California’s Senators Have Their Own Ethical Problems Without Opposition to US Attorney Appointments

California has four United States Attorneys, three of which have been appointed this year, as is normal for a new Presidential Administration. They are Craig Missakian for the Northern District, Bill Essayli for the Central District, and Adam Gordon for the Southern District. The Eastern District  has Acting US Attorney Kimberly Sanchez. All of the new appointees have been Assistant US Attorneys, and well qualified for confirmation by the United States Senate, which normally is done with little dispute. 

However, these are not normal times. California U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla have already expressed opposition to the confirmation of Bill Essayli of the Central District, who has received a lot of press coverage regarding illegal immigration and deportation. Appointment of federal judges and US Attorneys are subject to an unofficial but traditional (since 1917)  “Blue Slip” process where both U.S. Senators from the involved state receive a blue slip for comments positive or negative about an appointee and those are submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee which recommends appointees to the full Senate for a vote.   

California’s Senators have ethical problems: 

Schiff himself is presently under federal investigation for possible mortgage fraud and ancillary violations such as wire fraud. While in Congress, Schiff was the recipient of a very rare censure by the House of Representatives for “falsehoods, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information” as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The Biden Department of Justice appointed Special Counsel Robert Her to investigate President Biden for illegally retaining classified materials while out of office after his Vice Presidency. Her found that Biden might be seen as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” and therefore did not recommend prosecution of President Biden. Then Representative Adam Schiff, in Congressional hearings with big press coverage, extensively excoriated Her, a man previously known for the highest integrity, as out to politically “slime” Biden for pointing to what became very apparent to the press and public a few months later. Schiff never appologized to Her. Schiff is a shameless opportunist and press seeking liar of long standing.     

Senator Padilla also has a political flaky legal past. As California Secretary of State, he faced lawsuits for awarding a $35 million election year contract intended for non-partisan voter outreach to a “Team Biden” political consulting firm. That contract award was so blatantly partisan that even democrat State Controller Betty Yee rejected payment. 

It is unlikely Schiff and Padilla will ever approve of a Trump appointment unless they first agree to stick to conventional criminal and civil proceedings while ignoring the politically uncomfortable for their party and less conventional subjects of investigation for potential violations such as:

Honest Services Fraud

The California Slavery Reparations Report is used for justification for the non-slave state of California to give racial preferences and pay outs in violation of the state constitution and federal law, rather than the color blind government actions advocated for by Martin Luther King Jr.. The Report is the basis of over a dozen bills in our state legislature last year and this, yet the Report is based upon highly questionable citations, many of which were debunked by professional historians prior to the Report. Most of the incidents cited in the Report took place in other states far from California, yet for some reason the Report seeks to hold California financially responsible for them. 

California taxpayers paid over three million dollars for a Report that has little original material and is largely a regurgitation and elaborations of other writings widely discredited by professional historians such as the New York Times Magazine “1619 Project.” 

Honest Services Fraud has been used by US Attorneys to pursue corporate and public officials. The California legislation (AB 3121 from 2020) that created the committee that commissioned the Slavery Reparations Report required a result of  high academic standards, which has consciously not been met, yet the money was consumed by democrat politically connected persons and entities. Always required for academic work is peer review, which never took place regarding the Report. This appears to be a potential Honest Services Fraud case of over three million California taxpayer dollars.

Illegal Political Funding by California Tax Exempts (501c3)

US Attorneys should investigate California tax-exempt 501c3 nonprofits that seem to illegally finance left wing and democrat political operations, some with multi-billion dollar available funding, such as the California Endowment. Those tax-exempts undermine a level political playing field, distorting democracy in California. Their contributions to left wing organizations that are actually political may well exceed $100 million per two year election cycle.Tax-exempts that fund political activities should have that tax status revoked and might be potentially fined for illegal activities.    

Conclusion:

For Schiff and Padilla, opposing vigirous federal law enforcement in the appointment of honest US Attorneys might be looked upon as acts of self preservation, and distinctly not for the public good. The US Senate should ignore Schiff and Padilla Blue Slip opposition and confirm the California US Attorney appointments that will help to return honest law enforcement and government to our state.