October 18, 2010

Reported by: Melissa Simas, KARK 4 NBC News

http://www.gregpalast.com/decision-2010tim-griffin-and-allegations-of-voter-caging/

PALAST: Timmy Griffin used to work for a guy named Karl Rove, known as "Bush's brain". And one of the things that the brain decided to do was that since Bush couldn't get elected by the voters, he has to be elected by voter manipulation. If you remember, of course, I reported, as we mentioned again last week, that Bush won Florida by having his brother, the governor, remove thousands of black voters from the voter rolls there. And that gave him the 500 votes he needed to seize the White House.

In 2004, the game continued with a new, sophisticated twist called caging. But what does this have to do with the pipeline and some guy named Griffin? The answer is: caging is a system, is a very sophisticated system for swiping tens of thousands of votes. What you do is you send letters to voters that you know are not living at their voting address. And when the letters come back undeliverable 'cause you said do not forward, you challenge the voters as a fraudulent voter.

Thousands of these letters went to African-American and Hispanic voters at the naval air station in Florida, Jacksonville, Florida. Now, those letters came back. Those voters' ballots, when they sent in their absentee ballots, were challenged as fraudulent voters, our men in uniform. Go to Iraq, lose your vote, mission accomplished.

JAY: These letters were returned because these soldiers were overseas and had left their base.

PALAST: Yeah. Basically, you know, we talked to the wife of one serviceman, Randall Prausa. He was stationed overseas. He's a legal voter. And his vote was challenged as--that he was a fraudulent voter 'cause he wasn't living at his home address. It's the naval air base. If you are a soldier under fire under your Humvee, you're allowed to vote, believe it or not, Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush, Mr. Griffin.

JAY: Yeah, get us back to Griffin.

PALAST: He sent out the caging list from his computer. And I was able to get these little nasty hit lists of voters that they didn't like because Griffin is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and he sent the emails not to GeorgeBush.com and the honchos there doing the evil deeds to these soldier voters; he sent them to GeorgeBush.org, which happened to be a site owned by a friend of mine. And they came into my office, our investigative--the Palast Investigative Fund, and our investigations team went to work and pretty soon discovered that these voters are being challenged and chosen because of their race.

I then took it to a civil rights attorney named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the dean of the law school at Pace University, and he said, quote, "Griffin should be in jail, and so should Rove." That's a quote from the son of the attorney general who wrote the law that would put them in jail, the Voting Rights Act of '65.

Now, how do we get to the XL Pipeline? Well, this gentleman, Mr.&nbpsGriffin, was appointed--given that he just committed several felony crimes, of course he was appointed a federal prosecutor by George Bush at the request of his boss, Rove. What the Bush administration was great at was taking their top felons and making them the prosecutors, which is like making the mafia--turning over the police department to them.

So when we exposed Griffin's--what Kennedy called criminal activity--I'm not a criminal lawyer; he is--what he called criminal activity, when we exposed that, Griffin immediately had to resign his post. Well, you'd think that's the end of Griffin. In fact, I have a little film of Griffin in tears. He says, that British reporter--I'm known as a British reporter 'cause I report for BBC--that British reporter did this to me! Oh! I'm done with public life! It was so sad to see Timmy go.

But he didn't go. He waited a couple of years, and then he suddenly pops up running for Congress from Arkansas. Now, how does a guy with this record end up running for Congress? There's only one way to do it: on a big old pipeline of money, $167,000 from two guys named Koch, the Koch brothers Charles and David. They paid--they came up with $167,000 for an unknown, tainted candidate and washed him right into Congress.

TIM GRIFFIN, U.S. CONGRESSMAN (R-AR): I rise in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline, as well as the underlying bill. The plot here is for jobs, American jobs. It's a no-brainer. Like most Arkansans, I support this pro-jobs project that will strengthen our national security by making us less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Arkansas families and businesses are hurting due to high gas prices, and the Keystone Pipeline will bring an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day into the United States

PALAST: They wanted their pipeline extended. And Tim Griffin is put on the Ways and Means Committee, even though he's barely a freshman--very powerful post--because of the Koch-Rove connection, where they will have a very important and key role in approving or disapproving the Keystone XL Pipeline. So Griffin became the sponsor of the bill to jam through this filth tube for the Koch brothers.

They want that, by the way--if you remember my prior commentaries, the Koch brothers need the XL pipeline because it ends at their refinery in Texas and they need that oil for their refinery. It's going to save them $33 a barrel, make them $2 billion a year. So $167,000--.

JAY: One of the points you made about Griffin is that he actually doesn't have any direct interest in the pipeline. The pipeline doesn't run through his state. They don't have a refinery.

PALAST: Well, he has a lot to do with it, which is he has Koch money and they need the pipe. But he's Little Rock, Arkansas. Unless they put some weird little new kink in the pipe, it don't go [incompr.] it doesn't go through Little Rock. Little Rock has nothing to do with getting the oil. It doesn't sell the oil to the pipeline. It has nothing to do with the pipeline. His district has nothing to do with that pipeline except the money from his biggest funders. And that's how Washington gets greased.

Was Tim Griffin merely a "Rove-bot"?

Did Karl Rove write the memos that dunked candidate Griffin in hot water?

Special to the Arkansas Times

by Greg Palast (New York, London)*

When Tim Griffin resigned his post as interim federal prosecutor a day after the BBC broadcast linking him to illegal "voter caging," Griffin insisted he did not know what "caging" was.

Griffin, currently the Republican candidate for Congress in Arkansas's Second District, said he only found out after the BBC report that "caging" is a term "used in the direct mail" business.

That's correct, Mr. Griffin: it's an address capture scheme which, when used against voters of color, is a federal crime.

Right here, printed above, is an email sent by Griffin with the subject line, "Caging" with lists attached of soldiers and homeless men whose votes the Republican National Committee wanted the Bush campaign to challenge.

So, if Griffin's name is listed as the author of the "caging" memo, how the heck could he not know what he was saying and sending?

There are two possible answers:

Griffin is lying, or
He didn't understand the content of his note because, in fact, it was written by SOMEONE ELSE who told Griffin to send it from Griffin's email account.

Who could that be?

Fact: It is well known that Griffin's mentor and boss, Karl Rove, did not have his own computer to avoid a subpoena for his emails.

Fact: Karl Rove was the founder of Karl Rove & Co, a direct mail firm which would have used highly sophisticated (legal) caging programs.

Given these facts, the Arkansas Times has asked Mr. Griffin if he would tell us if he originated and understood the memo (in which case he lied), or if he was sending the email on behalf of a caging expert who happened to be his boss, Mr. Rove.

In 2007 and 2008, on behalf of the British Broadcasting Corporation, I requested this information from both Mr. Griffin and Mr. Rove. (Little Rock readers will be interested to know that Griffin's conduct is an international issue, seen worldwide as a key and sad example of vote rigging in our country.)

small words

5. Tim Griffin, R-AR: A few years ago there was a scandal in Bush’s Justice Department when it was revealed that they fired several U.S. Attorneys for political reasons. Then, to make matters worse, they filled the vacancies with cronies and partisan patrons. One of those terminated was the U.S. Attorney in Arkansas. His hand-picked replacement was a Karl Rove protege named Tim Griffin.

Rise of a Very 'Loyal Bushie'

By Richard L. Fricker - March 28, 2007http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/032707a.html

If you want to know what the career path of a “loyal Bushie” looks like, let me introduce you to J. Timothy Griffin, a Karl Rove protégé who was slipped into the post of U.S. Attorney in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now is at the center of the controversy over whether the Bush administration has sought to politicize federal prosecutions.

Griffin has pretty much touched them all : the Federalist Society, work for a Clinton-era special prosecutor, the Florida recount battle in 2000, opposition research and voter security duties for the Republican National Committee in Campaign 2004, a brief tour as a military lawyer in Iraq, a deputy in Karl Rove’s political shop at the White House.

But now this carefully groomed Republican operative stands out as Exhibit A for Democrats as they contend that the Bush administration imposed political litmus tests on federal prosecutors who wield enormous power over the lives of those they investigate. ...

While at the New Orleans university, Griffin became a leader of the Tulane chapter of the Federalist Society, a powerful conservative legal organization and the chief training ground for right-wing lawyers dedicated to rolling back the liberal gains of the Warren Court and supportive of unrestrained presidential powers. ...

... he joined the Bush-Cheney (2000) campaign as deputy research director working for the Republican National Committee, what's known in the Washington political world as “oppo” or opposition research ... Griffin’s résumé describes his job as“the primary research resource ... with over 30 staff.”

During the bitter Florida recount battle, Griffin served as legal adviser in Volusia and Brevard counties ... Bush rewarded Griffin in March 2001 with the job of special assistant to Michael Chertoff ....

Playing Dirty ... cloak-and-dagger world of opposition research—the updated version of "dirty tricks"

The Atlantic Monthly

June 2004

by Joshua Green

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200406/green

... Barbara Comstock ... taking over the research team marked a significant change. She was a lawyer and a ten-year veteran of Capitol Hill who had been one of Representative Dan Burton's top congressional investigators during the Clinton scandals...: Filegate, Travelgate, assorted campaign-finance imbroglios, and Whitewater. ... Comstock put together a group of seasoned attorneys and former colleagues from the Burton Committee, including her deputy, Tim Griffin. "The team we had from 2000," she told... "were veteran investigators from the Clinton years. We had a core group of people, and that core was attorneys."

