More Details Emerge In President Obama’s Firing of Inspector General

Why is the NYTimes not reporting this?

It sounds like he was a difficult person to work with.
It also sounds like, for all their problems with Walpin, Brown really did have a problem on his hands with Project Hope. Odd that even now he seems to kind of want to brush that aside.
I don’t know. On the one hand, I don’t want to say nobody should ever be fired. On the other hand, with so much stimulus money floating around out there, I want someone who will be a fierce advocate for the taxpayers.
Patrick Fitzgerald was/is a pain too. His press conference when he arrested Blagojavich was very unprofessional. Yet people admire his grit and desire to go after people.
Is Walpin a Patrick Fitzgerald-type or just a loose cannon?
I know what the taxpayer-side of me thinks.

Having been on many investigative committees, Walpin went too far. He was not following the chain of command and in the Federal govt that borders on insorbodinate (grounds for dismissal). He can be the lead investigator and make recommendations but going to the newspaper, putting out statements that was way overboard and needed to be fired. Rules need to be follwed and Walpin clearly was acting on his own authority.

Looks like Obama needs to make more Kool-aid. More & more I see peoples cups empty.

Ultimately the US Attorney’s office determined that “a significant portion of the AmeriCorps grant funds were appropriately expended.”
___________________________________
That looks like “spin” from the US Attorney’s office. From a taxpayer point of view, I read it as a confirmation that a portion of AmeriCorps grant funds were inappropriately expended. The IG did his job.

Gerald Walpin is a Kenneth Starr clone who was the head of the Federalist Society Litigation Project to take down Bill Clinton along with Ted Olsen, Kenneth Starr, etc., and funded by Richard Mellon Scaife.
He followed the Ken Starr model against Johnson including leaks to the press, criminal referrals, etc. After his scheme to take down Johnson failed, he issued an unsolicited “Starr” report to Congress to both cover his butt for his improper actions and to further smear Johnson, including with a dubious sex charge! They had to get rid of him. He’s crazy and dangerous.

This whole thing would look a lot better for the President if he had articulated his reasons in the letter to congress more than ‘because I said so’. Maybe he did, I haven’t seen the letter from the President giving his reasons to congress.

Expect to see many more such firings of those that interfere with Obama’s personal agenda.
And expect to see left wing media outlets continue to ignore Obama’s dictatorial actions as he decimates those that oppose him.
And expect to see venues, like this, where we can discuss it, dry up.

Kevin Johnson was using the Americorp grant for personal use – i.e. paying the people who wash his car, run his personal errands, etc.
Mr. Walpin evidently felt that the US Taxpayer should not be supporting Mr. Johnson’s lifestyle.
President Obama is looking for someone who will wink and look the other way for the abuses and mis-uses of US taxpayer monies that is being funneled into Americorps and look askance at his unethical plans for Americorp.
If one scours the internet one can find more in-depth and informative articles.

This report is “he said, she said”. Clearly something was improper with Johnson in Sacramento, since more than $400,000.00 had to be returned. But it would be helpful if ABC, and any other newspaper, would report on the statutes and precedent regarding the role and behavior of an IG and its relationship the IG relationship to the justice department in reporting an incident. Then we would be in a better position to determine if the IG was or was not out of line; or if, Obama is out of line.
Personally, I don’t trust Obama when it comes to oversight of anything having to do with his campaign contributors and any community based organizations, who are basically federally funded subsidiaries of the Democrat Party.

Oh, I’m sorry, it was his HEAD that swelled with self-importance.
Posted by: nanameow
He must have been infected by the disease that is common in this administration. Except that he actually saved the tax payers some of their money.

Jake, you’ve left out the part about the repayment of $400K. Who pays back $400K if they’ve done nothing wrong? Come on man, you’re better than that.

Clearly the Inspector violated his hiring agreement to stay within channels when he finds wrongdoing. Its not up to the inspector to say ok now I decide to take this public ….
So as in ANY corporate structure, he was let go. I find it hard to believe how he thought it would go any other way ?
Posted by: SEREN
Perhaps he thought he could use the same “channels” Obama has used to take ownership of Chrysler and GM. If only he had been a Tsar of some kind.

