By John Simerman New Orleans Times-Picayune NEW ORLEANS — Two of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten’s strongest backers in Washington expressed concern Wednesday about the recent allegation that a second top prosecutor in his office had posted intemperate remarks online taking bitter aim at targets of federal probes. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. and Sen. David Vitter,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Four conservative activists including political prankster James O’Keefe, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to misdemeanor charges stemming from their prank in January to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phones in New Orleans, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. O’Keefe, the group leader and the most prominent of the four, was…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com New Orleans U.S. Attorney Jim Letten removed himself last week from the phone tampering scandal involving Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. The paper said a press release sent Monday night to reporters stated Letten recused himself from the case because of “various relevant factors.” The…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — NBC’s Pete Williams is reporting that the four men arrested Monday for tampering with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phones in her downtown New Orleans office were not trying to wiretap the phones, but “wanted to see how her local office staff would respond if the phones were inoperative.” Williams’ attributed…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The question that has to be asked — and in fact it has is: What the heck is going on with New Orleans U.S. Attorney Jim Letten? The legendary reporter Bruce Alpert of the New Orleans Times-Picayune has written a story stating that Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office “is…
The Senator had been hinting for months that she would back the current U.S. Attorney. The Obama administration has said that it won’t simply replace U.S. Attorneys because they were appointed by a Republican. So far, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago is the only Republican-appointed U.S. Attorney who has been told he can stay…