Griffin ... "We think of ourselves as the creators of the ammunition in a war," he says. "We make the bullets." ... campaign against Gore illustrates how what Bill Clinton referred to as "the politics of personal destruction" has become institutionalized ... a profession run by seasoned investigators, most of whom learned their craft on one side or another of the Clinton scandals ... have become the leading lights in the low-lit world of opposition research. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1029113&mesg_id=1030550

Timothy (Tim) Griffin, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas who resigned effective June 1, 2007 [1], was named in December 2006 to the position by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, which gave the U.S. Department of Justice "authority to install interim U.S. Attorneys without congressional approval." [2][3][4][5]

Griffin "said he was leaving to pursue work in the private sector. His name has cropped up in media reports in connection with a potential role on the presidential campaign of Republican Fred Thompson." [6]

Griffin is a former protégé of Karl Rove, Republican political strategist and top adviser to President George W. Bush. Griffin was "formerly research director of the Republican National Committee. In 2004, BBC News published a report showing that Griffin led a 'caging' scheme to suppress the votes of African-American servicemembers in Florida."[7]

Contents[hide]

"Loyal Bushie"

"If you want to know what the career path of a 'loyal Bushie' looks like, let me introduce you to J. Timothy Griffin, a Karl Rove protégé who was slipped into the post of U.S. Attorney in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now is at the center of thecontroversy over whether the Bush administration has sought to politicize federal prosecutions," Richard L. Fricker wrote March 28, 2007, in Consortiumnews.

GOP "Oppo Man"

"Griffin works the oppo beat for the Republican National Committee, but he's not some shadowy operative whispering shady tips over the phone," Howard Kurtz wrote April 16, 2003. "As the man in charge of investigating the opposition, the research chief blasts his findings to the entire press corps in mass e-mailings, then sits back and watches the negative stuff spread like a computer virus. When Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, John Edwards and Howard Dean announced their presidential candidacies, Griffin and his staff flooded media in-boxes with derogatory information."

2006 Arkansas AUSA Nomination

Pre-Nomination Paperwork

Although Griffin was on a one-year military leave from the White House, mobilized on active duty beginning in September 2005[8], a June 13, 2006, email from Natalie Voris, (USAEO-U.S. Attorney Equal Opportunity), cited by Monica Goodling, shows (page 41) that plans to nominate Griffin to a new Justice Department post upon his return from duty in Iraq were well underway:

"As requested, attached is the pre-nomination paperwork for John Timothy Griffin ... I have included a past WH Questionnaire to provide you with additional information about Mr. Griffin."

The House Committee on the Judiciary copy of the email can be found here.

Prosecutorial Experience

On June 14, 2006, Goodling received Griffin's "resume and military bio" (pages 43-47) from S. Courtwright, which states his "Trial Counsel" experience included prosecution of "Army criminal cases at courts-martial and federal criminal cases as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (SAUSA), Western District of Kentucky and Middle District of Tennessee."

Griffin's resume also stated that, between March 2001 and June 2002, as a SAUSA, Eastern District of Arkansas, he had "Prosecuted federal firearm and drug cases."

On the March 20, 2007, edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, in a video clip, Mike Allen of The Politico was heard saying of Griffin: "Tim Griffin is very legally qualified, including serving as an Army lawyer in Iraq. In addition to that, he has his political life. He's part of this tight-knit group here in Washington that helped get the president elected twice."

Richard L. Fricker wrote April 18, 2007, for Consortiumnews that the Bush administration "fed Republican senators misleading talking points that hailed the prosecutorial experience of interim Little Rock U.S. Attorney J. Timothy Griffin, although the protégé of White House political adviser Karl Roveappears never to have actually tried a criminal case."

See January 17, 2007, email "Talking Points & Resume for Tim Griffin" cover sheet sent by Monica Goodling to Rebecca Seidel, Richard Hertling, and Kyle Sampson. Note: no attachments.

On August 30, 2006, in an article entitled "Tim Griffin possible US Attorney?" posted on The Truth In Arkansas Politics Blogspot, an unnamed contributor wrote:

"Here is a brief history on Griffin. Tim is in his 10th year as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and holds the rank of Major. In September 2005, Tim was mobilized to active duty to serve as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).At Fort Campbell, he prosecuted 40 criminal cases. One of those cases, drew national interest after a soldier attempted to murder his platoon sergeant and fired upon his unit’s early morning formation. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his crime."

However, Fricker writes that "Army officials say Ft. Campbell’s records show Griffin only serving as assistant trial counsel on three cases, none of which went to trial."

Griffin v. Cummins

On March 28, 2007, Mary Lu Carnevalewrote in the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: "Today’s email release from the Justice Department shows that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid along with Sens. Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin and Patty Murray zeroed in on the Griffin case in a Feb. 8 [2007] letter to embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ... Among the questions: 'Why was Bud Cummins (bio) told to resign in June of 2006, when the other dismissed officials were told in December of 2006? Was the reason to give the replacement, Tim Griffin, a chance to become ensconced at the U.S. Attorneys Office in Arkansas before making the appointment?'," Carnevale wrote.

The answer comes from the preceding: Although Griffin was still on active duty, serving in Iraq, he was already in play for the Arkansas post. This is clearly indicated by both the June 14, 2006, email cited above and the anonymously posted August 30, 2006, speculative blog entry at The Truth In Arkansas Politics.

On the Fast Track to Arkansas

June and July 2006 emails between Griffin and Goodling clearly show how Griffin's pre-nomination process was fast-tracked or, as Griffin put it in a July 5, 2006, email (page 10) to Goodling, "movement on my front."

Griffin also wrote (page 10) "i havent said a thing to Bud Cummins." Goodling's response (page 11) was to tell Griffin "WHCO also ask ed me to remind you to continue to keep this close hold." "WHCO" was the White House Counsel's Office, which at the time wasHarriet E. Miers.

Goodling emailed (page 18) Kyle Sampson on August 8, 2006, regarding a U.S. Senate confirmation problem and where to put Griffin before "we install him in Arkansas."

On August 24, 2006, Sean Murphy sent an email to Goodling and others which included the text (page 20) of an Arkansas Times article about Cummins' departure "in the next few 'weeks or months', but almost certainly by the end of the year" and which speculated on Cummins' successor. Griffin's name was discussed by the Times, citing "informed sources".

The article states that Griffin's "political work would likely get more attention - and Democratic opposition - in the Senate confirmation process" and that he would "have to endure some questioning about his role in massive Republican projects in Florida and elsewhere by which Republicanschallenged tens of thousands of absentee votes. Coincidentally, many of those challenged votes were concentrated in black precincts."

On August 30, 2006, Goodling emailed (page 40) Scott Jennings et al. to inform them that the plan was to "bring Tim over to DOJ around Sept. 25, when he finishes at the Army ..." The plan (page 42) to appoint Griffin was well-timed, as he would complete active duty on September 25th, work a day at the White House, and then be appointed to the Justice Department on the 27th.

This was confirmed on September 8, 2006, when Sherry Mahoney, Justice Management Division, sent Goodling an email (page 43) stating that Griffin would "Work at WH on tues 26th and start at doj on wed 27th." Goodling responded (page 44) "Yes, one day here is enough."

On September 13, 2006, Goodling received an email (page 47) informing her that Griffin had been cleared by security for permanent status as "Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General DJES" with a salary of $142,900.

Apparently there was a question as to what Griffin's title "DJES" meant, as Goodling sent an email (page 48) September 13, 2006, in which she wrote "I have no idea what it stands for, but he's Counselor to the CRIM AAG technically, but will be detailed to the USAO in Arkansas after EOD'ing."

On September 13, 2006, Kyle Sampson emailed (page 53) Goodling a list he planned to send to Harriet Miers regarding the U.S. attorneys. Under section IV entitled "USA in the Process of Being Pushed Out" was "E.D. Ark. (Bud Cummins)."

Sampson also wrote (page 53) "I strongly recommend that, as a matter of policy, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments. ... By not going the PAS route, we can give far less deference to home-State Senators and thereby get (1) our preferred person appointed and (2) do it far faster and more efficiently, at less cost to the White House."

On September 27, 2006, Mahoney emailed (page 59) Goodling that Griffin was completing his paperwork "and advised us that he will be detailed immediately to a position in Arkansas."

On December 16, 2006, Aaron Sadler of the Arkansas News Bureau wrote that Griffin, a "former Republican political operative and top aide to President Bush was named late Friday [December 15, 2006] as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas", while Congress was on recess. Cummins was to resign the following Wednesday, December 20, 2006.

Profiles

"In May 2006, Griffin was assigned to the 501st Special Troops Battalion (STB), 101st Airborne Division and sent to serve in Iraq. From May through August 2006, Griffin served as an Army JAG with the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, Iraq, as a member of the 172d Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) Brigade Operational Law Team (BOLT)." [9]

Beginning in September 2005, Griffin was "on military leave from the White House where he served as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs. As Special Assistant to the President, Griffin advised President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard B. Cheney on political matters and organized and coordinated political support for the President’s agenda, including the nomination of Judge John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court." [10][11]

Previously, Griffin served from 2001-2002 "as an appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice where he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Michael Chertoff, the Criminal Division Chief. In the summer of 2001, AAG Chertoff granted [Griffin] a year detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock[, where he] prosecuted a variety of federal cases with an emphasis on firearm and drug cases. He also organized the Eastern District’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Bush Administration's initiative toreduce firearm-related violence by promoting close cooperation between state and federal law enforcement,[fast & furious?] and served as the PSN coordinator." [12]

Griffin "served as Research Director and DeputyCommunications Director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2004 presidential campaign and Deputy Research Director for the RNC during the 2000 presidential campaign. [Griffin] has also served as Senior Counsel to the Government Reform Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; Associate Independent Counsel, In Re: Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Henry :{Cisneros:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:; and as an associate attorney with the New Orleans law firm of Jones, Walker." [13]

Howard Kurtz wrote in April 2003 that Griffin served "an earlier stint as deputy to Barbara Comstock, now the Justice Department's spokeswoman."

