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Conyers Threatens Subpoenas for DoJ Selective Prosecution Documents
Last July, the House Judiciary Committee requested documents from the Justice Department about three cases that seemed to be the worst cases of selective prosecutions undertaken by George Bush's DoJ. In each case, the U.S. attorney had pursued a flawed case that hurt a prominent Democrat.
Since that time, the Department has refused to turn over all but a few documents -- though one of the produced emails showed a DoJ official troubled by one of the cases, the Georgia Thompson prosecution (the other two cases are ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) and Cyril Wecht). And in a letter on Friday, Conyers warned Attorney General Michael Mukasey that if the Department did not take notice, "we will have little choice but to consider the compulsory process." You can see that letter here.
Conyers included in his letter a three-page chart of requests (pdf) made by the committee that have gone unanswered by the Department. "We very much that the pending requests can be resolved voluntarily," he writes.
Josh
Zachary
This dog-and-pony show has gotten very tired. Conyers will threaten to subpoena... Conyers will subpoena... thoroughly corrupt administration toadies will or will not show up to testify. And on and on. We need new choreography for the next nine, long months. Even Bush fans are tired of him and his staffers thumbing their noses at every component of the American republic. These blinkered misfits are notable only for their radiantly bestial arrogance. This is what we get when we elect as President an aging kegger jock; Bush is an absentee leader, an empty shell filling out expensive businesswear.
Wooo. Thanks for letting me vent.
May 12, 2008 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thought I'd see a mention of this on the site by now, but several Daily Kos diaries mention a link between Scott Bloch and the Don Siegelman case and I finally found an AP article on the Alabama News site discussing it.
Is there anything being worked up at the TPM Empire about the story?
May 12, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Chairmen of both Judiciary Committees are becoming if not already, cartoons. "Strongly worded letters, and "toothless subpoenas" are all they do. The recipients just put them in the round file and ignore them. They are too clubby. When the Republicans were in control they put them in the cloakroom and only let them out when it was to their advantage. They are still there. Hell, when was the last time you heard any of them talking about ending the clusterf*ck in Iraq? The only time Iraq is mentioned is when the President has his hand out to feed the war and his cronys. Why were the Democrats put in charge (an oxymoron) last election? I thought it was to end the war. The DOJ hasn't changed with the exception of a smarter, shrewder AG who just flat out tells them no. Hell if they can't straighten out the head of the EPA how the hell could they get anything out of Gates, Rice, Mukasey and the rest. And since the Democrats are so adept at grasping defeat from the jaws of victory, a win at the polls in Nov. is not a "slam dunk." They are working on losing the election as I type this.
May 12, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
sic the Sergeant At Arms on these miscreants!
Bring these lawless twerps to testify!
The Rule of Law must return!!!
May 12, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Three cheers for the House Committee On The Judiciary for boldly recognizing that the DOJ holds the precarious power of selective prosecution and then conducting an investigation when such powers appear to
have been abused. That this instance involves the alleged abuse of selective prosecution under political motivations subjects the entire effort to public doubt, and more importantly pales in comparison to the corruptive influence upon Federal selective prosecutions due to financial motivation, conflict of interest, extortion of public officials, and even ethnic bias. Why initiate an investigation against corruption which is solely politically motivated when doing so embraces the
supremacy of politics over justice?
Doesn't the House recognize that the many billions of dollars made by organized crime
each year in the U.S. are made amidst this closed culture of selective prosecution and the revolving door between Biglaw (with their criminal corporate and hedge fund clients) and the DOJ? Former U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft acknowledged corruption in Law Enforcement and the Judiciary and that "We know that we can only detect, investigate and prosecute a small percentage of those officials who are corrupt".
Consider that former U.S. Attorney Eliot Spitzer was doing business with a prostitution wing of a number of organized crime families at the same time when he was under oath to prosecute those associates. Are we surprised that Spitzer only prosecuted certain competitors of his associates? Are we surprised that Spitzer refused to investigate or refer the recording of a death threat against the whistle-blower to fraud in the Worldcom Bankruptcy?
Consider the crimes in the eToys bankruptcy case including bribery, extortion, and financial retribution against the whistle-blower who would
not allow the estate to be looted for the benefit of the undisclosed conflicted clients of the bankruptcy professionals.
Let's remove the political blinders and open our eyes to the few corrupt attorneys within the DOJ and the Judiciary who protect and promote the suit wearing organized crime syndicates of the financial world who have brought us the age of modern mega-case corporate fraud,
massive structured finance fraud (being spun to the masses as the "sub prime credit crisis"), and the not uncommon conversion
of our civil and bankruptcy court system from a mechanism to resolve disputes between parties into an extortionate playground outside the rule of law and bullied by Biglaw attorneys.
May 13, 2008 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink