Leahy to pursue Justice firings
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: November 20, 2008
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the head of the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee, said that despite the impending change in presidential administrations, he will pursue his inquiry into political influence in the U.S. Department of Justice under President George Bush.
Leahy said it was "encouraging" that the U.S. Department of Justice has said it will provide some of the information about the allegedly politically motivated firings in 2006 of nine U.S. attorneys.
And if President-elect Barack Obama's administration releases some of the information his committee has sought, he will not have to pursue that material through congressional means, Leahy said.
"I won't have to if the administration just turns a lot of it over and makes it available," he said.
Leahy wants to know what influence members of the White House – including Karl Rove – had on the firings of the prosecutors. The firings led to several investigations and were followed by the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
"My ultimate goal is to find out what they did … where law enforcement was manipulated," Leahy said of any potential White House influence in the firings.
Another factor that may influence that process is becoming clearer, as well. Obama is rumored to have tapped Eric Holder, a former judge, U.S. attorney and assistant Attorney General now in private practice to serve as his incoming administration's Attorney General.
Leahy and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, another member of the Judiciary Committee with whom Leahy works closely, recently issued a letter to Obama outlining the qualifications for any new Attorney General.
Holder meets those, Leahy said, and would be able to restore good morale and independence to the Department of Justice.
"I think Eric Holder would be great. You need someone with the most experience possible to come in and do this," Leahy said. "He knows where all the levers are in the Department of Justice."
Specter has raised the possibility that Holder's recommendation while assistant Attorney General that then-outgoing President Bill Clinton pardon Marc Rich — a financier who was dodging tax problems and whose wife was a prominent Clinton donor – may be a problem in his confirmation hearings.
Leahy said that the recommendation may well be an issue, but that it was ultimately Clinton's decision to pardon Rich, not that of Holder, who was occupied with many tasks in the final hours of the Clinton presidency.
"I have told Eric Holder it will be an issue," Leahy said. But "the bad mistake in that was Bill Clinton's. Even though the president had the absolute right to do it, I think it was the wrong thing to do. I blame him far more than I do Holder."
More important is Holder's ability to restore faith in the U.S. Department of Justice, Leahy said.
"He can do it and more importantly he will do it," Leahy said.
Holder may agree with Leahy about the problems facing Justice.
"Internally, there is a morale problem the likes of which I have never seen before," Holder said in an interview late last year, according to news reports. "Externally, there is a crisis of confidence that the nation has with regard to the department."
On Wednesday, Leahy released a report on the congressional inquiries into the U.S. attorney firings and the Bush administration's failure to be forthcoming about them.
"This stonewalling is a dramatic break from the practices of every administration since World War II in responding to congressional oversight," according to the report. In contrast, members of the current administration have refused to testify or provide documents, either voluntarily or under subpoena, claiming executive privilege.
The report accompanies resolutions of contempt for Rove, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and then White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.
The committee has not have found out everything its members want, but the process has not been unproductive, Leahy said.
For one thing, Gonzales resigned among allegations of perjury.
"We got rid of him, and not only got rid of him but the top seven people at the Department of Justice," Leahy said.
Rove and the U.S. Department of Justice did not return messages seeking comment on Leahy's report Wednesday.
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