Griffin is "a member of the Arkansas and Louisiana bars. He is a cum laude graduate of both Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he received his B.A., and Tulane Law School in New Orleans , Louisiana , where he received his J.D. He also attended graduate school at Pembroke College, Oxford University, in Oxford, England." [14]

Timeline

The following comes from a profile provided by Tim Griffin in April 2006 for The Pembrokian (Pembroke College). [15]

Grew up in Magnolia, Arkansas, and attended Hendrix College, "a small liberal arts school near Little Rock, for my undergraduate studies."
After two years at Hendrix, attended third year at Oxford University.
Returned to Hendrix for final year of undergraduate studies in 1989.
Applied for Rhodes Scholarship to return to Oxford, but did not receive it.
Autumn 1990 began one year of graduate studies at Pembroke College at Oxford.
1991-1994 attended Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans.
In 1994 passed Lousiana and Arkansas law exams.
Moved to Washington, D.C., in 1995.
Joined staff of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett as an Associate Independent Counsel in September 1995.
In January 1997 joined staff of House Government Reform Committee as Senior Investigative Counsel: "focused primarily on the financial investigation of foreign individuals and their contributions to the DNC."
In 1999 joined Republican National Committee as Deputy Research Director for the 2000 presidential campaign and served as primary research resource for Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.
Served as legal advisor to the Bush/CheneyRecount Team.
In March 2001, "accepted a political appointment at the Department of Justice as Special Assistant to the Attorney General Michael Chertoff, the Criminal Division Chief."
Summer 2001 detailed by Chertoff as "federal prosecutor to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock."
June 2002 returned to Washington, D.C. "to begin research for 2004 presidential campaign." Joined RNC staff as Research Director and Deputy Communications Director.
April 2005 began serving as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs at the White House. Highlight: "organising and coordinating political support for the confirmation of Judge John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court."
September 2005 mobilized to active duty in U.S. Army for one year as Captain.
April 2006: serving as an Army Prosecutor and legal advisor. Had served in JAG Corps for ten years but had not previously served on active duty. On military leave from White House until September 2006.

Regarding his post as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas:

Sworn in December 20, 2006. [16]

May 30, 2007, tendered resignation as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, effective June 1, 2007. [17]

Related SourceWatch Resources

External links

Emails: to/from/about Griffin

"Dead Letter Office," georgewbush.org (emails).
DOJ Docs Part 7, House Committee on the Judiciary.

Profiles

Profile: Tim Griffin, U.S. Department of Justice.
Profile: Tim Griffin, Wall Street Journal.
Documents: Biographies of U.S. Attorneys from Arkansas, U.S. News & World Report.
Timothy Griffin in the Wikipedia. (John Timothy Griffin)

Articles & Commentary about Tim Griffin

Categories: Law | Politics (U.S.) | Elections (U.S.)

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Griffin

April 27, 2007

Talkingpointsmemo.com's Josh Marshall on the prosecutor firings

For six years the Democrats in Congress have suffered from what Jon Stewart might call subpoena envy. As the minority they didn't have the power to order anyone to testify before their hearings. But that's changed. Democrats are now in the majority, and they're issuing subpoenas as fast and furious as Zeus hurled thunderbolts from Mount Olympus.

That's a good thing if you think the parties should investigate and hold each other accountable. This week Congressional committees voted to subpoena Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Karl Rove's deputy at the White House, the Republican National Committee, and a former top assistant to The Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez.

The floodgates are opening into whether the firing of certain federal attorneys - prosecutors - was meant to influence investigations into corruption. We learn something about that story from an online journalist whose reporters include people like you. We may be looking at the new face of journalism.

SENATOR LEAHY, Gonzales' Senate hearing (4/19/07): Stand and raise your right hand.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: I understand why some of my statements generated confusion.

SENATOR CARDIN: After reviewing all of the facts, involved in the dismissals of the U.S. attorneys ...

SENATOR SPECTER: Your characterization of your participation is just significantly, if not totally at variance with the facts.

SENATOR LEAHY: How can you be sure that you made the decision?

A.G. GONZALES: I recall making the decision.

SENATOR LEAHY: When?

ATTORNEY GENERAL . GONZALES: Sir, I don't recall when the decision was made.

BILL MOYERS: One week after the testimony of the Attorney General Congress is still looking for credible answers to the mystery ... Why were eight federal prosecutors fired by the justice department?

ATTORNEY GENERAL . GONZALES NEWS CONFERENCE (3/13/07): All political appointees can be removed by the President of the United States.

BILL MOYERS: At first, Gonzales explained ... "They simply lost my confidence." He called the whole affair "An overblown personnel matter."

But the fired prosecutors didn't like that Gonzales had denigrated their job performance and they told Congress what they thought.

SENATOR SPECTER (3/6/07): Ms. Lam. Do you think that you were inappropriately removed?

CAROL LAM: Well, Senator, I think that it was unusual, given the tradition and the history of the United States attorneys within the Department of Justice.

BILL MOYERS: The Attorney General has insisted there was nothing improper about the firings but his stories about what he knew and how much he was involved kept changing.

ALBERTO GONZALES (3/13/07): " ... was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on. That's basically what I knew as the Attorney General."

JOSH MARSHALL: That explanation just doesn't hold water if you become really familiar with the story.

BILL MOYERS: When Gonzales tried to downplay the affair Josh Marshall wasn't buying. He's the editor and publisher of popular blogs that feature investigative reporting and analysis Talking points memo and tpmmuckraker.com. He's been covering this story almost from the start. Marshall says, it's all about the integrity of justice.

JOSH MARSHALL: The President appoints the U.S. Attorneys. They're political in a certain respect. But the Department of Justice �� the power that they hold is so great, it's life and limb, you know — put you in jail, make you run up hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal costs. Even though we understand that political appointees take these jobs. We don't assume that the party in power is going to use that kind of power to advance its political interests. And that's what this is about.

BILL MOYERS: Marshall and his reporters belong to a new breed of journalists. They use the speed and breadth of the Internet to constantly update the story as they did last week during the testimony by Gonzales.

BILL MOYERS: How did you get on this story before anybody else? What drew you to it?

JOSH MARSHALL: I think the key is that we were on the Duke Cunningham story going back a year and a half ago.

BILL MOYERS: He was the member of Congress--

JOSH MARSHALL: Member of Congress, who had this flagrant bribery, and now is serving about a decade in prison. And because we were on-- we followed that so closely, when we saw that the prosecutor who had put him in prison, Carol Lam, who's the former U.S. Attorney in San Diego, when we saw that she was fired, that set off all sorts of alarm bells for us.

BILL MOYERS: What shocked you about it?

JOSH MARSHALL: Well, that someone who was involved in so many ongoing corruption investigations, that in various ways touched on the administration — the Bush administration — that someone like that would get fired during those investigations, that screamed some sort of tampering.

BILL MOYERS: So, based upon the journalism you've done, why do you think Carol Lam was fired? She was no liberal Democrat.

JOSH MARSHALL: Certainly not. Certainly not. She was appointed by George Bush. I think she was fired, because she was too independent, and she was bringing too much heat on Republican members of Congress, and members of this administration. She was doing her job too well. She was putting too many corrupt public officials in prison.

CAROL LAM (11/28/05): This was a crime of unprecedented magnitude and extraordinary audacity.

BILL MOYERS: Lam had successfully prosecuted Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a top Republican member of Congress.He pled guilty to accepting more than two million dollars in bribes from two different defense contractors.

CAROL LAM (11/28/05): It is abundantly clear that Congressman Cunningham let greed take priority over his duty to serve the best interests of his constituents and his country.

BILL MOYERS: Cunningham was sentenced to an eight year term in prison.

The chain of connections led to yet another power in Congress --the then-Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Jerry Lewis, who is still under investigation.

Then the ground in Washington really shook. Turns out, Lam was also after the Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency — the CIA's number 3 man — Kyle "Dusty" Foggo -- suspected of conflicts of interest involving defense contractors.

FBI agents were even sent to CIA headquarters to search Foggo's office.

The day after Lam told her bosses at the Justice Department about the search warrants, the Attorney General's Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, sent this confidential e-mail to the White House complaining about Lam. He wanted to discuss the "... Problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude we should have somebody ready ..." To replace her.

JOSH MARSHALL: At this point Cunningham is already in prison. But she is onto people that Cunningham was working with. And this had brought her to the CIA, particularly a guy named Dusty Foggo. Just a day or two before this e-mail was written, she had notified the Department of Justice that she planned to execute search warrants on CIA headquarters. Not long after this happened, the number three resigned. The Director of the CIA resigned. It's still a little murky how all these things are related.

BILL MOYERS: Earlier this year, "Dusty" Foggo was indicted for corruption along with a well-connected defense contractor.

The indictments came two months after Carol Lam had been fired.

