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Justice Department Watchdog Confirms Investigation of Political Prosecutions
At the same time that the House Judiciary Committee voted to issue a subpoena to former presidential adviser Karl Rove today, it released a May 5 letter from the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility to committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) disclosing that the OPR is investigating "allegations of selective prosecution relating to the prosecutions of Don Siegelman, Georgia Thompson, and Oliver Diaz and Paul Minor."
Most reader are already familiar with the Siegelman case. Georgia Thompson, you'll recall, was the Wisconsin state employee whose federal corruption conviction, obtained by Milwaukee-based U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, was considered so flawed that it was thrown out by the appeals court immediately after oral arguments.
Diaz and Minor may be less familiar to TPMmuckraker readers. Diaz is a former Mississippi State Supreme Court justice, and Minor is a Mississippi attorney. Their prosecutions by U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton have been under scrutiny by the House Judiciary Committee as well:
Diaz and his ex-wife, Jennifer, were indicted in 2003 along with prominent Gulf Coast attorney Paul Minor and two former lower court judges on federal bribery allegations. Oliver Diaz was eventually cleared of all charges. The others were not.
Separately OPR is conducting a joint investigation of the U.S. attorney firings with the DOJ inspector general.
Comments (17)
DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility is headed by H. Marshall Jarrett.
Jarrett is a Clinton appointee. During his career, he headed the prosecutions of Dan Rostenkowski and DC Mayor Marion Barry.
There could be hope here.
May 22, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Guess what that means?:
Rove: "Sorry, I can't comment on an on-going investigation"
weeeeeee-hooooooooooo! F*****'d Again!
May 22, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is the loophole for Rove...the timing was perfect as Rove knew a subpoena was coming...
May 22, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hope? Hasn't the DOJ asked the Judiciary Committees to delay/stop their oversight because of an "on going investigation" before? Has ANYONE! found the results(indictments/convictions) of ANY of these "investigations?" More ways of covering up and whitewashing. When they put Rove and some war criminals like Feith, Perle, Rumsfeld and MANY others behind bars I will have hope. Fitzpatrick had his chance to get Cheney and he let him off the hook. When you have a NOC outed and the best you can get is lying to a grand jury, the whole DOJ sucks. They police themselves like the coal industry, mining industry, electric producers, doctors and lawyers. It will all spill out some day and too late. Especially not in my lifetime and not soon enough to beat the statute of limitations.
May 22, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm....
1) DOJ OPR is now investigating some selective prosecution?
I CAN TELL YOU...ALL FED, STATE, AND LOCAL PROSECUTORS ARE DEDICATED TO "selective abuse of their descretion" in exchange for "money, favor, quid pro quo, jobs, payoffs, etc.".
2) There are several dead US ATTYs in Texas...and some high level "selective negligent fear" to end a high level multipronged conspiracy to defraud Medicaid.
See, TOM FLOCCO.com to search story.....or
copy and paste URL into google:
http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/DeathsFoulPlayQuestions.htm
May 22, 2008 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's my problem with this:
Is it wrong? ABSOLUTELY. But no one has ever pointed out to me that selective prosecution, even politically motivated, violates any law.
Go ahead. I'll wait while you check.
Done? OK, then here's the best I can come up with: It violates ethical conduct provisions in the Code of Federal Regulations applicable to Executive Branch employees and appointees.
Stiffest penalty: Job loss.
Whoop-de-freakin-do. I'm not saying don't go after it, but I'm surprised not to have seen the actual consequences discussed anywhere. Big picture, America needs to discredit this Administration and the lunatics, the befuddled and the bamboozled who brought it to power, and that's reason enough for Rove to resist, but I need to see something else before I'll start expecting perp walks.
Question: Can a President give a pardon for contempt of congress, assuming it's even prosecuted by the USAG, or is that a separation of powers issue?
May 22, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you arrest and indict someone, are unsuccessful in prosecuting them, and they can prove you filed the charges because of their belonging to a political party, then it's also a violation of Title 18 Section 242 of the US Code. Jailtime, termination, and disbarment could result, but it all has to be proven.
The President can pardon anyone that's been charged with a federal crime, but he can't pre-emptively pardon you for a crime you haven't been charged with. This White House appears to believe that certain people are exempt from prosecution and that the President can exempt federal employees from obeying US law. I doubt the next one will, so they'd better start up a neocon legal aid fund for what's looming on the horizon, when Bush is sipping Diet Coke on his front porch outside of Dallas. The Inspector General's case files will still be there, and they have 5 years to file the indictment.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and am not trying to imitate one. I am merely doing an imitation of what a narcissistic television show character imitating a lawyer might say on a political blog posting while at work in a Scranton-based division of a mid-sized paper company.
