Heckuva E-mail, Brownie: Releases Bush 'Scapegoat' Message

By: E&P Staff Appearing on CNN with "Situation Room" host Wolf Blitzer on Friday afternoon, former FEMA director Michael Brown released what he said was an e-mail sent by a top Bush administration official that described a Sept. 7, 2005 Cabinet meeting.

Blitzer said CNN had not independently confirmed the authenticity of the email but seemed to take it seriously. He said the White House had dismissed the release of the contents of the email as an "old story."

This was the text of the email message to Brown read on the air: "I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn't there but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the President replied, 'I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.'"

Blitzer pointed out that Brown's lawyer, Andy Lester, who accompanied Brown on the show, had written an article that mentioned the Cabinet meeting back in March for the conservative magazine, Human Events. But that article does not quote the email directly.

Lester wrote at that time: "Last September, in the midst of the numerous false allegations concerning Brown, one senior administration official who is extremely close to the President told Brown that the media maelstrom surrounding him fit perfectly with administration desires. Referring to a Cabinet meeting shortly after Labor Day, this person stated that 'someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the President replied, ?I?d rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.??

This was consistent with portions of the email read by Blitzer on the air.

The name of the author was not revealed. Brown said the White House could likely trace who it was.

Brown repeatedly said he was releasing the email at this time as he had grown angry about continuing attempts to make him the "scapegoat" in the Katrina story. Lester, the attorney, described himself as a Republican who was part of the Ronald Reagan transition team and said he, too, had grown upset about the treatment of Brown, both by the president and Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, Brown's old boss.