1 Boring Old Man

George S. Cardona Named Acting United States Attorney

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney George S. Cardona was named yesterday by the Justice Department as acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California pending the appointment of Debra Wong Yang’s successor.

“[Yang] was very good as U.S. attorney and she’ll certainly be missed by the office,” Cardona told the MetNews.  “We’ve got a large number of excellent assistants and we’ll try to keep doing the good things we’ve been doing.”

A permanent successor has yet to be appointed for the top federal prosecutor, who resigned from her post effective Friday in order to co-chair Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s national crisis management practice starting Jan. 1. 

Cardona, who was previously the number two person under Yang, said that he is not seeking the presidential appointment, but declined to say why.

“I haven’t put my name in as a candidate,” he said, adding that he could not estimate when his term as interim leader would end.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office could not give an estimated time frame within which to expect a permanent appointment, or the names of those under consideration. Beverly Hills attorney Nathan Hochman, a former assistant U.S. attorney, has reportedly expressed interest in the position.

Deborah Wong Yang was not one of the fired Attorneys. She resigned a month before the firings began to take a high profile private sector job. But frankly, I smell a huge rat here, as do others. She was winding up to investigate Representative Jerry Lewis, R-California, who is implicated in big-time bad doings. Suddenly she resigns a month before the heads begin to roll. She says that it was unrelated to the coming blood bath, but I wonder.

Recall that Kyle Sampson over and over suggested trying to ease people out rather than fire them – let them resign and "save face." And there are all of those lists with the names whited out. And Congressman Lewis is still walking the streets while being suspected of major league corruption. And, the replacement U.S. Attorney doesn’t want to go out for Senate Confirmation giving no reason?

I’m betting this was a harbinger of things to come – an eased out U.S. Attorney "saving face;" a permanent interim replacement who doesn’t have to go before the Senate; a dropped Republican Corruption Case. Senator Diane Feinstein, D-California has been on top of this very suspicious incident. Lets hope she stays on it…