Walpin was a wingnut operator who executed a political hit on Johnson. Read the report he sent, unsolicited, to Congress after they decided to refer him to the ethics board for unethical behavior. It’s nuts. A real sleazefest. This guy was not operating as an IG. He was operating as a political hit man. He also broke all of the rules of his job to execute the hit. That makes him incompetent, insubordinate and dangerous.

When can I seek the resignation of this adminstration. I never had confidence in him.

To sac citizen | Jun 13, 2009 2:01:03 PM
___________________________
Very informative. Thank you. Jake, are you doing any investigative work wrt Johnson and St. HOPE?

Are you folks all brain dead? The IG is not an idiot. He clearly and wisely sensed that Professor Moriarty’s administration would do nothing and quash any attempt to discredit, nevermind fine and prosecute, one of his crooked perverted lackeys. The only alternative was to go to the media. I’m just surprised and pleased that the Bee (and Tapper) picked up the Gauntlet. Look for Gibbs to accuse The SacBee of being a British Tabloid at his next press conference,

Sounds like they have him cold since they chose to fire him immediately and not pressure him to resign. He is trying to kick up some dust around it to salvage any remaining political viability he may have within the Republican party. It’s telling, though, that members of his own party are actively supportive of his firing.

Employees at this level should resign if asked.. they have greatly (and will) benefit from their public sector careers.
Given a soft landing option and the benefit of experience that will no doubt easily translate into a private sector job.. what’s the big deal.. resign, reap your rewards and move on to the next teat….

Culture of Corruption
Just because Obama doesn’t stretch his face like Pelosi or bore us to death with his speeches like Reid, Obama is just as corrupt as both of them.
How is that Hope and Change working out for you. The only Change is that Obama is far more corrupt than GWBush.
Where is the outrage from Congress? Bush fired USAttorneys, who serve at his pleasure. The IG serves under Congress.
The Media?? We gave up on them doing the right thing. They just bend over for Obama, like Matthews.

What a surprise, basically same old scams Obama used with his pal Ayers and their education foundation, Rezko and his real estate deals, etc.,etc.

Jake I always get the feeling you walk on both sides of an issue.

Michelle obviously has gotten her husband involved in a most illegal affair in the firing of an Inspector General, Mr. Gerald Walpin, who uncovered multi million dollar corruption in the largest hog project in Obama Corp, being run by Obama cronie, Mayor Kevin Johnson.
IG Walpin found that the money was a double dipping scheme in which programs were being paid for twice.
The net findings were that Obama’s b-ball buddy was using your money to have high paid people wash his car among many, many other Johnson royal trappings.
In the final conclusion, Michelle Obama had a law enforcement officer fired just like the Nixon White House did in the massacre which occurred then during impeachment hearings.
This Inspector General who found criminal embezzlement in millions of dollars, is exactly what Barack Obama was doing in small scale in the Chicago projects and in large scale in his 300 million illegal funds dry cleaned into his campaign from the Middle East, and the double dipping by ACORN for vote fraud, this once again from Axelrod Inc. is finding a way to pay millions of dollars to cronies illegally by funding the operations twice.
It has now come to the tone of not what Michelle Obama knew, and when did she know it, but it has come in her manipulations of Barck Obama in the sense of “what did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?”
This is now a criminal cover up in that Michelle has forced by her blundering, Barack Obama to fire an Inspector General, who found massive criminal money fraud in a money operation which was benefiting Obama supporters.
There is absolutely no doubt whose hands were on this, i.e. Michelle’s, as she shook up the White House and volunteer (interesting volunteers who earn 6 figures directing slaves working for peanuts.) corp, by having people “replaced and aloha and behold, by the next week Barack Obama is then firing the one person in government actually enforcing the law in showing the massive money fraud of Axelrod Inc.
This affair demands Congressional hearings as Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton combined came nowhere near what Muchelle Obama has done, what David Axelrod has been up to and what Barack Obama was forced into doing in firing a law enforcement officer of the federal government.
This is but a long list of growing criminality of Barack Obama. This time though the Obama supporters have the wife, Michelle Obama, to thank for bringing this down on her husband’s head in placing this in the impeachment category.
There can be denial in the double dipping of funds in graft by Barack Obama, but there can be no denial in Michelle Obama removing people, installing people, moving people, scaring people, into Obama corp in only one week, and the next week the chief law enforcement officer who discovers fraud is then publicly ruined by Barack Obama and fired by him.
Michelle Obama is running this and has just run Barack Obama into impeachment hearings.
There is no doubt about any of this as it is all on record in the press. Michelle Obama is behind this and Barack Obama covered this up at the direction of his wife.

