STONEWALLING: Obama Blocks Investigation of Firing of AmeriCorps IG Walpin

Remember how Barack Obama Started his Presidency?

...The "Presidential Memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act" instructs the attorney general to issue new guidelines to the government implementing those same principles of openness and transparency in the FOIA context, also within 120 days. "I will also hold myself, as president, to a new standard of openness," he said, by signing the Executive Order on Presidential Records.

Going forward, he said, "any time the American people want to know something that I or a former president wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the attorney general and the White House counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be ... withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the Constitution."

Since Obama made that speech on January 21, it has been clear that President must have had his fingers crossed underneath the podium, because openness has been missing from this administration.

The latest example of Presidential cover-up has do do with the firing of Gerald Walpin. Until a few months Walpin was the Inspector General for AmeriCorps. He claims he was fired because he made the mistake of Investigation a friend of Michelle Obama (FOO) Kevin Johnson, former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California, for the misuse of AmeriCorps funds.

Pressed for a reasoning for the dismissal the Administration trashed Walpin hinting that he was in the early stages of dementia. They said the IG seemed "disoriented" at one meeting. Walpin's version of the story was confirmed by a AmeriCorps board member who confirmed that he was fired to protect the Democrats from a political scandal.

A GOP report contends that the Obama White House was politically motivated when it fired inspector general Gerald Walpin after his 2008 investigation of Kevin Johnson, now Sacramento's mayor and friend of the First Lady. The report by Rep Issa and Senator Grassley criticizes the White House ethics counsel, for not examining what Walpin had been investigating at the time of his dismissal, including the allegations of sexual misconduct by Johnson and hush-money payoffs by his now-fiancee Michelle Rhee.

New Evidence released earlier this month is that the First Lady's former Chief of Staff Jackie Norris, met with Alan Solomont of Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps in an attempt to keep the scandal away from Michelle Obama.

The Senate is investigating the charges and wanted Ms Norris to testify, but our President Mr. Transparency is refusing to allow her to talk to congress.

Republican efforts to interview a former top aide to Michelle Obama in the controversial case of a fired inspector general have been stymied by the White House, the top Republican looking into the case said Tuesday.


The White House counsel's office has blocked Republican investigators from interviewing Jackie Norris, former chief of staff for the first lady, about President Obama's dismissal of former AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin.


Republican investigators from the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform have wanted to question Norris -- who is now senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps -- since they discovered earlier this month that she met with Alan Solomont, chairman of CNCS on June 9, the day before Walpin was fired.


Solomont was heavily involved in the Walpin firing, according to the Washington Examiner, which first reported the response by the first lady's office.


The White House move was revealed in a letter sent Monday to Norris by Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the oversight panel.

"Our request to meet with you was denied by (Corporation for National and Community Service) general counsel Frank Trinity," Issa wrote to Norris. "Mr. Trinity told my staff that the White House counsel's office has advised him that they were not permitting the corporation to make you available for an interview.

"The White House has averred that you had no role whatsoever in the president's decision to prevent your testimony. If the information provided by White House officials is true, it follows that no colorable claim of executive privilege should impede your cooperation with the committee," he continued.

Issa said in a statement Tuesday that he does not see a difference between this case and Democrats' pressing the political nature of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys under President George W. Bush.


"The removal of an IG who was conducting an investigation of one of the president's staunchest allies is no different than when President Bush fired a number of U.S. attorneys for political reasons, igniting a chorus of criticism and concern. The question is -- where is the outrage now that President Obama is doing the same thing?" he asked.

Actually Issa is wrong, the US Attorney appointments were political in nature and thus served at the discretion of the President. BY Law IG's and all government agency watchdogs are supposed to be independent. Even the Democratic senator (Missouri’s Claire McCaskill) who authored the law safeguarding watchdog independence, blasted the POTUS for removing an inspector general who exposed widespread waste in taxpayer-financed community service groups. Obama “failed to follow the proper procedure” in notifying Congress about the removal and for failing to give a valid reason for the termination.