Mukasey + Rudy = Political Favors.

Good piece by Talkleft. It makes you wonder with the Rudy-Mukasey connection that Rudy would keep Mukasey as AG if he was elected as President in 2008. And yes, Mukasey was legal counsel for Ken Lay's wife in the Enron lawsuit. And of course, this would be strategically win-win for Rudy and as well as $ Cheney to have Mukasey's continuation as AG in 2009 if Rudy became President...

A must read: Wayne Barrett's latest in the Village Voice, No Skeletons in My Closet.

When Mukasey was nominated, I expressed concern about his closeness to Rudy Giuliani.That concern has just grown exponentially.

After reading Barrett, I'm wondering whether the reason Mukasey is willing to take on the Attorney General job for a short 14 months is because Rudy has promised to keep him in the spot should he become President.

Mukasey has said he'd recuse himself from the expected impending federal indictment of Bernie Kerik. But, as Barrett explains, Kerik is just one of many cases with connections to Rudy that the Justice Department will be handling. Mukasey's son, a partner in Bracewell-Guiliani, plays a key role in many of them.

There's also the question about whether Mukasey has been honest or complete in his description of his political activities on behalf of Rudy, particularly while he was a federal judge and not supposed to be politically active.

Here are but two examples:

Mukasey might also have to deal with a Justice investigation of Ken Caruso, a Giuliani and Mukasey friend who was allegedly involved in the bilking of a prominent Texas Republican donor of millions, according to a recent story by Politico.com. Caruso, who apparently refused to cooperate with a U.S. Senate investigation of the banking scam, is a partner with Marc Mukasey at Bracewell & Giuliani. Both were hired by Giuliani, who set up the firm's Manhattan office in 2005. Caruso is represented by Patterson Belknap, Michael Mukasey's current and Giuliani's former firm.

In addition, one of Giuliani's closest allies in New York politics, State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, is under federal investigation, and the chairman of Giuliani's South Carolina campaign, Thomas Ravenel, is awaiting sentencing on federal charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. The government will have to make a sentencing recommendation late this year in the Ravenel case, and the Justice Department would have to approve any Bruno indictment. Bruno announced his endorsement of Giuliani in May, and Giuliani recently made comments strongly supporting Bruno in his ongoing battle with Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer.
The conflicts even reach to the NSA wiretapping issue with respect to Verizon:

Even the recent ruckus about Verizon and its cooperation with the National Security Agency's domestic-surveillance program may put Mukasey in a Giuliani-connected bind. The company has admitted that it turned over 94,000 customer records to the NSA, many without a court order, since January 2005, and a Justice Department inspector general's report in 2006 found that similar potentially improper record transfers occurred for years before that. Verizon is a prime client of Bracewell & Giuliani.

In addition, Paul Crotty, the respected federal judge who joined Mukasey on the Manhattan bench in late 2005, was the regional president of Verizon, which is based in New York. Crotty was Giuliani's corporation counsel and contributed $5,500 to his federal campaign committees before he became a judge—$1,000 more than the legal limit (the excess was returned). When Crotty left, a Verizon press release stated that he was "responsible for government relations and regulatory affairs for Verizon's largest telephone operations company," but a company spokeswoman declined to answer questions about his possible involvement in the surveillance decisions, and Crotty did not return telephone calls from the Voice. Justice has already filed lawsuits in an attempt to protect Verizon from the subpoenas served on it by several states, and Mukasey will clearly be faced with a multiplicity of issues arising from the surveillance program.
One more:

Even Mukasey's current clients at Patterson have connections to both Giuliani and the Justice Department that raise disturbing questions. He represents the Renco Group, the private holding company that owns 40 percent of the joint venture that manufactures Humvees and has seen its profits soar in Iraq. Renco chairman Ira Rennert and his wife have maxed out their donations to the Giuliani campaign at $4,600 apiece. The Justice Department is suing a Renco affiliate for a magnesium plant that has polluted the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and federal prosecutors have been described in news accounts as "determined" to make Rennert "personally pay for the way his companies conduct business."

Then there's Linda Lay, widow of Enron's Ken Lay, who was represented civilly by Bracewell Giuliani. Mukasey has represented her in mediation disputes over Ken Lay's estate and the Justice Department is suing her to collect money for Enron victims.

Mukasey says his active involvement in Rudy's campaigns didn't start until his current bid for President.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/10/31/145446/65