Comments Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,

On The Report By The Inspector General

And The Office Of Professional Responsibility

On The Dismissal Of Nine U.S. Attorneys

September 29, 2008

 

“These findings by the Justice Department’s internal oversight offices add up to another disturbing report card on the conduct of the Gonzales Justice Department in the unprecedented firing of U.S. Attorneys for partisan, political reasons.  Those of us who believe that law enforcement must never be infected by politics cannot help be dismayed by the report’s conclusion that the Attorney General and the other top officials ‘abdicated their responsibility to safeguard the integrity and independence of the Department.’  This report might have told us even more if the investigation had not been impeded by the Bush administration’s refusal to cooperate and provide documents and witnesses, just as they remain in contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee’s investigation.  In this debacle as in others, the Bush administration’s self-serving secrecy has shrouded many of their most controversial policies -- from torture, to investigating the causes of 9/11, to wiretapping.

 

“This report verifies what our oversight efforts this Congress showed, that partisan, political interests in the prosecution of voter fraud and public corruption by the White House and some at the Department played a role in many of these firings.  These abuses are corrosive to the very foundations of our system of justice.  It is wrong and it is dangerous to undermine the nation’s premier law enforcement agency by injecting political biases to determine which cases should be prosecuted.

 

“The report also raises questions that are not yet resolved about the reasons for the firing and ‘inconsistent, misleading, and inaccurate’ statements to Congress and the press from Attorney General Gonzales and others at the Department.  I will look carefully at the report’s recommendation that a prosecutor continue to explore these troubling facts, including inaccurate testimony to Congress, whether Attorney General Gonzales tried to shape the testimony of other Department officials, and the extent of White House involvement.  Perhaps a prosecutor can break down walls others cannot. 

 

“It was oversight in the new Congress two years ago that lifted the lid on the practices of those who were subverting our system by acting as if they were above the law.  The Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation revealed a Justice Department gone awry.  Attorney General Gonzales allowed politics to permeate the Department’s ranks, and then he tried to avoid accountability.  He has provided the Inspector General the same response he gave so frequently to Congress:  I don’t recall.  The threads of secrecy of this administration – from the White House to the Executive agencies – will continue to unravel for years to come.”

 

# # # # #