May 22, 2008 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Dwight. Beets rule.
May 22, 2008 10:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Watch and see if the DOJ doesn't ask Conyers to bow out of his investigation; that it is in conflict with theirs.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
May 22, 2008 8:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
"a joint investigation..."
Oh, so now there's drugs involved?
Figgers.
May 22, 2008 11:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is worth noting that when the Diaz, Minor, etc. indictments came down in Mississippi, it was done on the day that Former Governor Ronnie Musgrove officially became the Democratic nominee for re-election against challenger Haley Barbour. Oh, and did I mention that Diaz was his appointee? Or that Diaz was previously an elected Republican?
And how about poor Minor. Diaz is found not guilty of being bribed, yet Minor is found guilty of bribing him (Diaz) and gets the MAXIMUM sentence! Also worthy of note is the number of cases where Minor came before Diaz at all, AND the number of times Diaz ruled in favor of Minor...that would be Zero.
May 23, 2008 3:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
How about the following:
Amendment XIV
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
In case you don't recognize this it is from the United States Constitution. And, even a republican cannot get away with equating selective prosecution with "equal protection of the laws."
May 23, 2008 6:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
The President can pardon anyone that's been charged with a federal crime, but he can't pre-emptively pardon you for a crime you haven't been charged with.
I'm not sure that's true, someone please correct me if I am wrong.
For example:
Ford pardoned Nixon - pretty sure it was pre-indictment.
Reagan pardoned a number of folks involved in Iran-Contra, some of whom had been charged, and some of whom hadn't.
Am I wrong?
May 23, 2008 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
duh! mis-matched tags ...
May 23, 2008 7:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm...so we have a DOJ OPR investigation by a partisan GOP stooge afraid to get fired like so many other honest US Attorneys who were doing their jobs.
And we have a DOJ OIG.
1) I've contacted both agencies with a detailed 47 page complaint alleging facts proving laws were broken by SD US ATTORNEY JAMES MCMAHON, SF FBI, Minneapolis FBI, Austin, TX FBI, etc.
I heard nothing back from DOJ OPR, FBI OPR and DOJ OIG.
GLEN FINE only testified after, after, after PAT LEAHY pushed the issue wondering "why my DOJ OIG Complaint" was not investigated for PATRIOT ACT CRIMES and "why FBI OPR did not acknowledge possession of the complaint>:
2) As for SELECTIVE PROSECUTIONS...WITH POLITICAL MALICE...once again CONYERS AND DEM STAFFERS are incompetent, stupid, weak, and hopeless.
The real story and facts to "knock out" this cabal of lying scheming criminal scum...is THE SOUTH DAKOTA FACT PATTERN alleging that "FBI, SD AG, SD US ATTY, SD DCI, SFPD, MCSAO, MCSD" all conspired to "MURDER DASCHLE'S EX CHIEF OF STAFF, RICH GORDON" and also "DESTROYED HIS BROTHER DR. MARK GORDON" with stalking, assaults, terroristic threats, harassment, extortion, pin hole spy cameras in his home....BRADY VIOLATIONS....OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.
3) The real story...is ignored by Conyers because the DEMS ARE AS DIRTY AS THE GOP WHEN IT COMES TO USING DRUG MONEY FOR THEIR CAMPAIGNS AND FOR ALL THE SECRET PAYOFFS (as proven by Charles Hayes' PROMIS software search of off shore bank accounts using THE FIFTH COLUMN'S CRAY SUPERCOMPUTER).
Hayes got framed by FBI punk KELLER...and is in Kentucky fed pen...long after his sentence has already ran?
May 23, 2008 11:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps the Federalist Society needs to be investigated.
It seems to be an organization of very conservative lawyers with the goal to gain control of the government in a legal sense. While in itself it is not doing anything illegal, it seems that all the players from old Alberto G. and the current AG, and John Yoo as well as all the Asst USA's involved in these selective prosecutions are members of the Society and they meet, like in the old smoke filled country club days and plan what they want to do. Maybe more is happening.
It is the social networks that matter, and who has power in them, and how they help each other out behind closed doors.
Perhaps when high public officials speak or attend any public or private function, guest lists and a transcript of the talk needs to be made public within a couple of days. So that we the people can see more clearly the influences on our government. There should not be any "non public events" for a high public officials. At least it would require these public officials to be consistent in their propaganda in stead of being two faced in public and in private.
May 24, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why is the trial of Dr. Cyril Wecht not under investigation as well? It is one of the clearest politically motivated selective prosecutions in many individuals' opinions. Including former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh.
May 28, 2008 7:43 AM | Reply | Permalink