Letter: To Alberto Gonzales, US Attorney General
Letter: To Alberto Gonzales, US Attorney General
Dear Mr. Attorney General:
In the last week, we learned that the Administration has asked for the resignation of Carol Lam, United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. Ms. Lam announced yesterday that she has submitted her resignation effective February 15th.
Prior to her appointment as U.S. Attorney, Ms. Lam was a San Diego Superior Court Judge and a career prosecutor. Since her appointment as U.S. Attorney in 2002, we have heard no suggestion that she was either unqualified for the position or that she was guilty of misconduct in her office.
To the contrary, since word of the Administration's effort to remove Ms. Lam surfaced, reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune quote other prosecutors and defense lawyers as being "universally shocked" by her impending dismissal. San Diego's City Attorney called Lam, "the most outstanding U.S. Attorney we've ever had." The head of the FBI office in San Diego called Lam "crucial to the success of multiple ongoing investigations" adding that she "has an excellent reputation and has done an excellent job."
Given this praise and concern for the potential ramifications of her sudden departure, we are perplexed as to why you have chosen to remove Ms. Lam from the U.S. Attorneys' office in San Diego now. The one reason we've heard suggested for her dismissal was a decrease in immigration-related prosecutions, yet in the months of May, June and July of 2006, the U.S. Attorneys' Office in the Southern District of California was one of the top three USAOs in immigration prosecutions, hardly a record that would lead to removal.
At the moment, Ms. Lam is leading an office in the middle of a high-profile public corruption investigation. While the work on this investigation led to the conviction of former-Rep. Cunningham, a number of other corruption probes have grown out of the case and are still pending. We do not doubt that removing Ms. Lam from the U.S. Attorneys' office in San Diego now will disrupt this investigation.
Forcing Ms. Lam's resignation now leaves the appearance that this growing public corruption probe may be part of the Administration's motivation in removing her. If this is untrue, it is vitally important that this perception be corrected, and we ask you to share with us the basis of your request for her resignation.
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr. Howard L. Berman
Chairman Member
House Committee on the Judiciary House Committee on the Judiciary
http://www.house.gov/list/press/ca28_berman/carollam.html