Jon Conyers' blog: What's Happening at the DoJ?

[babylonsister]

http://www.johnconyers.com/node/107

What's Happening at the DoJ?
Submitted by JC on March 15, 2007 - 10:50pm.


There's a lot that has happened in the continuing saga of Department of Justice politicization and ineptitude and every time I get ready to post something here a new revelation emerges. Well, two incredible things emerged today.

First, Murray Waas, a terrific investigative reporter who you may know through his coverage of the Valerie Plame leak story, wrote a piece that publishes in tomorrow's National Journal ( available now online). He reports that Attorney General Gonzales was the target of a DoJ internal investigation on the legality of warrantless wiretapping - and that senior DoJ officials were about to report that they warned Gonzales it was illegal when the President shut down the investigation.

We also just learned, through a White House email just made public this evening, that Karl Rove was involved in the strategy behind firing the U.S. Attorneys. This is especially troubling because, in Congressional testimony, the DoJ has consistently maintained that the decision to fire these prosecutors did not come from the White House. This correspondence calls into question the truthfulness of those (including Gonzales) who have testified before Congress on this issue, and emphatically discredits claims that politics had no role in the firings.

There is another element to this sordid affair that I think deserves further attention for its disgraceful dishonesty. The administration describes the President's interest in the duties of the U.S. Attorneys by explaining that he had heard complaints that some of them had not pursued voter fraud investigations aggressively enough.

Dan Froomkin at washingtonpost.com found the flaw in these assertions.


What's significant about that is that charges of alleged Democratic voter fraud have long been a notorious GOP stalking horse. And some Republicans, at the time, were desperately casting about for some sort of Democratic controversy to distract voters from the GOP corruption scandals that had engulfed Washington -- and that quite possibly ended up costing them both houses of Congress.

Suggestion of voter fraud is the excuse typically used by those engaging in vote suppression. The truth is there is very little evidence to support claims of voting fraud. However, there is ample evidence of vote suppression in Florida and Ohio in the past two presidential elections.

For the White House to maintain that the President sought new U.S. Attorneys because existing ones didn't pursue voter fraud cases aggressively enough suggests, by itself, that these decisions were politically motivated.

I look forward to reviewing the additional documents from the White House and DoJ that we will receive tomorrow. There is plenty to digest here and I will try to keep you as informed as events unfold.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Glad to see John's on it.

Not that I expect anything les from him, of course.

[babylonsister]

2. As always, one of our keepers of the faith. nt