Why All Americans Should Be Outraged By the U.S. Attorney Firings
In our criminal justice system, we operate under the assumption that justice is blind. At our core, we believe as a nation that no one will be charged with a crime and prosecuted based solely on their race, religion, nationality, gender or their political affiliation. Once again, the Bush administration has undermined the integrity of our criminal justice system by effectively allowing just that; prosecutors to be fired solely for not pursuing prosecutions favorable to the Republican Party or for investigating Republicans who may have committed crimes. And, once again, the Bush Administration is attempting to insult our collective intelligence by defending this outrageous abuse of process and allowing Alberto Gonzalez to remain Attorney General.
In late 2006, eight U.S. Attorneys were informed that they were being fired. At the time of the firings, the eight U.S. Attorneys were told that they were being fired for performance reasons. However, questions were raised when it appeared that they all had excellent performance evaluations, which begs the question, “Why then were they fired?” The answer appears to be that the Bush Administration wanted federal prosecutors who would be willing to use the power of their offices to further the political goals of the Republican Party. In other words, don’t investigate republicans and file charges whenever possible against democrats. Take the case of the David Iglesias, the fired U.S. Attorney from New Mexico.
Iglesias testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March that he felt improperly pressured by Republican members of Congress regarding a then-ongoing criminal investigation under his supervision. Inglesias testified that Rep. Heather Wilson called him in October to ask whether his office had returned sealed indictments against Democratic office holders alleged to have taken kickbacks in a courthouse construction project. At the time, Wilson was locked in a tight race for re-election, and criminal charges against Democrats would have aided her campaign. Ten days later, Iglesias testified that he received a phone call from Sen. Pete Domenici also inquiring about possible pending indictments. Domenici asked him, “Are charges going to be filed before November?” When Iglesias testified that no charges would be filed any time soon, Domenici responded, “I’m sorry to hear that,” and hung up. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez even admitted while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Domenici did, in fact, call him after the November election and complained to him that Iglesias had not aggressively pursued allegations of voter-fraud against Democrats in New Mexico. Domenici also passed along similar complaints in conversations with President Bush and Karl Rove. Nor long after, Iglesias was fired.
Iglesias is not the only U.S. Attorney who testified that they felt political pressure to pursue criminal investigations against Democrats. Since the story has become public, several of the fired prosecutors told Congress similar stories of law makers inappropriately contacting them and expressing a desire to see Democratic law makers investigated. U.S. Attorneys are political appointees who serve at the leisure of the president and can be fired with or without cause. However, once appointed, the role of a U.S. Attorney is that of a prosecutor and not political operative. The enormous amount of discretion vested with U.S. Attorneys in deciding which cases to prosecute and what citizens to investigate is to be used with the ideal of effective law enforcement, not political opportunism. That is apparently not the case with this Administration.
Hopefully the public outrage at this blatant abuse of process will get the attention of the Administration. This should also serve as a wake-up call to all Americans about corruption potential of our criminal justice system. Is justice blind? No. However, the blatant disregard for the integrity of our criminal justice system cannot be tolerated.
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