It is amazing what you can see when the light is turned on. If this article is any indication as to how and why things take so long to get done in Washington, we have a long way to go. As wonderful as this article was, you could have reduced it to at least 1/2 the time and accomplished more. What part of ‘your fired’ does Walpin having difficulty understanding? Unless he wanted to extend this so that more light could be shed on this subject. As the world turns. And we wonder why the world laughs at us.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and it will go precisely nowhere. Meanwhile, Karl Rove will testify about the perfectly legal firing of 8 US Attorneys.

Do you smell something? It smells like the “culture of corruption” to me.

When Obama admin. officials were notified via a complaint immediately filed by Sen. Grassley, that 30 days notice and a letter to Congress is required to terminate an IG, they instead put Mr. Walpin on 30 days leave. After Walpin had filed his two reports about millions in double-dipping embezzlement, they wanted him O-U-T and pronto.

Thanks for the news Jake. To all the naysayers who claim you are controlled by Obama, I guess this proves different. And yes, Obama should be investigated for this (in my dreams).

The illegal and criminal firing and crucifying of a United States Inspector General by Barack and Michelle Obama (violating Obama’s own law he cosponsored) is really a story about how US Attorney’s Office prosecutors under Obama cherry pick what they will prosecute…and they don’t like that being exposed.
The synopsis is Obama crony, Kevin Johnson of the NBA was head of St. Hope Academy, a sort of quasi charity getting federal funds. Johnson in 2008 was running to be mayor of Sacrament, California, at which time Mr. Walpin was doing an exhaustive investigation of Johnson in uncovering Johnson had employees costing taxpayers hundreds of thousand of dollar running errands for him like washing his car.
Mr. Walpin was zealous in this investigation and turned it over to the US Attorneys who declined to prosecute Kevin Johnson. So Mr. Walpin went public stating the $400,000 dollar “payback” by Johnson could be refunded to him so it was a SHAM in protecting the taxpayer–it was double dipping embezzlement. It is a major felony when involving almost a half a million dollars. Martha Stewart went to prison on zealous prosecution for that kind of money and not being allowed to pay it back. But, Obama’s people like Acorn get busted regularly and just get to pay back or say oops and all is well (like Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner, Kevin Johnson, etc.)
This is what really got Mr. Walpin into “trouble” as then acting US Attorney Lawrence Brown who is a Kevin Johnson supporter decided that that Mr. Walpin talking to the press in California before the mayor race was “misconduct”.
Walpin started talking to the press exposing that the entire US Attorney’s office was not prosecuting Kevin Johnson……..and the complaint to the FBI was Lawrence Brown covering career prosecutors for not doing their job.
Talking to the press about prosecutors not enforcing the law is what appears to be Mr. Walpin’s crime.
This is a growing trend among US Attorneys in key positions like Patrick Fitzgerald who only prosecute who they want like Scooter Libby, Lawrence Sinclair or Rod Blagojevich while people like Kevin Johnson, Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama get a pass.
At this point, the Obamas apparently panicked which is really bizarre since Barack Obama himself cosponsored a law which protected Inspector Generals from exactly what Obama did. By law, Congress must be notified of any firing of Inspector Generals, the express exact reasons for that firing and it must be 30 days BEFORE THE INSPECTOR IS FIRED.
Obama’s White House Counsel, Norman L. Eisen, ignorant of Barack Obama’s own bill to prevent such a thing, fired off a stunning email to Mr. Walpin, ordering him to resign within one hour or he would be fired.
Inspector General Walpin was stunned by this illegal act and promptly informed the White House that if he did such a thing, it would cast a doubt on his integrity, so he declined. The White House response was to illegally fire Mr. Walpin immeditately.
Obama then sent a letter to Congress, stating the shadowy Brown FBI investigation as “the reason” Mr. Walpin was fired. Remember, this is a turf complaint of a US Attorney protecting his group’s inaction, and, Mr. Walpin is INNOCENT of everything. He has done nothing wrong, but spoken to the press and disagreed with the US Attorney’s office about letting an embezzlement case go unprosecuted.
Republican Senator, Charles Grassley who cosponsored the protection act immediately protested Obama’s illegal actions and reminded Obama he sponsored the same bill.
The White House lead counsel, Gregory Craig, then responded with putting Mr. Walpin but on 30 day suspension UNTIL he was fired (for enforcing the law), despite the fact that the Brown complaint, the basis of the firing, had not even come to a hearing.
Greg Craig is the guy who got assassin John Hinkley Jr. off on insanity charges for trying to murder President Reagan.
Greg Craig is the guy who represented Teddy Kennedy in the William Kennedy Smith rape case which twice raped that poor girl who received no justice.
Greg Craig is the guy who represented Cuban communists in ripping Elian Gonzalez out of American freedom and returning him to being brainwashed to Castro’s Cuba all at the point of full auto weapons.
Greg Craig is the guy who represented crook UN Sec. Kofi Annan in the Saddam Hussein bribery money dump that eventually bought Obama his senate seat and bought Obama his mansion.
Greg Craig is the guy who represented two Bolivian thugs who were granted asylum in the United States while being charged for mass murder in their own nation.
Gregory Craig has been involved with everything illegal in this world except O J Simpson and Vladamir Putin murdering someone with Polonium 210 and this is the guy Barack Obama has heading the White House counsels office giving him legal advice.
Craig and Eisen BOTH broke federal law, which includes their spokesman, Barack Obama, who went public in not only firing Inspector General Walpin, but smeared his reputation.
This is huge criminal violation of subverting the independence of the Inspector General’s office. It sends a chilling message to every Inspector General in they either allow cronies to embezzle money or they will be fired and ruined by the person sitting in the White House.
Dan Rather made a huge splash with oft repeating the “high crimes and misdemeanors” leveled against Richard Nixon. The fact in this is Barack Obama and these two White House lawyers and the petty charges by a US Attorney in trying to silence a United States Inspector General is not misdemeanors, but high crimes and felonies.
Barack Obama not only broke his own law knowingly, but he shattered the United States Constitution, he twice took an oath to uphold.
This is real impeachment criminality. Mr. Walpin was just doing his job and was sabotaged and destroyed by Barack and Michelle Obama, with their legal teams, to cover up incompetence, cronism and crimes.

