"The Phone Calls Would Have Been Flying" By Paul Kiel - March 19, 2007, 1:58 PM
Yesterday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) revealed that U.S. Attorney Carol Lam had notified the Justice Department on May 10, 2006, that she intended to execute search warrants on CIA executive director Dusty Foggo. The next day, Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson wrote in an email that "the real problem we have right now" is with Lam, adding that they should have a replacement ready by November.
U.S. News gives a little more context for Sampson's urgency:
In politically sensitive cases, the U.S. attorney's office notifies senior Justice Department leadership of developments in the case by sending what's known as an urgent report. In this case, the U.S. attorney in San Diego sent an urgent report to Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty at 10:16 a.m. on May 10, notifying them of the imminent search.... "The phone calls would have been flying," says a former Justice official who has worked closely with the CIA. "The CIA would be jumping up and down and putting pressure to stop it or slow it down."
Many intelligence sources say the concern would not have been over Foggo personally–because he was generally "despised"–but that the CIA would have had an institutional interest in keeping itself out of any scandal.
"There would have been a two-pronged attack," says the former Justice official, "to protect the agency and to get rid of Lam." Even though Foggo had quit the agency, he still had many friends there who viewed themselves as being at risk.
"It's second nature to the CIA," says the former official. "Somebody's causing trouble. Get rid of them."