Posted by Jed Lewison on Thu May 10, 2007 at 3:32 AM Pacific

Connect the Dots: Bush Administration, LA U.S. Attorney, Gibson Dunn law firm, and congressional corruption investigation

The law firm of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher is close to the White House and represents a Congressman being investigated for corruption. Last fall, Gibsun Dunn hired the U.S. attorney investigating the corruption case, paying her a $1.5 million signing bonus. Here's what we know:

(1) Gibson Dunn has close ties to the Bush Administration

• Ted Olson, Bush's lawyer in the 2000 recount battle and was Solicitor General during Bush's first term, is a Gibson Dunn partner

(2) Gibson Dunn represents embattled Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis who is under investigation for public corruption

• As of last October, Lewis' legal bills had surpassed $800,000

(3) Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney from the Southern District of California who successfully prosecuted a similar case against Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham, was fired in January

(4) Last fall, before Lam was fired, White House Counsel Harriet Miers considered firing Debra Wong Yang, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California responsible for the investigation into Congressman Lewis. Lam ended up being fired.

(5) Debra Wong Yang resigned from the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's office in October, 2006

• Gibson Dunn hired Yang immediately, offering her a reported $1.5 million signing bonus
• Yang promised to recuse herself from any involvement in the Lewis probe because her new employer represented the target of her investigation

(6) During the past seven months, Gibson Dunn hired three attorneys from the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's office, including Yang

• Debra Wong Yang, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, responsible for the investigation into Congressman Lewis
• Douglas Fuchs, the Deputy Chief of Major Frauds for the Central District of California
• Maurice Suh, who had served as the Deputy Chief of the Public Corruption and Government Fraud Section during President Bush's first term

(7) Gibson Dunn's decision to hire three lawyers from the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's office is remarkably unusual. During the past five years, according to press releases on Gibson Dunn's web site, the firm has announced hiring 58 attorneys. Of these:

• 95% of the attorneys Gibson Dunn announced hiring were either hired from directly from other private sector jobs (88%) or had previously worked for the firm (7%)
• Yang, Suh, and Fuchs were the only government attorneys hired by Gibson Dunn with no prior relationship to the firm
• The four attorneys who had worked previously for Gibson Dunn were hired from a government agency were Ted Olson, Bush's 2000 recount lawyer and Solicitor General, Eugene Scalia who was Solicitor General for the Department of Labor, M. Sean Royall who worked for the FTC, and James C. Ho, a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former counsel for Senator John Cornyn of Texas
• The remaining 51 attorneys were hired from private firms