BILL MOYERS: When Lam was fired, and your antenna went off, where did the trail lead you?

JOSH MARSHALL: This was a case where our reporters were deeply versed in these public corruption investigations. We had been reporting on these cases for over a year. So, that gave us a context to understand what was happening. So, we put out the word that we thought there's been a bunch of firings. And we started getting tips from readers.

And one of the unique strengths of our journalism model is that we use our readers a lot to do basically sort of the front line research for us. That doesn't mean we just take things people say and print them-- willy-nilly. But, there's a wealth of information out there in small metropolitan papers around the country. So, there were reports about the Arkansas U.S. Attorney who had been fired, that was just in a local Arkansas media. And there was another similar case with the U.S. Attorney in Michigan.

BILL MOYERS: How many reporters do you have?

JOSH MARSHALL: During most of this, we had two reporters working on the story.

BILL MOYERS: With you as editor?

JOSH MARSHALL: Correct.

BILL MOYERS: So, when did you realize that this was more than a personnel story at the Department of Justice?

JOSH MARSHALL: I think the key moment for me was back, it must be a couple months ago now, when we found out that David Iglesias, the fired U.S. attorney in New Mexico, had sent an e-mail to a colleague, when he-- and he called his firing a "political fragging," the word that you use when soldiers kill each other soldiers on one side kill each other.

BILL MOYERS: Marshall first heard about this from another blogger in New Mexico. As he followed up, it became apparent that Iglesias, a Republican, had been "fragged" by his own party.

Two senior Members of Congress from New Mexico, Senator Pete Domeniciand Representative Heather Wilson, had telephoned Iglesias asking him for information about sealed indictments in a politically charged investigation concerning state Democrats.

JOSH MARSHALL: Representative Wilson, who is Senator Domenici's protégé, was in a very tight race for reelection ... that she eventually won. But she, it would have been very helpful for her if a Democrat would have been indicted right before the election. That's why they called him. That's why the Senator and Representative called him, leaned on him to bring the indictment. He wouldn't. And I think that was it. And I think that's why he got fired.

BILL MOYERS: Iglesias told Congress he considered the call from Domenici highly improper.

DAVID IGLESIAS (3/6/07): And he wanted to ask me about the corruption matters or the corruption cases that had been widely reported in the local media. I said, 'All right.' And he said, 'Are these going to be filed before November?' And I said I didn't think so. And to which he replied, 'I'm very sorry to hear that.' And then the line went dead.

SENATOR SCHUMER:So in other words, he hung up on you?

MR. IGLESIAS: That's how I took that. Yes, sir.

SENATOR SCHUMER:And you didn't say goodbye or anything like that?

MR. IGLESIAS:No, sir.

SENATOR SCHUMER:Now did you take that as a sign of his unhappiness with your decision?

MR. IGLESIAS:I felt sick afterward. So I felt he was upset that -- at hearing the answer that he received.

SENATOR SCHUMER:Right. And so, is it fair to say that you felt pressured to hurry subsequent cases and prosecutions as a result of the call?

MR. IGLESIAS:Yes, sir. I did. I felt leaned on. I felt pressured to get these matters moving.

SENATOR SCHUMER:And as you say, it was unusual for you to receive a call from a senator at home while you were the U.S. attorney.

MR. IGLESIAS:Unprecedented. It had never happened.

BILL MOYERS: Senator Domenici wasn't just calling the prosecutor. He reached out to the White House where Karl Rove and the president had already passed onto Gonzales complaints that Iglesias was not moving on allegations that Democrats were voting improperly in local elections.

JOSH MARSHALL: The fact that he wouldn't bring what I think would have clearly been bogus indictments, put him on the outs with Republican Party officials in his state. And that led to a string of complaints from Republicans in New Mexico to Karl Rove, to the President. So, he was already on thin ice.

BILL MOYERS: The scandal has grown beyond the issue of prosecutors being fired. But there's a flipside to it, and that is who is being hired? What can you say about that?

JOSH MARSHALL: Over the course of last year, they were installing highly political U.S. attorneys in key swing states. And, in at least some of those cases, they clearly brought highly politicized prosecutions. So the eight U.S. attorneys is sort of like the big red flag. And it's the headline. But if you look beneath there, there's a deeper politicization that I think was happening throughout the U.S. attorney system.

BILL MOYERS: Consider this document now in the hands of Congress. It's a list, kept by the Justice Department, of all the U.S. attorneys who have served under President Bush.

Along with names it includes notes about prosecution, judicial, and political experience. Then, there's this additional, and surprising, column indicating whether or not they are members of The Federalist Society.

JOSH MARSHALL: The Federalist Society is this conservative legal organization. And I think, for the Bush administration, being a member of the Federalist Society meant you were-- a reliable, ideological, partisan Republican. It wasn't enough just to be registered as a Republican, or to be-- have a generally conservative judicial philosophy, or prosecutorial philosophy. It meant that, basically, meant that you were a real movement conservative, a Party regular. That's what being a Federalist Society member means.

BILL MOYERS: A network of kindred spirits committed to the same conservative cause.

JOSH MARSHALL: Yeah. It's being one of the-- it's being a member of that team in their eyes. And that kind of loyalty -- it's no accident that there's that line in Kyle Sampson's email where he talks about most of the U.S. attorneys being, "Loyal Bushies." That's really what it comes down to. Being political-- that kind of political loyalty.

BILL MOYERS: Marshall's case in point: Timothy Griffin. Attorney General Gonzales picked him last year to replace the fired prosecutor in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Griffin's reputation was as a highly partisan operative ... first doing opposition research for The Republican National Committee and then As Karl Rove's deputy in the White House.

According to an internal Justice Department e-mail ... "Getting [Griffin] appointed [as U.S. Attorney] ... Was important to ... Karl."

JOSH MARSHALL: This, I think, is an example of, a lot of people say, 'Well, they're political appointees.' There's a difference, though, between being a political appointee and putting a political operative in charge of a U.S. attorney's office. I mean an example is: I think James Carville is an attorney. But-- no-- it wouldn't pass a laugh test to make James Carville a U.S. attorney in Washington DC. He wouldn't have credibility. He's too political.

BILL MOYERS: And is Tim Griffin in that category of a political operative?

JOSH MARSHALL: Oh, absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: Such a partisan background for a sensitive prosecutor's post made it unlikely that Griffin's nomination would pass Senate Confirmation.

But the White House had a way around that obstacle. Earlier in the year, the Justice Department had seen to it that an obscure provision was sneaked into the Patriot Act.

JOSH MARSHALL: Basically, they slipped a provision in that allows the Attorney General to make interim appointments that last throughout that president's term. It's as simple as that. It basically--

BILL MOYERS: What's wrong with it?

JOSH MARSHALL: Well, we have a system of checks and balances. The Senate is supposed to sign-- it's supposed to approve nominees for U.S. attorney nominees. In the same way that the President doesn't just appoint the Secretary of State, he appoints the Secretary of State, and then the Congress votes. And if the Congress approves that person, that person becomes Secretary of State. They were getting rid of the advice and consent dimension to the U.S. justice system.

BILL MOYERS: So, what do you think was going through their mind that would cause them to think, 'We can get away with it? Nobody's gonna notice it-- eight prosecutors have been fired, and make a national story out of it.'

JOSH MARSHALL: I think it's really two issues. One is that this administration has had unified political control in Washington for almost all of the six years they've been in office. And that means they weren't used to Congressional oversight. They weren't used to having co-member-- committee chairmen who send out subpoenas and force people up to Capitol Hill to answer questions.

The other part of that story is, it's not just the Congress that fell down on the job in oversight. It was the press. You see this in the buildup to the war in the Iraq. How little-- how little critical scrutiny that the evidence the supposed evidence for weapons of mass destruction got. So I think on the press side, and on the Congressional side, the White House had gotten used to getting away with a lot of stuff.

BILL MOYERS: Speaking of credibility �� you are a liberal. You don't hide the fact that you're a liberal. People who aren't liberal out there, ] can they trust your reporting?

JOSH MARSHALL: I think they can. I think that we have - I think that our organization has a track record. We, last year, there were all sorts of investigations of corrupt Republicans in Congress. There were also investigations of allegedly corrupt Democrats. And I think if you look at what we reported on we were just as aggressive reporting those stories as we were ones who were Republicans. How I see our-- how I see our mission is we always want to be transparent with readers about what we think, about our opinions. But, fundamentally, we are out there to collect and report facts. And that's always our guiding mission.

BILL MOYERS: If Gonzales leaves, as so many people are saying he must, including Republicans--

JOSH MARSHALL: Right.

BILL MOYERS: --will the story be over?

JOSH MARSHALL: I don't think it will, because this story is about the White House, the political brain center of this administration, using the Department of Justice to pursue its political ends. What Alberto Gonzales had done wrong is he had allowed that to happen. He had allowed the president, he had allowed Karl Rove to misuse, to really corrupt the Department of Justice. So he was a cog in the machine. But the real story here is really right to the top. It's in the White House. It's the Bush administration using the Department of Justice to advance the interests of the Republican Party.

April 27, 2007

Talkingpointsmemo.com's Josh Marshall on the prosecutor firings

SENATOR LEAHY, Gonzales' Senate hearing (4/19/07): Stand and raise your right hand.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: I understand why some of my statements generated confusion.

SENATOR CARDIN: After reviewing all of the facts, involved in the dismissals of the U.S. attorneys ...

