When Justice Department leadership asked Paul Charlton, then a U.S. attorney in Arizona, in December of 2006 to submit a resignation from his post by the following month, it did not cross the longtime prosecutor’s mind that the request might have had to do with an investigation into a Republican House member his office was leading.
I don’t consider myself a political junkie, but somehow I ended up following this story on TPM and have been hooked since. Hard to believe that 20 years has passed, but time marches on. Josh has had many reporters come and go over the years but through it all, the reporting here has been top notch and beyond what exists anywhere else, IMO. I am happy this site has not only lasted but has adapted with a membership base that continues to grow. Great job to Josh and all TPM staff!
Wasn’t there some high-profile journalist who had to eat his words after initially dismissing TPM’s reporting of this story as conspiracy nonsense? I definitely remember following all of this as it unfolded and yep, it was a banner moment for the site.
I love this piece. Thanks for posting it, and to TPM for doing such important journalism for so long.
I do have one question. Surely there is a missing word or letter here, otherwise, a member of Congress would be a top CIA official: “the Cunningham investigation had expanded to include another Republican member of the House and top CIA official.”
Yes, it was Jay Carney.
And there they were, flogging voter fraud and we’re still waiting for any evidence of voter fraud except for a few GOP instances.
Yet, they used the charges, non existent and unsubstantiated for 20 years or more, to pass voting suppression laws to combat a non-existent crime. Seems like the laws that were in place back then were doing a fine job already, time to repeal all of those GOP voting laws I’d say.