Interim U.S. Attorney in Little Rock Accused of Résumé Inflation

By Scott Horton

One of the best-documented chapters of the U.S. attorney scandal so far relates to the dismissal of Bud Cummins, the highly regarded career prosecutor in Little Rock, and the appointment of a political dirty tricks specialist from the staff of Karl Rove as his replacement. Most recently, the replacement, Tim Griffin, has said he will not let his name go to Capitol Hill as a nominee. Internal DOJ documents suggested that Kyle Sampson expected from the outset that this nomination would face trouble – even though U.S. attorney appointments are very rarely controversial. Now further information has surfaced making plain why Griffin is so anxious to avoid testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It appears he overstated his qualifications on his résumé. Richard L. Fricker reports:

The 38-year-old Griffin claims on his official Web site that he prosecuted 40 criminal cases while at Ft. Campbell, where he was stationed from September 2005 to May 2006. But Army authorities say Ft. Campbell’s records show Griffin only serving as assistant trial counsel on three cases, none of which went to trial.

Fricker details Griffin's career in service to the Bush Administration, which focuses on in-the-trenches partisan warfare:

In September 1999, Griffin joined the Bush-Cheney campaign as deputy research director handling what’s known in the Washington political world as “oppo” or opposition research, digging up dirt on political opponents. He also worked as a legal adviser in the Florida recount battle that gained Bush the White House . . .

In 2001, Bush appointed Griffin as a special assistant to Michael Chertoff, assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s criminal division. During five months on the job, Griffin “tracked” issues for Chertoff, such as extradition and provisional arrest, according to Griffin’s résumé . . .

Griffin then spent nine months in Little Rock as a special assistant to U.S. Attorney Cummins before returning to the political world where he was named research director and deputy communication director for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign . . .

Griffin's campaign initiatives included the use of a technique known as “caging” to identify suspect voters. Griffin's team sent letters to newly registered voters in envelopes barring any forwarding, so they would be returned if a voter wasn’t at that address . . .

BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovered Griffin’s role in this practice that proved especially effective in “caging” African-Americans who lived in low-income areas or who were in the U.S. military. “Caged” voters would then be challenged by Republican lawyers when they arrived at the polls or cast absentee ballots . . .