And what about the May 28, 2009, resignation of acting United States Attorney for the District of Colombia?
Did United States Attorney Jeffery Taylor also do his job too well?

no duh, I agree with your points but Congress won’t investigate this, or impeach Obama. Democrats will circle their wagons and protect him, along with most of the media. This story is just a blip on the Obama corruption radar screen.

CNCS/Americorps sounds like a big old slush fund for Obama supporters.

No no duh, this is called in the media world, “walking it back”. When you can’t get anything on the president’s impending firing, you make it look like or you interpret the scraps you have left as the president not giving congress their purview. Jake knows you obama haters need red meat…because basically who else would want to read his poor man’s chip reid reports.
“under no circumstance was he to communicate with the media about a matter under investigation and that his acts “were hindering our investigation and handling of this matter.”"
how hard is this for you folks to understand. why would obama stand behind a sloppy attention whoring IG when he is clearly hurting his AG’s case?

WH Counsel Greg Craig’s claim that the Acting U.S. Attorney is a Republican appointee is false. Acting USA’s hold their positions by operation of the Vacancies Reform Act, not through any kind of appointment, political or otherwise. Brown is the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the office; it’s a case of the career deputy automatically becoming the Acting when the appointed U.S. Attorney leaves.
So. No political cover there.

Mr Walpin you dared to criticize our Dear Leader and you were fired. Change we can believe in EH ?? Didnt you know that Oprah proclaimed Obama as “THE ONE” – translation- he is above the law, he is divine and must be worshipped. Too bad for him but we have only one GOD to worship and it certainly isnt Barack Hussein Mohammed Obama !!!

All of you are a little too partisan to read news properly. Read all of the above and stop complaining about non-issues please.

Bush was investigated for firing US Attorneys who refused to investigate voter fraud. Will Obama be investigated for firing of an Inspector General who recovered over $400,000 in wasted or misspent Federal grant money from Obama’s friend?

