Is A Special Prosecutor On Deck?

[maddezmom]

Is A Special Prosecutor On Deck?
Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen Says That May Be What's Needed In Prosecutors Firings Case

Getting most of the publicity this past weekend were official documents that directly contradict the statements Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales made a few weeks ago when he tried to distance himself from the burgeoning controversy over the Justice Department's firing of eight federal prosecutors last year. It was the sort of "gotcha" moment that many politicians, journalists and lawyers seem to live for in this age of canned spin and in-your-face denials (see, e.g., "Snow, Tony").

But perhaps the more important news coming out of the Justice Department late last week is that the Inspector General's office, and the Office of Professional Responsibility, are now undertaking an unusual and perhaps unprecedented joint internal investigation to determine whether any department officials, including lawyers, broke any rules or violated any laws throughout this process. The investigation reportedly was requested by the attorney general himself (to his credit) and is destined to shed more light on what really happened when the White House and its tribunes at the Justice Department decided to whack eight U.S. attorneys for not being, in the words of one official, "loyal Bushies."

This sort of internal investigation may not ultimately give us all the answers we seek — it's unsettling at best to have Justice Department officials investigating Justice Department officials under the supervision of an attorney general who himself may ultimately become a target or subject of the investigation. And if you were a conspiracy theorist, you might be inclined to believe that the fix is in, what with the fox checking on security at the henhouse. Well, it isn't. The Gang That Couldn't Fire Straight — Gonzales and Company — are going to be subject to the sort of scrutiny never before brought to bear upon the subject of the dismissal of federal prosecutors. This is what occurs when you try to fire your own prosecutors in the middle of a term without an obvious (or honorable) reason for doing so.

Indeed, Glenn A. Fine, the inspector general, seems well suited to undertake a fair and thorough look at this mess as part of his office's investigation. Fine is himself a former assistant U.S. attorney and has worked at the OIG for over 10 years. Most importantly, as a career bureaucrat, he is not beholden as so many other Justice Department are to the current administration — he was confirmed as inspector general in the final days of the Clinton administration. Moreover, his large staff of lawyers, investigators and auditors (The New York Times Monday puts this number at 400) just completed a scathing report critical of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its misuse of national security letters.

more:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/26/opinion/courtwatch/main2608295.shtml

[LiberalFighter]

1. Could we trust Bob Barr to get to the bottom of this? Or is he beyond redemption?

[pinto]

2. I wish media pundits would note the Special Prosecutor law was allowed to expire,

in 1999, after it was used to wage a political vendetta by Ken Starr.

"This process seemed judicious enough until the prosecutor’s mantle landed in the hands of conservative barrister Kenneth Starr. In 1994, Starr accepted the appointment as special prosecutor in 1994 despite having publicly disparaged the law that enshrined his autonomy. Undaunted, Starr took up his prosecutorial authority with disproportionate zeal — so much so that his controversial actions as special prosecutor did much to ensure the law’s ultimate demise. He was appointed to investigate a questionable Arkansas land deal (Whitewater) involving the Bill and Hillary Clinton. He expanded his investigation to include conspiracies surrounding the death of White House lawyer Vincent Foster, the White House travel office and the FBI files affair. Starr then issued a subpoena to an as yet unknown White House intern. Upon the arrival of Monica Lewinsky, an investigation, which until then captured little public interest, went global.

Starr’s grand overreach as special prosecutor helped ensure the ruin of the independent-counsel statute itself. In 1999, following Starr’s excessive investigation and the Clinton impeachment, Congress decided not to renew the statute. Authority over the appointment of an independent counsel was returned to the confines of the Executive Branch. Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor tasked with investigating White House leaks of Valerie Plame’s CIA identity, was appointed by the Justice Department. It’s newly appointed chief, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, reports directly to President Bush. Any “independent” investigation of the White House’s use of propaganda would be subject to this same chain of command."

http://www.freepress.net/propaganda/=foia