SENATOR SPECTER: Your characterization of your participation is just significantly, if not totally at variance with the facts.

SENATOR LEAHY: How can you be sure that you made the decision?

A.G. GONZALES: I recall making the decision.

SENATOR LEAHY: When?

ATTORNEY GENERAL . GONZALES: Sir, I don't recall when the decision was made.

ATTORNEY GENERAL . GONZALES NEWS CONFERENCE (3/13/07): All political appointees can be removed by the President of the United States.

BILL MOYERS: At first, Gonzales explained ... "They simply lost my confidence." He called the whole affair "An overblown personnel matter."

But the fired prosecutors didn't like that Gonzales had denigrated their job performance and they told Congress what they thought.

SENATOR SPECTER (3/6/07): Ms. Lam. Do you think that you were inappropriately removed?

CAROL LAM: Well, Senator, I think that it was unusual, given the tradition and the history of the United States attorneys within the Department of Justice.

BILL MOYERS: The Attorney General has insisted there was nothing improper about the firings but his stories about what he knew and how much he was involved kept changing.

ALBERTO GONZALES (3/13/07): " ... was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on. That's basically what I knew as the Attorney General."

JOSH MARSHALL: That explanation just doesn't hold water if you become really familiar with the story.

JOSH MARSHALL: The President appoints the U.S. Attorneys. They're political in a certain respect. But the Department of Justice — the power that they hold is so great, it's life and limb, you know — put you in jail, make you run up hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal costs. Even though we understand that political appointees take these jobs. We don't assume that the party in power is going to use that kind of power to advance its political interests. And that's what this is about.

BILL MOYERS: How did you get on this story before anybody else? What drew you to it?

JOSH MARSHALL: I think the key is that we were on the Duke Cunningham story going back a year and a half ago.

BILL MOYERS: He was the member of Congress--

BILL MOYERS: What shocked you about it?

JOSH MARSHALL: Well, that someone who was involved in so many ongoing corruption investigations, that in various ways touched on the administration — the Bush administration �� that someone like that would get fired during those investigations, that screamed some sort of tampering.

BILL MOYERS: So, based upon the journalism you've done, why do you think Carol Lam was fired? She was no liberal Democrat.

CAROL LAM (11/28/05): This was a crime of unprecedented magnitude and extraordinary audacity.

BILL MOYERS: Lam had successfully prosecuted Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a top Republican member of Congress. He pled guilty to accepting more than two million dollars in bribes from two different defense contractors.

CAROL LAM (11/28/05): It is abundantly clear that Congressman Cunningham let greed take priority over his duty to serve the best interests of his constituents and his country.

BILL MOYERS: Cunningham was sentenced to an eight year term in prison.

The chain of connections led to yet another power in Congress — the then-Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Jerry Lewis, who is still under investigation.

Then the ground in Washington really shook. Turns out, Lam was also after the Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency �� the CIA's number 3 man — Kyle "Dusty" Foggo — suspected of conflicts of interest involving defense contractors.

FBI agents were even sent to CIA headquarters to search Foggo's office.

The day after Lam told her bosses at the Justice Department about the search warrants, the Attorney General's Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, sent this confidential e-mail to the White House complaining about Lam. He wanted to discuss the "... Problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude we should have somebody ready ..." To replace her.

BILL MOYERS: Earlier this year, "Dusty" Foggo was indicted for corruption along with a well-connected defense contractor.

The indictments came two months after Carol Lam had been fired.

BILL MOYERS: When Lam was fired, and your antenna went off, where did the trail lead you?

BILL MOYERS: How many reporters do you have?

JOSH MARSHALL: During most of this, we had two reporters working on the story.

BILL MOYERS: With you as editor?

JOSH MARSHALL: Correct.

BILL MOYERS: So, when did you realize that this was more than a personnel story at the Department of Justice?

JOSH MARSHALL: I think the key moment for me was back, it must be a couple months ago now, when we found out that David Iglesias, the fired U.S. attorney in New Mexico, had sent an e-mail to a colleague, when he-- and he called his firing a "political fragging," the word that you use when soldiers kill each other soldiers on one side kill each other.

BILL MOYERS: Marshall first heard about this from another blogger in New Mexico. As he followed up, it became apparent that Iglesias, a Republican, had been "fragged" by his own party.

Two senior Members of Congress from New Mexico, Senator Pete Domenici and Representative Heather Wilson, had telephoned Iglesias asking him for information about sealed indictments in a politically charged investigation concerning state Democrats.

BILL MOYERS: Iglesias told Congress he considered the call from Domenici highly improper.

SENATOR SCHUMER:So in other words, he hung up on you?

MR. IGLESIAS: That's how I took that. Yes, sir.

SENATOR SCHUMER:And you didn't say goodbye or anything like that?

MR. IGLESIAS:No, sir.

SENATOR SCHUMER:Now did you take that as a sign of his unhappiness with your decision?

MR. IGLESIAS:I felt sick afterward. So I felt he was upset that -- at hearing the answer that he received.

SENATOR SCHUMER:Right. And so, is it fair to say that you felt pressured to hurry subsequent cases and prosecutions as a result of the call?

MR. IGLESIAS:Yes, sir. I did. I felt leaned on. I felt pressured to get these matters moving.

SENATOR SCHUMER:And as you say, it was unusual for you to receive a call from a senator at home while you were the U.S. attorney.

MR. IGLESIAS:Unprecedented. It had never happened.

BILL MOYERS: The scandal has grown beyond the issue of prosecutors being fired. But there's a flipside to it, and that is who is being hired? What can you say about that?

BILL MOYERS: Consider this document now in the hands of Congress. It's a list, kept by the Justice Department, of all the U.S. attorneys who have served under President Bush.

BILL MOYERS: A network of kindred spirits committed to the same conservative cause.

JOSH MARSHALL: Yeah. It's being one of the-- it's being a member of that team in their eyes. And that kind of loyalty -- it's no accident that there's that line in Kyle Sampson's email where he talks about most of the U.S. attorneys being, "Loyal Bushies." That's really what it comes down to. Being political-- that kind of political loyalty.

BILL MOYERS: Marshall's case in point: Timothy Griffin. Attorney General Gonzales picked him last year to replace the fired prosecutor in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Griffin's reputation was as a highly partisan operative ... first doing opposition research for The Republican National Committee and then As Karl Rove's deputy in the White House.

According to an internal Justice Department e-mail ... "Getting [Griffin] appointed [as U.S. Attorney] ... Was important to ... Karl."

BILL MOYERS: And is Tim Griffin in that category of a political operative?

JOSH MARSHALL: Oh, absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: Such a partisan background for a sensitive prosecutor's post made it unlikely that Griffin's nomination would pass Senate Confirmation.

But the White House had a way around that obstacle. Earlier in the year, the Justice Department had seen to it that an obscure provision was sneaked into the Patriot Act.

BILL MOYERS: What's wrong with it?

JOSH MARSHALL: Well, we have a system of checks and balances. The Senate is supposed to sign-- it's supposed to approve nominees for U.S. attorney nominees. In the same way that the President doesn't just appoint the Secretary of State, he appoints the Secretary of State, and then the Congress votes. And if the Congress approves that person, that person becomes Secretary of State. They were getting rid of the advice and consent dimension to the U.S. justice system.

BILL MOYERS: Speaking of credibility — you are a liberal. You don't hide the fact that you're a liberal. People who aren't liberal out there, ] can they trust your reporting?

BILL MOYERS: If Gonzales leaves, as so many people are saying he must, including Republicans--

JOSH MARSHALL: Right.

BILL MOYERS: --will the story be over?

David M. Barrett has been practicing law in Washington, D.C. since 1975, specializing in litigation and administrative, agency, and legislative law. His diverse career has involved military service in the U.S. Navy and he has served as Independent Counsel for the United States, Special Counsel to the United States House of Representatives, Presidential Committees, United States Attorney’s Office, legal instructor, private practice and Boards of numerous corporate entities. David Barrett was a special prosecutor assigned to investigate the long-running Henry Cisneros payments controversy. He was noted for objecting to Clinton administration interference. In 2006, after the investigation's conclusion, he returned to his previous practice. Barrett is the recipient of one of the highest awards bestowed on a civilian by The Federal Bureau of Investigation – The Thomas Jefferson Award. The inscription on that award reads: “To David M Barrett with respect and gratitude for your service to the nation, perseverance, and dedication to duty from your colleagues at the Federal Bureau of Investigation” signed Louis B. Freeh, Director.

Early life and education

Barrett was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in South Bend, Indiana the son of a Notre Dame law professor. Barrett earned a B.A. Degree in English from the University of Notre Dame and a J.D. Degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He attended both schools on academic scholarships and graduated from both with Honors. While attending Georgetown, Barrett served an Editor of the Law Review.

Military service

From 1959-1962, between undergraduate and law degrees, Barrett was a member of the United States Navy, having received a commission in the regular Navy. He spent over 3 years aboard ships of the Atlantic Fleet and served as navigator on the staff of Commander Amphibious Squadron Four. Barrett was honorably discharged from the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant.

Career

In the years following Georgetown Law School, Barrett served as law clerk to the Honorable William B. Jones of the United States District Court for The District of Columbia. Barrett then joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame Law School. In 1969-69 he served as County Attorney for Saint Joseph County, Indiana.

