Court accused of covering for Obama in 'Walpingate'

If it isn't Sestakgate, it's something else. The Manchurian President that promised open and transparent government is not showing any cooperation, though. The White House is determined to avoid, and then stall yet another investigation into their shenanigans. Attorney General Eric Holder is not here to protect us and make sure the law is enforced. Instead, he is the Obama lackey whose job it is to stonewall anything that comes at the administration. Just sayin'...

Grassley and Issa concluded, "None of the documents produced after the publication of our initial report undermine or conflict with the conclusions of the [final] report. Arguably, some of the new documents could actually reinforce the public perception that the inspector general was removed for political reasons.

"In particular, the revelation that the acting U.S. attorney was seeking a presidential appointment at the time he filed a complaint against Walpin puts that complaint in a different light," they continue. "Moreover, the fact that the White House allowed the documents to be withheld for so long and that it required so much effort to finally obtain them also suggests a lack of transparency that is inconsistent with the goals repeatedly articulated by President Obama for a more open and accountable administration."

Judge appears to be stonewalling scandal linked to White House

By Drew Zahn

Posted: May 28, 2010 ~ 10:40 pm Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Former Inspector General
Gerald Walpin

Former Inspector General Gerald Walpin, whose dismissal by President Obama last year has been challenged by congressmen as potentially illegal political retaliation, is now stepping up the battle to get his job back, accusing the judicial system of stalling his case and, thus, doing the White House a convenient favor.

Court documents filed last week accuse U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts of failing to act within federally mandated time requirements and "doing nothing at all" to move the case forward.

Similarly, a joint congressional report by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., which found the administration had failed to comply with requirements of the law and "orchestrated an after-the-fact smear campaign to justify the president's action," has been allowed to languish.

Meanwhile, "Walpingate" fades from the public memory, and the White House has moved on to appoint Walpin's replacement, as though the scandal were resolved.

The advantage the White House gains by delays in the case hasn't been lost on a recent Washington Times editorial, which calls for a halt to nomination of Jonathan Hatfield to Walpin's old position:

"[Judge Roberts] has played into the hands of the Obama administration, which has used every possible stalling tactic to keep the case buried and its merits unexamined," the editorial contends. "The goal, which is highly improper, seems to be to render Mr. Walpin's case moot by putting Mr. Hatfield in his place."

The editorial insists the integrity of the offices of inspector general is even more important for "an administration increasingly known for outlandish stonewalling of Congress and the press and for its Justice Department's refusal to investigate any purported administration wrongdoing."

As WND reported, the White House fired Walpin from his watchdog position over the Corporation for National and Community Services shortly after the inspector general exposed sexual misconduct and gross misappropriation of federal funds by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a prominent Barack Obama supporter.

Independent federal inspectors general, however, are supposed to be granted special protection from political interference or retaliation – thanks in part to a law co-sponsored by then-Sen. Barack Obama – to ensure they are free to investigate waste and fraud uninfluenced by political cronyism.

Congressmen Grassley and Issa, however, issued a report suspecting Obama of violating his own law.

"Throughout our investigation of Mr. Walpin's removal, the White House has repeatedly communicated that the president was not motivated by inappropriate political reasons," said Issa. "The fact is Gerald Walpin led an aggressive investigation of a political ally of President Obama that successfully recovered taxpayer dollars. While firing an investigator who uncovered the abuse of funds by a political ally might be considered an act of 'political courage' in Chicago politics, for most Americans it raises troubling questions."

Walpin had sued the CNCS in July of last year, seeking reinstatement. Dozens of procedural steps and court filings later, however, the judge has refused to take any action on the case, save granting the defense an extension and denying a preliminary injunction request that would have required the CNCS to supply affidavits and documents in its defense.

Now Walpin is petitioning a higher court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to issue a writ of mandamus directing Judge Roberts to either promptly resolve the outstanding motions in the lawsuit or transfer the case to a judge who can.

According to court filings, Walpin "brings this petition reluctantly, and only after trying by every other means reasonable available to try to break the logjam in his case."

The documents also cite Grassley and Issa's report, before declaring the judge "need not have allowed such unlawfulness to continue and should, at the very least, have ensured that the substantive questions be timely tried."

The origins of 'Walpingate'

In 2008, Walpin was overseeing an investigation of St. HOPE Academy, a charter school founded and operated by Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and self-described friend of Barack Obama. Walpin referred Johnson to the U.S. attorney's office for criminal and civil prosecution for "false and fraudulent conduct in connection with $845,018.75 in federal funds."

According to Walpin's referral, St. HOPE used members of AmeriCorps – which is run by CNCS – for political campaigning to re-elect Board of Education incumbents, and the hours spent on those elections were improperly recorded as AmeriCorps service hours.

"The money was given to St. HOPE to finance AmeriCorps members, who are basically volunteers that they call members, to do tutoring in schools among disadvantaged students," Walpin told Eric Hogue of Hogue News. "My investigation found they didn't use the AmeriCorps members for tutoring; they used them to drive Mr. Johnson around, to wash his car, to do all sorts of janitorial and administrative work [that] the money wasn't given to them for."

Johnson's eligibility to receive federal grants was consequently suspended on Sept. 24, 2008.

Despite Johnson's proven misconduct, the voters of Sacramento elected him mayor less than two months later. But when, in February 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the city of Sacramento's eligibility to receive stimulus funds under ARRA was thought to be threatened by Johnson's suspension.

The U.S. attorney's office, headed by acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown, negotiated a favorable settlement for Johnson that reinstated his eligibility to receive federal funds.

