Greenlee's Retaliation

Retiring and disgraced U.S. Attorney Jim H. Greenlee of the Northern District of Mississippi looks like he retaliated against a whistleblower who broke the code of silence on breaches of ethics and acts of professional misconduct by members of the Rove Republican Racket.

Last week, FBI Agent Hal Nielson of Oxford, Mississippi was indicted for failing to disclose a secret partnership with owners of a property rented by the FBI.

North Mississippi Commentor writes:

According to the indictment, Neilson was involved in both the site selection, the lease, and an increase in the lease spaces. The building was constructed by C&G Partnership which later incorporated as C&G Properties, LLC; while its principals are not identified in the indictment other than by initials (JC, DG, and their lawyer BW), a quick look at the Secretary of State’s web page discloses that C&G Properties was incorporated by member managers John Covington and Dino Grisanti, along with their lawyer Brad Walsh. ....There is no suggestion in the indictment that any of the three did anything wrong, and paragraph 21 alleges “NEILSON falsely assured JC, DG, and BW that he had checked with an FBI agent and had received approval to own an interest in the Oxford FBI building.” There is a puzzling lack of allegations about what Neilson actually did to get an interest in the building.

But why was Neilson REALLY indicted? According to Mississippi journalist Patsy Brumfield:

Neilson reportedly sought whistleblower protection from DOJ a few years ago when he questioned the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee for allegedly seeking information on Muslims throughout the region after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and accused the agency of falsifying evidence in some cases and in entrapment and coercion of witnesses.

Neilson also reportedly raised ethics questions about former assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Dawson’s participation in a book about the office’s investigation and prosecution of then-Oxford attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who was sentenced to prison on two guilty pleas related to judicial bribery indictments. Before the book was released several weeks ago, a DOJ spokesman said Dawson had retired before he worked on it. Tension between Neilson and the U.S. Attorney’s Office first became public when it was mentioned in the book, although reasons for the problems were not given.

We note again that the other partners were not indicted in this property scheme and their names were hidden with initials on the indictment. Although Greenlee was not directly involved in the indictment (he recused himself and had it transferred to Louisiana), we smell his involvement indirectly which eventually led to the indictment.

Serious questions:

• Did Greenlee violate the Civil Rights of Muslims in his district and walk away from the scene of the crime?
• Did Greenlee help cut JC, DG and  BW a "sweet deal" like he did the Pied Piper Ed Peters so he could retaliate against Nielson and "set the b***h up?"
• Was Greenlee, like his embattled Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Dawson, trying to hide the secret six-month (book writing?) contract he dished out to Dawson days after Dawson's retirement last January?
• Did Greenlee try to silence the fact that he may have knowingly allowed his staff to help Dawson write a book while on the federal payroll clock?

 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder needs to probe these issues and hold Greenlee and his subordinates accountable.

And if Washington is too timid, then Nielson needs to talk directly to the media.