Barrett moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1969 where over the next several years he served as Vice President and General Counsel of The William K. Warren Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States. He also was Vice President and General Counsel of Warren American Oil Company. From 1971-1979 he served as a Director of The American Bank of Tulsa and was one of the original incorporators of that bank.

Barrett also served on the Boards of the Children’s Medical Center and The Vianney School for Girls in Tulsa. In 1975 Barrett returned to Washington D.C. and established a private practice at Barrett and Schuler and predecessor firms. As Managing Partner, Barrett specialized in litigation and administrative and legislative law. Over a number of years he has represented a variety of domestic and international clients.

In 1976, Barrett was appointed by President Gerald Ford to serve on the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation, a capacity he served until 1980. Barrett has also served as a member of the National Center for Law and the Handicapped.

In 1978-1979, he was retained by the United States House of Representatives as Special Counsel to the House of Representatives Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics Committee) in a sensitive matter involving one of the most senior members of the House of Representatives, Congressman Daniel Flood, regarding allegations of bribery and related offenses. Barrett completed a lengthy investigation resulting in Congressman Flood resigning from the House of Representatives. Barrett was commended by the Ethics Committee for his fairness and professionalism.

In 1995, three Judges of The United States Supreme Court of Appeals, appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (the Special Division), appointed Barrett as Independent Counsel for The United States to investigate allegations that Henry Cisneros had lied to FBI investigators during background checks prior to being named Secretary of HUD.

References

Source from Biography/Resume supplied by Subject.

Categories:

wiki

John Timothy Griffin (born August 21, 1968) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Arkansas's 2nd congressional district since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was an interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas from December 2006 to June 2007, appointed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, but never confirmed by the US Senate.

3 U.S. House of Representatives

Early life and education

Griffin was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was raised in Magnolia, Arkansas. He graduated from Hendrix College. He graduated from law school of Tulane University in 1994.

Pre-congressional political career

Prior to 2004

Griffin worked from September 1995 to January 1997 with Special Prosecutor David Barrett and his investigation of former Secretary of HUD, Henry Cisneros. For two years after that he was Senior Investigative Counsel for the House Committee on Government Reform. In September 1999 he became Deputy Research Director for the Republican National Committee (for George W. Bush's election campaign); while in that position, he was a legal advisor for the "Bush-Cheney 2000 Florida Recount Team" (see Bush v. Gore). From March 2001 through June 2002 he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, (i.e. Assistant's Assistant).

2004 presidential election

From June 2002 to December 2004, Griffin was Research Director and Deputy Communications Director for Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, a high-ranking position within the RNC.

In June 2007, Senators Edward Kennedy and Sheldon Whitehouse asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether Griffin led a Republican National Committee effort to suppress the African-American vote in Jacksonville, Florida through caging during the 2004 election. Griffin called the allegations of voter suppression "absolutely, positively false."^[2] No wrongdoing was proven.^[3]

White House (2005–2006)

In April 2005, Griffin began working at the White House as Karl Rove's aide, with the title of Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director in the Office of Political Affairs.^[4]

U.S. Attorney (2006–2007)

In September 2006, after ending a one-year military mobilization assignment, Griffin began working as a special assistant to Bud Cummins, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.^[5]

On December 15, 2006, the Justice Department announced that Griffin would be appointed interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, effective December 20, 2006, the date when the resignation of Cummins took effect.^[6][7][8][9] Before a March 2006 revision to the PATRIOT Act, interim U.S. Attorneys had a 120-day term limit, pending confirmation by the Senate of a Presidential nominee. The Attorney General makes interim appointments; after the revision, the Attorney General's interim appointees had no term limit, effectively bypassing the Senate confirmation process if the President declined to put forward a nomination. Griffin was among the first group of interim attorneys appointed by the Attorney General without a term limit.^[10] Gonzales' decision to bypass confirmation for Griffin particularly angered Arkansas' two U.S. Senators, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. Both Lincoln and Pryor stated that Gonzales promised them Griffin would go before the Senate for confirmation. Gonzales' decision not to do so prompted Lincoln and Pryor to join many of their Democratic colleagues in demanding Gonzales' resignation or firing.^[11]

On May 30, 2007, Griffin resigned from his position effective June 1, 2007^[12] with a tearful speech declaring that public service "not worth it. I'm married now and have a kid. I'm sorry I put my wife through this and I'm trying to move on."^[13]

Documents released by a subsequent Congressional investigation showed that, in the summer of 2006, White House officials wanted a vacant slot in Little Rock, Arkansas, so Griffin could fill it.^[14] Prior to this he was a top Republican researcher and aide to Rove.^[15] On February 16, 2007, 10 days after McNulty testified that Cummins was dismissed in order to make a vacancy for Griffin to be appointed to, Griffin announced that he would not seek the presidential nomination to be U.S. attorney in Little Rock.^[16]

In September 2008, the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Justice issued a report concluding that Cummins had not been removed for any reasons related to his performance, but rather to make a place for Griffin.^[17][18]

On August 11, 2009, the New York Times reported that previously classified White House emails, showed Karl Rove had lobbied for Griffin to be appointed Cummins's successor.^[19]

2008 presidential election

On May 31, 2007, the Washington Post reported speculation that Griffin was in discussions with the then-nascent Presidential campaign of Fred Thompson for a top-level post.^[20] Instead, Griffin set an office in Little Rock, Arkansas, for Mercury Public Affairs, a New York City-based firm, part of the Omnicom Group, where he had worked as general counsel and managing director. (The Thompson campaign paid Mercury Public Affairs to have Griffin as an advisor.^[21]) Then, after a short period with Mercury, he started Griffin Public Affairs and the Griffin Law Firm.^[22]

In late May 2008, columnist Robert Novak reported that Griffin had been named as the Republican National Committee's Director of Research for the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, to direct opposition research, "although final arrangements have not been pinned down".^[23] But Griffin said he was not going back to the Republican National Committee (RNC), and that he had not talked to anyone in the GOP's leadership structure or with the McCain campaign about that role.^[22]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2010

On September 21, 2009, Griffin announced that he was running for Congress, to replace Democrat Vic Snyder who stepped down after 14 years in Congress.^[24] He defeated the Democratic nominee Joyce Elliott, Majority Leader of the Arkansas Senate. Elliott's campaign highlighted Griffin's past controversies such as the Bush campaign's voter caging efforts and his being named one of the "Crooked Candidates of 2010" by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.^[25]

Griffin won with 58% of the vote.^[26]

2012

Griffin won reelection with 55.19% of the vote, over former state representative Herb C. Rule III. ^[27]^

Legislation sponsored

Authority for Mandate Delay Act (H.R. 2667; 113th Congress) (H.R. 2667) - Rep. Griffin introduced this bill on July 11, 2013 in response to a July 2, 2013 announcement from the Obama Administration that they would be delaying one of the key requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as "Obamacare").^[28] Their decision was that the requirement that all companies which employed more than 50 workers must offer an employee health insurance plan or pay a fine, scheduled to begin January 1, 2014, would now be delayed until 2015.^[29] This decisions was immediately criticized for exceeding executive authority.^[30] In response to the Obama Administration's decision, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that Congress would need to formally approve any delay.^[28] When he explained why he had introduced the bill, Rep. Griffin argued that, although he believed the Obama Administration's unilateral decision to delay the mandate was illegal, he still believed delaying the mandate was a good idea in order to save jobs and protect workers.^[28]

Committee assignments

Committee on Ways and Means
- Subcommittee on Human Resources
- Subcommittee on Social Security

Republican Study Committee

1989 - 2014 Total Receipts:	$4,008,393
1989 - 2014 Total Spent:	$3,561,112
Debts:	$206,343
Last Report:	Sunday, June 30, 2013

Top 5 Contributors, 2010 - 2014

Contributor	Total	Indivs	PACs
Stephens Group	$135,000	$115,000	$20,000
USA Drug	$38,800	$38,800	$0
Murphy Oil	$38,000	$23,000	$15,000
Club for Growth	$36,927	$36,927	$0
Arvest Bank Group	$30,100	$15,100	$15,000

...view more data

Stephens Group	$135,000	$115,000	$20,000
USA Drug	$38,800	$38,800	$0
Murphy Oil	$38,000	$23,000	$15,000
Club for Growth	$36,927	$36,927	$0
Arvest Bank Group	$30,100	$15,100	$15,000
Caterpillar Inc	$25,000	$0	$25,000
Every Republican is Crucial PAC	$25,000	$0	$25,000
Weaver-Bailey Contractors	$24,500	$24,500	$0
Bank of the Ozarks	$22,194	$22,194	$0
Deltic Timber	$21,800	$21,800	$0
Sewell Oil Co	$21,699	$21,699	$0
Citizens United	$20,250	$250	$20,000
Freedom Project	$20,000	$0	$20,000
Koch Industries	$20,000	$0	$20,000
Westrock Capital Partners	$19,100	$19,100	$0
Dillard's	$18,856	$18,856	$0
Hanks Fine Furniture	$18,200	$18,200	$0
American Bankers Assn	$18,000	$0	$18,000
National Beer Wholesalers Assn	$17,500	$0	$17,500
Story Services Inc	$17,400	$17,400	$

Top 5 Industries, 2010 - 2014

Industry	Total	Indivs	PACs
Oil & Gas	$231,159	$140,409	$90,750
Health Professionals	$222,640	$171,140	$51,500
Securities & Investment	$208,737	$183,237	$25,500
Commercial Banks	$178,419	$124,069	$54,350
Retired	$164,760	$164,760	$0

