In a footnote to one of the many misadventures of the George W. Bush administration, a prosecutor last month concluded that his attorney general and Justice Department committed no crime in firing nine U.S attorneys.
Fair enough. Former attorney general Alberto Gonzales and his aides, and political advisor Karl Rove, need not worry about a criminal trial. A two-year Justice Department investigation of the scandal by Nora Dannehy put an end to the matter with a letter to Congress.
“Evidence did not demonstrate that any prosecutable offense was committed.” she wrote.
It was hardly an exoneration. Dannehy took note of the Bush Justice Department’s undue sensitivity to politics and its willingness to subordinate the country’s legal interests to a partisan agenda.
It’s been clear for years that Republicans in Congress and the administration pressed Justice Department staff to conduct politically oriented investigations. The administration’s own investigation documented that David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, was fired in 2006 after refusing to pursue politically motivated cases on which powerful Republicans were demanding action.
Perhaps what saved Gonzales and his colleagues from prosecution was the ineptness of his department. The firings were not part of any single plot. The first of the nine attorneys to be sacked was apparently fired because of a political feud in Missouri, while the former U.S. attorney for Arkansas attorney was apparently pushed out to make room for a Karl Rove protégé.
Clearing the Bush Justice Department of criminal culpability is not the same as a declaration of innocence. Even though no charges will be filed, the attorney firing scandal should be remembered as a discreditable breach of trust by the previous administration.
The case was summed up cynically, and correctly, by the man Bush selected in 2007 to replace Gonzales as attorney general.
Michael Mukasey, a retired judge, ordered a thorough investigation of the scandal soon after taking office. But he observed: “Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.”
— Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Nick Cowenhoven at nickc@journaltribune.com.
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