According to Grassley's and Issa's report, however, the settlement included "no meaningful guarantee" that the United States would ever actually collect any payments from St. HOPE, which was saddled with the bulk of the settlement.

Last May, Walpin, who had been shut out of the settlement negotiations by Brown, complained to the board that oversees AmeriCorps funding, prompting Brown to file a complaint against Walpin.

Three weeks later, Walpin received a phone call from the White House telling him to resign or be fired. Walpin refused the phone ultimatum and was fired 45 minutes later, despite a law requiring the president to give 30-days notice to Congress before removing an IG and to explain the reasons for doing so.

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FBI e-mail investigation fingers White House?

Fired inspector says Obama's explanation of dismissal a 'total lie' Posted: June 17, 2009 10:08 pm Eastern © 2009 WorldNetDaily The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun looking into a dispute that is linked to an AmeriCorps money scandal that has fingers pointing all the way up to the White House because of President Obama's dismissal of an inspector general who was on the case. According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown has confirmed the agency is looking into the "circumstances" regarding the alleged destruction of e-mails regarding a dispute over the handling of money at Mayor Kevin Johnson's "brainchild" St. HOPE Academy, which had been investigated after allegations that public funds were misused. As WND reported earlier, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley is asking for an investigation into Obama's firing of the independent inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who had been charged with rooting out corruption in the AmeriCorps program – and had sought action against Obama's friend, Johnson. Walpin told WND in an interview he didn't think the timing of his firing was a coincidence, and indeed, he said, "I was fired for doing my job." Radio host Rush Limbaugh accused the administration of breaking the law by firing Walpin, attributing it to "political cronyism" and declaring, "Alberto Gonzales as attorney general fired a couple of U.S. attorneys. He took hell for it. This is bigger. Inspectors general are supposed to be completely above politics." One of the participants in the Bee forum page said, "This story will be bigger than Watergate IF the facts are allowed the light of day." A settlement had been reached in the St. HOPE case that required the return of $400,000 of "misused grants for AmeriCorps volunteers." While Walpin's investigation suggested no more federal money be distributed through those specific channels, Rick Maya, who left his job as executive director with St. HOPE recently, claimed in his resignation letter a member of the charter school's board had deleted e-mails by Johnson during the federal investigation, according to the newspaper. That allegation caught the interest of Brown, who confirmed to the newspaper the FBI investigation was open, although he was "not at liberty to discuss the details." The newspaper said while the academy was under subpoena, Maya notified the board that board member Sam Oki allegedly had accessed – and deleted – some of the e-mail in the academy system. "We had to pay thousands of dollars to recover the information deleted from our e-mail system as a result of this highly inappropriate and potentially unlawful incursion into our e-mail system," Maya's letter said, according to the newspaper. "We are still unsure whether all of the deleted information has been recovered." To the newspaper, Oki denied the allegation but declined to comment further. But to Fox news, and other media organizations willing to interview him since his abrupt dismissal, Walpin said Obama's explanation that Walpin was "confused" and "disoriented" and that was why he was dismissed was "absolutely wild." He also appeared on the Glenn Beck show on Fox today, responding quickly, accurately and coherently to a long list of instructions and questions, apparently to test his "confusion." [CONTINUE READING]

Obama fires watchdog who barked at his crony ~ By Drew Zahn

Rush Limbaugh calls action illegal, 'bigger' than Alberto Gonzales fray By Drew Zahn Posted: June 13, 2009 7:25 pm Eastern © 2009 WorldNetDaily Former Inspector General Gerald Walpin filed two reports exposing gross misappropriation of federal AmeriCorps funds by a prominent Barack Obama supporter and was shortly thereafter fired by the White House, circumstances he told WND are likely linked and others have called an outright illegal action by the administration. "I think you have to look at the facts and the circumstances and reach your conclusions," Walpin said in a WND interview. "I will tell you that [my firing] came only after we had issued those two reports to Congress, and I don't think that's a coincidence." Further, Walpin said, "I am convinced that I and my office are not guilty of any impropriety. In essence, I was fired for doing my job." Independent, federal inspectors general are supposed to be granted special protection from political interference – thanks in part to a law co-sponsored by the then-Senator Barack Obama – to ensure that they are free to investigate waste and fraud uninfluenced by political cronyism. But after Walpin dared to push for action against the St. HOPE Academy program – run by Obama supporter and former NBA star Kevin Johnson – which had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal AmeriCorps funds, he nonetheless found himself fired by the White House under circumstances that have led some to wonder if Obama has violated his own co-sponsored law in retaliation. "There are two big questions about the president's actions," writes Byron York, chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner. "One, why did he decide to fire Walpin? And two, did he abide by the law that he himself co-sponsored?" Radio talk host Rush Limbaugh fired off an answer to York's questions on his program yesterday: "Firing an inspector general is a big deal. If you'll remember, Alberto Gonzales as attorney general fired a couple of U.S. attorneys. He took hell for it. This is bigger. Inspectors general are supposed to be completely above politics," Limbaugh commented. "This is big. This is political cronyism, power and so forth. … I'm telling you, firing an I.G., because they're not political, it is a much bigger deal than replacing United States attorneys." Furthermore, Limbaugh stated, the unusual circumstances surrounding the night before Walpin's dismissal constitutes a clear violation of the very law Obama helped to pass as a senator. "The Obama administration did it overnight," Limbaugh stated. "[It] broke the law firing the AmeriCorps I.G." [CONTINUE READING]

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