A quick Web search reveals, from the DoJ itself, that Lawrence G. Brown was appointed Acting U.S. Attorney in 2008, after the U.S. Attorney for the district, McGregor Scott, resigned. He would remain in that post until August, 2009, unless a presidentially appointed was installed before then. If someone else were so installed, he would revert to his post as First Assistant in the office.
So technically, he was appointed to his present post during the Bush Administration. I’m not aware that First Assistants are political appointees, however. So the Bush link appears too weak to lean on. This former newspaper reporter also wonders whether the August 2009 date has any relevance to what Mr. Brown has determined. Perhaps zero connection. Perhaps somewhat more than zero.
[The DoJ release noted that Mr. Brown's law school honored him as "the Distinguished Alumni of the Year." It's one alumnus and one alumna and two or more alumni and two or more alumnae.]

Well struck, no duh.
Pretty simple. Good guy uncovers corruption, attorney knows bad guy is connected and tries to bury it, good guy says screw it and tells the press. Power hungry mouthpiece over steps his bounds and cans him. Kinda like a GM CEO I know.
Well done, Messiah. Is this the CHANGE you spoke of?…lmao…

The purpose of having an Inspector General is to be independent of political influences. Whether the U.S.Attorney was a Republican appointee, or anyone else involved is a Republican or Democrat is totally irrelevant.
The U.S.Attorney’s office concluded “a significant protion” of the funds were appropriately spent. That’s nice – a portion was misspent. Who made the determination as to what was “significant.” I use to think ALL of these types of funds must be appropriately spent, or is that too much to hope for today.
It is quite apparent the IG did do his job – the settlement proves it. The agreement is to repay $423,836.50. That doesn’t seem very insignificant to me.
Left out of the story are the terms of repayment of the $350,000. I think I heard it was over 7 years and was being repaid without interest. That hardly makes the value of the money being repaid equal to $350,000. I wonder what the “present value” of that might be?
Sure glad President Bush didn’t fire someone under those circumstances. I wonder what the press would have said. No I don’t.

Can a man who, at the age of 29, “fondled” a 16-y.o. girl be trusted? That person is Mayor Johnson. He paid off the family $230,000.

Whatever happened to “truth seeking” whether it be liberal or conservative infractions? The liberal “good” and “conservative” bad emotional arguments are so very tired. “Where is Obama’s birth certificate?” “Bush, Cheney, Carlyle Group” The idea that every appointee is a partisan or idealogue is absurd, but it sure makes it easy to attack someone..these ad hominems are easy to toss out and don’t require any critical thinking. Perhaps there were improprieties and his request for removal is political…I just wish that news and media would get back to real investigative reporting rather the 20 second soundbites and articles that lean left or right as found on Fox and MSNBC. Whether it is the Bush Administration or the Obama Administration, Jake seems to be one of the few willing to ask the questions that should be asked. I guess asking the public to use the same reasoning and critical thinking is too much.

I bet that Obama did not discharge the IG. Some bureaucrat fired him. I did not vote for Obama but i do not think he is that dumb.
Cmadams

“I did not vote for Obama but i do not think he is that dumb.”
Think again! Looks more and more like Obama broke the law. Not that anyone will hold him accountable. Fascism rocks!

Obama makes Bush look good.

Talk about a hack job. Wolpin was fired because he was going to suspend Obama’s buddy Kevin Johnson from receiving funds because he’s a crook. Obama protecting he crooked friends, big surprise.

Uh… The reason why Kevin Johnson paid that $450k was because Walpin used bureaucratic means to prevent the city of Sacramento from receiving stimulus money. There was no admission of guilt, and if you had read Tapper’s story you would she that it was an arbitrary amount because there was no audit done to determine how much money was lost; Walpin essentially extorted the city.

I read these comments and I wonder how stupid can people be? Yes, he blocked kevin johnson from getting funds. Because Kevin Johnson was found to be a criminal. He was doing his job.
Americore and the entire chain of command was replaced with progressives loons and they just want to ignore the fact that Kevin Johnson misappropriated 800K of taxpayer dollars.
I find it odd that democraps will chide a “greedy CED” for having a party, but if Kevin Johnson used taxepayer money for illegal campaign contributions it must be the big bad republicans being mean. What a bunch of fools.