David Margolis

David Margolis was chosen in August 2005 by Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey to supervize Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald who is conducting the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation.

"Comey was the only official overseeing special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's leak investigation. With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recused, department officials say they are still trying to resolve whom Fitzgerald will now report to," Michael Isikoff wrote in the August 15, 2005, Newsweek.

Comey, who left the Department of Justice in August 2005 to be Lockheed Martin's new general counsel, was to be replaced by Timothy E. Flanigan, who was nominated May 24, 2005, by President George W. Bush. Flanigan, who has not been confirmed, was once Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' deputy in the White House and is currently general counsel for conglomerate Tyco International Ltd.

Associate Attorney General Robert Davis McCallum, Jr. was named as acting deputy A.G. "But McCallum may be seen as having his own conflicts," Newsweek reported, "he is an old friend of President Bush's and a member of his Skull and Bones class at Yale. One question: how much authority Comey's successor will have over Fitzgerald."

"Bad News for the Bad Guys"
"This is truly bad news -- for the bad guys," Mark A.R. Kleinman wrote August 13, 2005. "Margolis made his prosecutorial bones doing organized crime cases, eventually rising to Chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, from which position he supervised the seventeen Organized Crime Strike Forces which more or less won the war on the Mafia. ... Margolis has a stratospheric IQ, has been known to wear Willie Nelson t-shirts to work, is used to long investigations using somewhat edgy investigative techniques, and can't be intimidated by anybody."

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Karl Rove: Outing Valerie Plame
 * Treasongate: Beyond Karl Rove