| Sep 17 @ 10:01 AM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton
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eastham
Posts: 7,916
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GWB's Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, is under investigation for possibly illegally using her powers as Secretary of the Interior to grant three oil contracts to Royal Dutch Shell. Months later, Norton was hired as Shell's legal counsel. Shell was the only company to receive more than one contract from the Bureau of Land Management to develop new technology for extracting oil from shale.
The Justice Department took over the investigation following an internal investigation at the Department of the Interior's Office of the Inspector General, which concluded that sufficient evidence warranted a criminal probe. At issue are several federal laws, including violations of a law that prohibits discussions of future employment with a company if the person is also involved with securing contracts or other dealings that could benefit the firm, breaking the broader "honest services law", as well as possible problems with the granting of the contracts to Shell in the first place.
Link to story in today's LA Times.
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| Sep 17 @ 2:26 PM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton |
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Always_Striving
Posts: 8,794
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The Justice Department took over the investigation following an internal investigation at the Department of the Interior's Office of the Inspector General, which concluded that sufficient evidence warranted a criminal probe. At issue are several federal laws, including violations of a law that prohibits discussions of future employment with a company if the person is also involved with securing contracts or other dealings that could benefit the firm,
Why can't they use this as a premise to prosecute members of Bush's adminstration....... Particularly the chief evil doer himself: Dick Cheney? 
(Haliburton)
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| Sep 17 @ 2:40 PM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton
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eastham
Posts: 7,916
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Don't know the answer to that. Norton was a member of Bush's Administration...his first Interior Secretary, until she left to take the job with Shell Oil. In addition, there may be some blow back on Cheney in this investigation, because of his work on the energy task force and the shale oil contracts.
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| Sep 19 @ 9:32 AM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton |
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RareQuestor
Posts: 2,652
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Norton was the worst Interior Secretary since James Watt (which is not surprising since she used to be his protégé.) I hope she is sentenced to life in the nastiest prison in America. Yeah, that sounds vindictive and mean-spirited, but I hate the bitch. We environmentalists had to waste nearly six years fighting her campaign to sabotage practically every environmental law ever passed. 
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| Sep 19 @ 9:42 AM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton
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lazareth
Posts: 1,473
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Why can't they use this as a premise to prosecute members of Bush's adminstration....... Particularly the chief evil doer himself: Dick Cheney?
I was going to ask that question myself Striving...
We were discussing that very issue at my parents house last week.
Also, once the investigation is over and they do find "wrong doing"... what are the repercussions? Will anyone really be held accountable in the end?
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| Sep 19 @ 11:19 AM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton |
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eastham
Posts: 7,916
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Article from the Times of London.
The Times of London, a Rupert Murdoch-owned paper, is reporting that not only did Norton take a job with Shell Oil, her job is legislative counsel to the oil company's "unconventional resources unit". Hmm, what does the unconventional resources unit do? Why is manages Shell's shale oil extraction program!
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| Nov 5 @ 1:34 AM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton
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RareQuestor
Posts: 2,652
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This is the most recent update that I could find on the investigation:
A federal grand jury in Washington that is probing possible criminal conflicts of interest involving former Interior Secretary Gale Norton's official and private dealings in 2006 with Royal Dutch Shell has recently issued subpoenas to both Norton and Shell, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.
The grand jury subpoenas are part of a criminal investigation launched earlier this year by the Public Integrity Section at Justice into whether Norton may have broken a federal law in 2006 when the Interior Department granted three lucrative oil shale leases on federal lands in Colorado to Shell which later in the year hired her as general counsel for its unconventional fuels unit in the United States. The Colorado based unit focuses on exploration and production, including shale projects.
The Justice probe is focused primarily on whether Norton broke a law that bars government officials from negotiating future jobs with a company that stands to benefit from official actions.
Asked to comment on the grand jury subpoenas, a Shell spokesman said that the company is "aware of an investigation by the Department of Justice and we will cooperate with any lawful processes. We are unable to provide further comment on the investigation."
Norton did not return calls seeking comment. Herbert Fenster, an attorney with McKenna Long & Aldridge who has represented Norton in the past, also declined to comment.
The Justice probe, which was first reported last month by the Los Angeles Times, was launched after Justice received a criminal referral from the Interior Department's Inspector General which had conducted a lengthy investigation during the latter part of the Bush administration into Norton's dealings with Shell and decided that there was enough evidence of possible illegalities to warrant further inquiry. The IG's investigation entailed interviews with many Interior employees, according to the paper.
Shell was granted the leases by Interior in early 2006 based on an assessment by an interagency federal team and a few states. About two months later Norton resigned from Interior and stated that she had not yet arranged a job. In December 2006, Shell issued a release that Norton had been hired to be the general counsel for the U.S. at its unconventional fuels unit which handles shale oil projects. Norton joined the unit in January 2007.
The New York Times has also reported that investigators working on the federal inquiry have recently found new information that suggests Norton had talks with Shell about future job prospects while she was at Interior.
The DOJ inquiry is also examining whether Norton may have broken another federal statute involving "denial of honest services" which can be used by prosecutors if a government official's actions violate the public trust by, among other things, giving federal business to companies or individuals based on their personal ties to the official. The inquiry is looking at whether Shell, the only company to receive three of the lucrative leases in Colorado, received preferential treatment.
An analysis by Shell and the Rand Corp. has indicated that over the years needed to extract the oil, the leases could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Grand jury issues subpoena to former Interior chief
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| Nov 5 @ 2:04 AM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton |
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burnslikethesun
Posts: 13,027
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Three words that define everything Bushy jr.
Corrupt. Corrupt. Corrupt.
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| Nov 5 @ 9:44 AM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton
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eastham
Posts: 7,916
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Here's a link to the September 2009 LATimes article referenced in RQ's piece.
Gale Norton's got some 'splainin to do.
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| Nov 17 @ 4:22 PM |
Justice Department Investigating Gale Norton |
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Paralegal_at_Law
Posts: 5,872
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In defense of Dick Cheney . . .
He was the most qualified and most powerful Veep in American history. Biden is a dwarf in the shadow of Cheney.
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