More on Trent Lott

While I have no sympathy whatsoever for State Farm, nor any other insurance company that sought to deny Katrina claims over semantics (i.e., if Category 5 force hurricane winds lift up the goddamn Gulf and slam it into your house, is that wind or flood damage?), I also think that an acting Senator (at the time) using his stature to influence the players in a pending legal case is pretty foul.

Anyway, Wednesday night, I posted an AP news item on a State Farm attorney introducing the prospect that Trent Lott, on behalf of his brother-in-law (and in his own self-interest as a claimant in the case against State Farm), may have urged witnesses to give false information. Under questioning on the issue, Zach Scruggs invoked the 5th.

On Thursday, that attorney, Jim Robie, talked with LegalNewsLine:

"Clearly, the record couldn't be more plain that Sen. Lott and his associates were talking to people that were key advisers to Mr. Scruggs, paid consultants and those who were creating an illusion that simply doesn't have any basic fact," Robie told Legal Newsline on Thursday.

Robie said he will continue his efforts to depose both Richard and Zach Scruggs, during which he will probe the influence of Lott.

"I expect to follow-up deposition of both Zach and Dick, which will now have to take place in a federal penitentiary," Robie said. "They clearly had a close liaison with Sen. Lott."

Robie said Lott, a leading Republican, initiated contact with people surrounding this case, something unprecedented for a U.S. Senator.

"Have you ever had a U.S. Senator call you?" he asked rhetorically.

Bret Boyles, a spokesman for Lott's lobbying firm The Breaux Lott Leadership Group, told Legal Newsline the former senator had no interest in justifying the implication with a response....

...Both Zach and his father invoked their Fifth Amendment right to virtually every question asked of them during their deposition last week. The pair filed a motion Friday asking the court to seal their testimony to State Farm, claiming it could hurt them in future criminal proceedings, and compromise their Fifth Amendment rights.

"There are no seal orders," Robie said. "We filed our motions to compel and they are public record."

Lott's name surfaced during the Scruggs legal odyssey when one of the convicted attorneys testified that Scruggs instructed him to offer a bribe to influence a county circuit judge, not with cash as in the case he pleaded guilty to, but "the influence of Mr. Scruggs' brother-in-law, who was Sen. Trent Lott, to put him on a list to be considered for a federal vacancy.''

Lott did place a call to the judge, but did not nominate him, according to published reports.

Lott unexpectedly announced his resignation from the Senate just days before Richard Scruggs was indicted last November. At the time, CNN reported that Lott's resignation was due in part to an act that took effect at the end of 2007 forbidding lawmakers from lobbying for two years after leaving office.

Lott said his desire to spend more time with family, not the new law, influenced his decision to resign. Less than two months (later) he opened his lobbying firm.

Trent Lott, Witness Coach?

The Scruggs' request to have their testimony sealed was denied. So what's news? According to the AP:

An insurance company's attorney suggested during a sworn deposition that former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott urged witnesses to give false information in a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit, according to court records.

The implication was made last week during a deposition with Lott's nephew, Zach Scruggs, who represented the former Mississippi Republican senator after his Pascagoula home was destroyed by the 2005 storm. Zach Scruggs is the son and law partner of disgraced former attorney Richard ''Dickie'' Scruggs, Lott's brother-in-law.

''Has it been your custom and habit in prosecuting litigation to have Senator Lott contact and encourage witnesses to give false information?'' State Farm Fire & Casualty Cos. attorney Jim Robie asked, according to a transcript of the deposition.

''I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights in response to that question,'' Zach Scruggs responded.

Hmmm.

UPDATE: A bit more on the matter here.

Ain't Goin' Nowhere Just Yet

Trent Lott makes noises about running for his old leadership position, according to a subscribers-only Breaking News Alert from The Hill:

If Lott were to retain his old post, it would be regarded as one of the most dramatic political comebacks since Richard Nixon recovered from his loss in the California governor race in 1962.

"There are a lot of problems in here," Lott said motioning toward the Senate chamber as he stood outside it. McConnell is expected to succeed Frist, and his ally Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), the chief deputy majority whip, has said that McConnell has locked up over 40 of the 55 Senate Republican votes. [...]