...view more data

Oil & Gas	$231,159
Health Professionals	$222,640
Securities & Investment	$208,737
Commercial Banks	$178,419
Retired	$164,760
Leadership PACs	$160,328
Retail Sales	$139,056
Lawyers/Law Firms	$106,230
Lobbyists	$91,116
Republican/Conservative	$75,682
Insurance	$72,150
Real Estate	$68,930
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$54,395
Business Services	$54,116
General Contractors	$53,736
Building Materials & Equipment	$48,350
Special Trade Contractors	$44,300
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing	$43,090
Accountants	$42,350
Defense Aerospace	$35,134

Sector Totals

Sector	Total	PACs	Indivs
Agribusiness	$107,250	$39,000	$68,250
Communications/Electronics	$104,356	$61,500	$42,856
Construction	$185,887	$57,500	$128,387
Defense	$65,134	$65,134	$0
Energy & Natural Resources	$283,209	$131,250	$151,959
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate	$607,973	$176,350	$431,623
Health	$316,145	$109,500	$206,645
Lawyers & Lobbyists	$197,346	$22,664	$174,682
Transportation	$74,550	$43,750	$30,800
Misc Business	$352,184	$127,102	$225,082
Labor	$9,000	$9,000	$0
Ideological/Single-Issue	$308,278	$244,326	$63,952
Other	$225,060	$1,000	$224,060

brad tpm

2004 RNC 'Vote Cager', Disgraced U.S. Attorney, Rep.-Elect Tim Griffin Assigned to House Judiciary

By Brad Friedman on 1/4/2011 3:35pm PT

Once again proving the well-worn axiom IOKIYAR ("It's okay if you're a Republican"), disgraced former U.S. Attorney, Karl Rove protege and the Republican Party's 2004 vote cager, Tim Griffin has not only been elected as a Representative to the U.S. House from Arkansas' 2nd district, he's also been assigned to a leadership position as deputy whip and has been given a seat on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, of all places. Guess they had to replace the previously disgraced anti-democracy champion Rep. Tom Feeney (FL-24) with someone, eh?

As Talking Points Memo notes...

A few years ago, Tim Griffin was a key figure in of the biggest scandals in the Bush administration. Democrats said --- and the Justice Department Inspector General later concluded --- that the Bush White House and Justice Department pushed out U.S. Attorney H.E. "Bud" Cummins III to give Griffin, a former aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove, a plum spot as interim U.S. attorney that would pad his resume.

Now Griffin, who was elected to Congress from Arkansas in November, has been named by House Republicans to be a member of the House Judiciary Committee --- the very same committee which took a close look at his own role in the scandal that ultimately lead to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"Tim Griffin was a linchpin of one of the dirtiest, Washington-insider schemes that brought down the Bush-era Justice Department and now, ironically, House Republicans have appointed him to oversee the very department he helped undermine," Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement.

"Griffin loves to talk about his 6-month stint as a US Attorney but forgets to tell voters that he was forced to quit amid the national scandal about his hiring," Ferguson added. "It came to light that Tim Griffin was illegitimately appointed to the role of US Attorney as part of a massive controversy over unprecedented political influence over the Department of Justice. Arkansas families are right to question the character of Tim 'Dirty Tricks' Griffin and question his appointment to oversee our justice system knowing his rap sheet."

A few years ago, Tim Griffin was a key figure in of the biggest scandals in the Bush administration. Democrats said — and the Justice Department Inspector General later concluded — that the Bush White House and Justice Department pushed out U.S. Attorney H.E. “Bud” Cummins III to give Griffin, a former aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove, a plum spot as interim U.S. attorney that would pad his resume.

Now Griffin, who was elected to Congress from Arkansas in November, has been named by House Republicans to be a member of the House Judiciary Committee — the very same committee which took a close look at his own role in the scandal that ultimately lead to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

“Tim Griffin was a linchpin of one of the dirtiest, Washington-insider schemes that brought down the Bush-era Justice Department and now, ironically, House Republicans have appointed him to oversee the very department he helped undermine,” Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement.

“Griffin loves to talk about his 6-month stint as a US Attorney but forgets to tell voters that he was forced to quit amid the national scandal about his hiring,” Ferguson added. “It came to light that Tim Griffin was illegitimately appointed to the role of US Attorney as part of a massive controversy over unprecedented political influence over the Department of Justice. Arkansas families are right to question the character of Tim ‘Dirty Tricks’ Griffin and question his appointment to oversee our justice system knowing his rap sheet.”

A DOJ Inspector General report released in October 2008 found that the department had improperly fired Cummins as U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas to make room for Griffin in part due to pressure from the White House. “Getting [Griffin] appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.,” Kyle Sampson, the DOJ official who took the lead on the firings of the U.S. attorneys, wrote.

As CQ summarized it:

Congressional Democrats got hold of e-mails Griffin exchanged with Bush administration officials after legislation was introduced to prevent such interim appointments in the future. “How does it feel to be the target of legislation in the U.S. Senate?” joked White House aide Scott Jennings in a January 2007 e-mail. Griffin replied, “Not good but I will be fine as long the WH and DOJ stick with me!” In another exchange, Griffin and Rove brainstormed about whom to enlist to defend “Tim and his credentials.”

“Maybe Fred Thompson who is a friend of mine?” Griffin suggested, referring to the former Republican senator from Tennessee.

Cummins said back in September that he didn’t want to take a position on Griffin’s race, but said it wasn’t an “exoneration” of the now-congressman-elect. TPM’s full timeline of the scandal is available here.

Griffin said in a statement last month that he was “honored to be appointed to the Judiciary Committee and being a part of its important work, including strengthening our nation’s security, protecting children from Internet predators, conducting vigorous oversight, preventing frivolous lawsuits and protecting intellectual property.” We’ve requested an interview with the congressman-elect through his office.

The Justice Department wrapped up an investigation into the firing of the U.S. attorneys over the summer without filing any charges. Members of the Bush administration have signed up to help cover some of the legal fees Gonzales incurred, while the former attorney general says a book he’s writing will “set the record straight.”

