Where the rivers of scandal join: Meet Susan Ralston

While almost nobody was paying attention this week, a woman by the name of Susan Ralston asked the House Oversight Committee for immunity from prosecution.

Ms. Ralston is the former executive assistant to White House adviser Karl Rove, and before that, she was an assistant to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, currently in jail after pleading guilty to conspiracy to corrupt public officials.

The House Oversight Committee has asked Ms. Ralston to testify about her knowledge of contacts between Abramoff and administration officials.

This would be a good time for Vice President Dick Cheney to check the batteries in his pacemaker.

America Wants to Know has previously traced the links connecting Mr. Cheney's office to the appointment of Patrick Pizzella, a former Abramoff colleague, to a job in the Labor Department.

But it's just recently that our cracked team of psychics and gumshoes has identified a link between Jack Abramoff and the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last December.

We call to your attention this widely unnoticed news item from April 9th: NBC News producer Joel Seidman reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Schwartz filed court papers in March asking for a reduction in Jack Abramoff's six-year sentence, "based upon the defendant having provided substantial assistance to the government in the investigation and/or prosecution of others."

Investigations take time, so if the prosecutor was asking for a sentence reduction in March, it is not unreasonable to infer that targets of the Abramoff investigation were receiving visits from federal authorities in the months prior to December, 2006, when the U.S. attorneys were suddenly fired.

It made our cracked team wonder if some of those targets telephoned their best contacts in the Bush administration to ask for help, and if those requests landed on the desk of Karl Rove.

Someday soon we will find out what Jack Abramoff has been saying that merits a reduction in his sentence, and we will be able to follow the pointing finger around the country to see if it matches up with the U.S. attorneys who were fired in December.

Then we'll all know if White House officials coordinated an attempt to obstruct the prosecution of public corruption cases by replacing key U.S. attorneys with loyal and politically ambitious new appointees.

Jack Abramoff's next court appearance in the influence-peddling case is scheduled for June 5th.

Stay tuned.


Copyright 2007

.