[...]"I want to keep it dangling out there to keep everyone uneasy," Lott said of his plans to run for leadership should he not retire.

As for the difficult prospects of defeating McConnell, Lott said that senators "reconsider their positions" and that others "flat out lie," referring to lawmakers who may promise to vote for a leadership candidate and later switch their votes.

Lott said that he got elected whip in 1994 by challenging Republican Whip Al Simpson (R-Wyo.), despite heavy lobbying from then Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who "did everything to keep me from winning." Lott won the whip post 27-26 thanks to the backing of younger conservatives elected to the Senate in 1992 and 1994.

Not sure that sounds like a man fixin' to retire. No matter how he qualifies the statement. Unless he really is just trying to sow unease and discontent among the Republican leadership. Either way, should be interesting to watch.

Doh! Never Mind

Seems like Trent Lott's disclosure the other day, that the leak about the CIA's secret prison system in Eastern Europe and beyond (Jane Mayer, interviewed on CNN this morning, said it stretches all the way from Thailand to the former Soviet Union) had almost certainly come from fellow Republicans has changed the GOP's plans sharply. Maybe, Pat Roberts (R-Coverup) thinks, Hastert and Frist were a bit too hasty in their hope to drive some nails into the press.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said he will "respectfully" request that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) back off a strongly worded request that a bicameral investigation into the disclosure be convened immediately. Frist spokeswoman Amy Call said the majority leader had not decided how to respond. "He always takes what his chairmen say into consideration," she said. [...]

[...] The CIA general counsel's office also has notified the Justice Department that a release of classified information took place in connection with The Post's report. After the CIA details what it sees as the damage done by the article, Justice prosecutors will determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted.

Asked how long that could take, Roberts joked, "Decades," indicating he is in no rush to convene his own inquiry.

Strange, though, no mention of Trent Lott's indication that the call was coming from inside the house.....


[Update] Lott is now explaining his statement away today (from the subscription-only Roll Call, excerpted by Atrios) by claiming he was simply confused and was instead referring to another Washington Post story dealing with the Vice President begging GOP Senators on bended knee for the CIA to be allowed to perform the torture the US isn't practicing anyhow. Get it? Hey, don't feel so bad, Trent, I'm confused too.

“Two separate issues, they got tangled up,” Lott explained.

A Rare Occasion

It's an extraordinarily rare occasion when I find myself in agreement with Republican leadership, but that's where I find myself today. Yesterday Hastert and Frist were trying to muddy the leak investigation waters by playacting outrage over the leaking of classified information regarding the secret prisons being run in our name in the former Soviet Union.

Were they concerned with the underlying fact there, that we're running secret prisons in the former Soviet Union, for crissakes? No, but they were PO'd to high hell (or at least that's the stance they decided to take) that word about it got out. So they called for an investigation. Good.

Let's investigate just what in God's name is going on with this secret prison system the CIA is running. Why the need for secret prisons, may I ask? What exactly are you hiding there? Whatever it is, I'm sure it falls squarely within the boundaries of the law. We don't torture, don't ya know.

And Trent Lott. My, my, my. Revenge is a dish best served cold, isn't it Trent? Unfortunately for the best laid plans of these two mice-men, Trent seems to know where the leak originated. Seems the subject came up during Dick "Dick" Cheney's closed door meeting with Republican senators last week and then made its way to the Post.

Cheney, of course, was there trying to strong-arm the GOP senators into into supporting his desperately desired CIA exemption from the anti-torture amendment (hmm....what is it, again, that 2 plus 2 equals? Oh yeah. Wholly un-American and immoral activities sanctioned by the Vice President and his minions). "We have met the enemy," Lott told CNN's Ed Henry, "and it is us."

No kidding.

Lott on Dobson

They turn on themselves:

"'James Dobson: Who does he think he is, questioning my conservative credentials?' Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said in an interview. Dobson, head of the conservative group Focus on the Family, criticized Lott for his efforts to forge a compromise in the fight over the judges. Lott is still angry. 'Some of his language and conduct is quite un-Christian, and I don't appreciate it,' the senator said."

With any luck, the implosion will lay waste to them all.