Mr. J. Timothy GriffinGriffin Public Affairs, LLC Regular Member Office: 2300 Cottondale Lane Suite 230 Little Rock, AR 72202 Phone: 501 664 5190 Email: tg@griffinpublicaffairsllc.com Law School: Tulane (1994) Foreign Languages: French Practice Areas: Ethics Litigation Military
JOHN TIMOTHY “TIM” GRIFFIN As the Principal and General Counsel of Griffin Public Affairs, LLC (GPA), Tim Griffin is personally involved with all key strategic and tactical decisions and ensures that all GPA clients receive the individual attention and service they expect and deserve. He brings a unique perspective to GPA, drawing upon his experience at the highest levels of government and presidential politics where he excelled in a number of disciplines, including law, communications, research and management. Prior to founding GPA, Tim served as General Counsel and Managing Director of Mercury Public Affairs(MPA), a firm headquartered in New York City. From 2006-2007, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, a District that includes 41 of Arkansas’s 75 counties and the cities of Little Rock, Jonesboro and Pine Bluff. During his tenure, in addition to federal criminal prosecutions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) provided outreach and training in rural counties and provided federal civil rights law training to law enforcement and community leaders. Tim is currently serving in his 11th year as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and holds the rank of Major. He was mobilized to active duty in 2005 as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq, for which he was awarded theCombat Action Badge. When mobilized to active duty, Tim was serving as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs at the White House. In that capacity, he advised President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard B. Cheney and organized and coordinated support for the President’s agenda, including the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as Research Director and Deputy Communications Director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2004 presidential campaign, Deputy Research Director for the RNC during the 2000 presidential campaign and as legal advisor to the 2000 Bush-Cheney Recount Team in Florida. From 2001-2002, Tim served as an appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice where he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Michael Chertoff, the Criminal Division Chief. In the summer of 2001, AAG Chertoff granted him a detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to the USAO for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. In that capacity, Tim prosecuted a variety of federal cases with an emphasis on firearm and drug cases. He also organized the Eastern District’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Bush Administration's initiative to reduce firearm-related violence by promoting close cooperation between state and federal law enforcement, and served as the PSN coordinator. From 1997-1999, Tim served as Senior Investigative Counsel to the Government Reform Committee, U.S. House of Representatives. Pursuant to the Committee’s campaign finance investigation, he organized, supervised and conducted the financial investigation of individuals and entities; interviewed witnesses; and drafted subpoenas. He interviewed Johnny Chung and played a key role in planning the hearing at which Chung testified and detailed his illegal political contributions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy no obvious connection to chao Tim also served as an Associate Independent Counsel, In Re: Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Henry Cisneros; and as an associate attorney with the New Orleans law firm of Jones, Walker. Tim is also the founder and principal of the Griffin Law Firm, PLLC, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is a member of the Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive) bars. He is a cum laude graduate of both Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he received his B.A., and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he received his J.D. He also attended graduate school in Modern British and European History at Pembroke College,Oxford University, in Oxford, England. Tim was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, was raised in Magnolia, Arkansas, and now resides in Little Rock, with his wife, Elizabeth, a native of Camden, Arkansas, and their daughter. http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=3946	JOHN TIMOTHY “TIM” GRIFFIN As the Principal and General Counsel of Griffin Public Affairs, LLC (GPA), Tim Griffin is personally involved with all key strategic and tactical decisions and ensures that all GPA clients receive the individual attention and service they expect and deserve. He brings a unique perspective to GPA, drawing upon his experience at the highest levels of government and presidential politics where he excelled in a number of disciplines, including law, communications, research and management. Prior to founding GPA, Tim served as General Counsel and Managing Director of Mercury Public Affairs(MPA), a firm headquartered in New York City. From 2006-2007, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, a District that includes 41 of Arkansas’s 75 counties and the cities of Little Rock, Jonesboro and Pine Bluff. During his tenure, in addition to federal criminal prosecutions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) provided outreach and training in rural counties and provided federal civil rights law training to law enforcement and community leaders. Tim is currently serving in his 11th year as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and holds the rank of Major. He was mobilized to active duty in 2005 as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq, for which he was awarded theCombat Action Badge. When mobilized to active duty, Tim was serving as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs at the White House. In that capacity, he advised President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard B. Cheney and organized and coordinated support for the President’s agenda, including the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as Research Director and Deputy Communications Director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2004 presidential campaign, Deputy Research Director for the RNC during the 2000 presidential campaign and as legal advisor to the 2000 Bush-Cheney Recount Team in Florida. From 2001-2002, Tim served as an appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice where he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Michael Chertoff, the Criminal Division Chief. In the summer of 2001, AAG Chertoff granted him a detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to the USAO for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. In that capacity, Tim prosecuted a variety of federal cases with an emphasis on firearm and drug cases. He also organized the Eastern District’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Bush Administration's initiative to reduce firearm-related violence by promoting close cooperation between state and federal law enforcement, and served as the PSN coordinator. From 1997-1999, Tim served as Senior Investigative Counsel to the Government Reform Committee, U.S. House of Representatives. Pursuant to the Committee’s campaign finance investigation, he organized, supervised and conducted the financial investigation of individuals and entities; interviewed witnesses; and drafted subpoenas. He interviewed Johnny Chung and played a key role in planning the hearing at which Chung testified and detailed his illegal political contributions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy no obvious connection to chao Tim also served as an Associate Independent Counsel, In Re: Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Henry Cisneros; and as an associate attorney with the New Orleans law firm of Jones, Walker. Tim is also the founder and principal of the Griffin Law Firm, PLLC, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is a member of the Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive) bars. He is a cum laude graduate of both Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he received his B.A., and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he received his J.D. He also attended graduate school in Modern British and European History at Pembroke College,Oxford University, in Oxford, England. Tim was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, was raised in Magnolia, Arkansas, and now resides in Little Rock, with his wife, Elizabeth, a native of Camden, Arkansas, and their daughter. http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=3946	JOHN TIMOTHY “TIM” GRIFFIN As the Principal and General Counsel of Griffin Public Affairs, LLC (GPA), Tim Griffin is personally involved with all key strategic and tactical decisions and ensures that all GPA clients receive the individual attention and service they expect and deserve. He brings a unique perspective to GPA, drawing upon his experience at the highest levels of government and presidential politics where he excelled in a number of disciplines, including law, communications, research and management. Prior to founding GPA, Tim served as General Counsel and Managing Director of Mercury Public Affairs(MPA), a firm headquartered in New York City. From 2006-2007, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, a District that includes 41 of Arkansas’s 75 counties and the cities of Little Rock, Jonesboro and Pine Bluff. During his tenure, in addition to federal criminal prosecutions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) provided outreach and training in rural counties and provided federal civil rights law training to law enforcement and community leaders. Tim is currently serving in his 11th year as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and holds the rank of Major. He was mobilized to active duty in 2005 as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq, for which he was awarded theCombat Action Badge. When mobilized to active duty, Tim was serving as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs at the White House. In that capacity, he advised President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard B. Cheney and organized and coordinated support for the President’s agenda, including the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as Research Director and Deputy Communications Director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2004 presidential campaign, Deputy Research Director for the RNC during the 2000 presidential campaign and as legal advisor to the 2000 Bush-Cheney Recount Team in Florida. From 2001-2002, Tim served as an appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice where he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Michael Chertoff, the Criminal Division Chief. In the summer of 2001, AAG Chertoff granted him a detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to the USAO for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. In that capacity, Tim prosecuted a variety of federal cases with an emphasis on firearm and drug cases. He also organized the Eastern District’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Bush Administration's initiative to reduce firearm-related violence by promoting close cooperation between state and federal law enforcement, and served as the PSN coordinator. From 1997-1999, Tim served as Senior Investigative Counsel to the Government Reform Committee, U.S. House of Representatives. Pursuant to the Committee’s campaign finance investigation, he organized, supervised and conducted the financial investigation of individuals and entities; interviewed witnesses; and drafted subpoenas. He interviewed Johnny Chung and played a key role in planning the hearing at which Chung testified and detailed his illegal political contributions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy no obvious connection to chao Tim also served as an Associate Independent Counsel, In Re: Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Henry Cisneros; and as an associate attorney with the New Orleans law firm of Jones, Walker. Tim is also the founder and principal of the Griffin Law Firm, PLLC, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is a member of the Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive) bars. He is a cum laude graduate of both Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he received his B.A., and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he received his J.D. He also attended graduate school in Modern British and European History at Pembroke College,Oxford University, in Oxford, England. Tim was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, was raised in Magnolia, Arkansas, and now resides in Little Rock, with his wife, Elizabeth, a native of Camden, Arkansas, and their daughter. http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=3946

Mr. J. Timothy GriffinGriffin Public Affairs, LLC

Regular Member

Office:

2300 Cottondale Lane

Suite 230

Little Rock, AR 72202

Phone: 501 664 5190

Email: tg@griffinpublicaffairsllc.com

Law School: Tulane (1994)

Foreign Languages: French

Practice Areas:

Ethics

Litigation

Military

JOHN TIMOTHY “TIM” GRIFFIN

As the Principal and General Counsel of Griffin Public Affairs, LLC (GPA), Tim Griffin is personally involved with all key strategic and tactical decisions and ensures that all GPA clients receive the individual attention and service they expect and deserve. He brings a unique perspective to GPA, drawing upon his experience at the highest levels of government and presidential politics where he excelled in a number of disciplines, including law, communications, research and management.

Prior to founding GPA, Tim served as General Counsel and Managing Director of Mercury Public Affairs(MPA), a firm headquartered in New York City. From 2006-2007, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, a District that includes 41 of Arkansas’s 75 counties and the cities of Little Rock, Jonesboro and Pine Bluff. During his tenure, in addition to federal criminal prosecutions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) provided outreach and training in rural counties and provided federal civil rights law training to law enforcement and community leaders.

Tim is currently serving in his 11th year as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and holds the rank of Major. He was mobilized to active duty in 2005 as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq, for which he was awarded theCombat Action Badge.

When mobilized to active duty, Tim was serving as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs at the White House. In that capacity, he advised President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard B. Cheney and organized and coordinated support for the President’s agenda, including the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

He served as Research Director and Deputy Communications Director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2004 presidential campaign, Deputy Research Director for the RNC during the 2000 presidential campaign and as legal advisor to the 2000 Bush-Cheney Recount Team in Florida.

From 2001-2002, Tim served as an appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice where he was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Michael Chertoff, the Criminal Division Chief. In the summer of 2001, AAG Chertoff granted him a detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to the USAO for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. In that capacity, Tim prosecuted a variety of federal cases with an emphasis on firearm and drug cases. He also organized the Eastern District’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Bush Administration's initiative to reduce firearm-related violence by promoting close cooperation between state and federal law enforcement, and served as the PSN coordinator.

From 1997-1999, Tim served as Senior Investigative Counsel to the Government Reform Committee, U.S. House of Representatives. Pursuant to the Committee’s campaign finance investigation, he organized, supervised and conducted the financial investigation of individuals and entities; interviewed witnesses; and drafted subpoenas. He interviewed Johnny Chung and played a key role in planning the hearing at which Chung testified and detailed his illegal political contributions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy

no obvious connection to chao

Tim also served as an Associate Independent Counsel, In Re: Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Henry Cisneros; and as an associate attorney with the New Orleans law firm of Jones, Walker.

Tim is also the founder and principal of the Griffin Law Firm, PLLC, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is a member of the Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive) bars. He is a cum laude graduate of both Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he received his B.A., and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he received his J.D. He also attended graduate school in Modern British and European History at Pembroke College,Oxford University, in Oxford, England. Tim was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, was raised in Magnolia, Arkansas, and now resides in Little Rock, with his wife, Elizabeth, a native of Camden, Arkansas, and their daughter.

http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=3946

JOHN TIMOTHY “TIM” GRIFFIN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy

no obvious connection to chao

http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=3946

JOHN TIMOTHY “TIM” GRIFFIN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy

no obvious connection to chao

http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=3946

The Combat Action Badge (CAB) is a military badge worn by U.S. Army soldiers. The emblem features both an M9 bayonet and M67 grenade. The Combat Action Badge may be awarded to any soldier not eligible for the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) or Combat Medical Badge (CMB) after the date of September 18, 2001 performing duties in an area where hostile fire pay or imminent danger pay is authorized, who is personally present and actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy, and performing satisfactorily in accordance with the prescribed rules of engagement.

Griffin, Tim Rep Ag

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2014 election

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**Decision 2010: Tim Griffin and Voter Caging**

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Contents

Early life and education

Pre-congressional political career

Prior to 2004

2004 presidential election

White House (2005–2006)

U.S. Attorney (2006–2007)

2008 presidential election

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Decision 2010: Tim Griffin and Voter Caging