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THE STORY YOU WON’T HEAR ON CABLE NEWS: White House Fires Inspector General Pursuing Case Against Obama Supporter
Gerald Walpin doesn’t look “disoriented.”
Sitting in his seventh-floor Park Avenue home, he can remember when U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy summoned him to discuss prosecuting Roy M. Cohn, the attack dog for Joe McCarthy. He recalls Ethel Kennedy serving them tea or coffee as Kennedy’s huge dog lumbered over to lap at the creamer.
He smiles with satisfaction relaying how he verbally pummeled Woody Allen’s child psychologist on the stand to help Mia Farrow in her 1993 child custody case. “I did murder,” he says, “figuratively, not literally.”
What he can’t explain is why President Barack Obama fired him last month as the inspector general pursuing a case against Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson for misuse of federal grant funds.
He said he has heard various explanations for his firing, the most recent that he appeared at a May 20 board meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service in a “confused, disoriented” state.
He takes issue with them all and questions whether Johnson’s ties to the Obama White House are at the heart of his removal.
“The bottom line of what I believe is, I was fired for doing my job,” the 77-year-old former federal prosecutor said in the course of a three-hour interview with The Bee last week.
His detractors say he was booted for a series of clashes with officials at the corporation board, which oversees the federal government’s AmeriCorps program. That, they say, and his stubborn refusal to accept the fact that his months-long investigation into Johnson and the St. HOPE organization he founded did not uncover criminal wrongdoing.
The investigation took place last year during Johnson’s successful mayoral campaign, with Walpin moving in late September – just weeks before the election – to suspend Johnson and St. HOPE for misusing some of the $847,673 in federal grant money the organization received between 2004 and 2007.
“He sought to act as the investigator, advocate, judge, jury and town crier,” Brown wrote in his April 29 letter.
On June 11, the White House fired Walpin. But that didnt put the case to rest.
A Senate committee is considering whether to hold investigative hearings into Walpins firing, and the FBI in Sacramento has opened a criminal probe into why some of Johnsons St. HOPE e-mails were deleted last year while Walpins probe of the academy was under way.
“You dont have to be the attorney general of the United States to look at that as raising the need for an investigation of obstruction of justice,” Walpin said.
Congress wants details
Walpins firing has generated a wave of debate, especially among conservative bloggers who note he was a Bush appointee and conservative Republican who was booted after investigating a Democratic politician and Obama supporter.
Members of Congress have asked for a more detailed explanation of the firing. Walpin defends his dogged pursuit of the case and rejects the reasons he has heard for his dismissal, especially the attack on his mental state.
He said that during the May 20 meeting of the corporation board the White House has cited as cause for concern, he simply was tired from working 16-hour days on his special report to Congress.
“Now, there is no doubt that I wasnt feeling great,” Walpin said.
He said he could tell board members felt “absolute consternation” that he was continuing his efforts against Johnson and St. HOPE.
The board saw it differently. In documents generated after the meeting and provided to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, board members reported that Walpin seemed confused.
Norman L. Eisen, special counsel to President Obama, said in a June 16 letter to senators that Walpin was removed because during the May meeting he “was confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions.” That led board members “to question his capacity to serve,” Eisen added.
Walpin said he first learned he was out when Eisen called his cell phone as he and his wife were driving to a judicial conference in New York: “I immediately assumed he was calling for the reason I had been called about four times in previous weeks by the White House.”
That would be to seek more support for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whom Walpin says he counts as a friend.
Instead, Walpin said, Eisen told him that “the president has asked me to call you and thank you for your excellent service – or very good service, something like that – but he feels its time for you to move on.”
Later, Walpin said, he was told the president had “lost confidence” in him. Also mentioned were Browns letter and the fact he had been working from his New York home for several months.
The White House declined to comment last week, and a spokesman for the corporation did not respond to a request for comment.
Walpin said he began telecommuting from home in January because the commute to Washington had become disruptive to his family life, and that the corporation had approved the arrangement. He also said he has no problems with mental acuity.
“I dont have the slightest doubt that they are going to the bottom of the barrel to find mud,” Walpin told The Bee. “Look at the statement about disoriented, confused and unable to answer questions. If you even mention that, its an insult to the many more senior people who still believe they have the ability and time to provide service to government.
“To me, it was totally wrong. Those are code words or buzzwords for when you have someone of my age, almost 78.”
One hundred and fifty of his legal associates – including former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey – agreed, issuing a letter to senators defending Walpins “integrity and competence.”
“What you see is what there is. He is smart, he is focused, he is locked in,” said William F. Kuntz II, a prominent New York attorney. “Gerry is very conservative; I understand that. And if the administration wanted to say, We appreciate your service, heres your hat, heres your gold watch, say that.
Article filed by Sam Stanton at the Sacramento Bee – CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY Sacramento mayors settlement with feds didnt end political fray – Sacramento News – Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee.
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