Justice Probes U.S. Prosecutor Hirings (Goodling under investigation)

Source: Associated Press

Justice Probes U.S. Prosecutor Hirings

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

(05-02) 11:54 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

The Justice Department is investigating whether its former
White House liaison used political affiliation in deciding who
to hire as entry-level prosecutors in U.S. attorneys' offices
around the country, The Associated Press has learned.

Doing so is a violation of federal law.

The inquiry involving Monica Goodling, the former counsel
and White House liaison for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,
raises new concerns that politics might have cast a shadow
over the independence of trial prosecutors who enforce U.S.
laws.

Justice spokesman Dean Boyd confirmed Wednesday that the
department's inspector general and Office of Professional
Responsibility were investigating Goodling's role in hiring
career attorneys — an unusual responsibility for her to take.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/02/national/w115429D57.DTL

This is really cute. Politics all the time. Fuck the country. fuck right and wrong. Fuck good and bad. Fuck justice. Just good ole fashion republican politics.

"...political affiliation in deciding who
to hire as entry-level prosecutors..."

What better way to control the entire justice system. Get a bunch of neoconservative judges in there at one end and foot soldiers at the prosecutor end. Next they'll have professional juries filled with "Ditto Heads."

This means jail time. Can't do this sort of thing. This Monica will be more trouble than the last.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3247123&mesg_id=3247123

Justice Dept. probe may limit Goodling’s testimony.

Any interpretations of this out there? Are they blocking her testimony or is something going on we don't know about? I haven't read anything about an internal DoJ investigation of Goodling. :shrug:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/02/justice-dept-probe-... /

Justice Dept. probe may limit Goodling’s testimony.

The Washington Post notes that the internal Justice Department investigation of former Gonzales counsel Monica Goodling, which was first reported today, may interfere with her ability to testify before Congress:

The Goodling revelations raise uncertainty about whether she will testify before the House Judiciary Committee, which offered her limited immunity from prosecution last week in exchange for her testimony about the firings. Goodling, who resigned last month, has invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions from Congress.

Such an immunity deal requires approval from the Justice Department, which must agree that her testimony would not interfere with an ongoing criminal probe, according to administration and congressional officials. Although the joint probe into the attorney firings by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine and OPR is not criminal, the allegations against Goodling raise the possibility that a crime may have been committed.

Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias says he believes that Goodling holds the “keys to the kingdom” in terms of uncovering the roots of the attorney purge. Will the Justice Department allow her to testify? 8:38 pm

.....to discover gambling going on here...

that isn't even subtle.

this is ham fisted and clumsy.

AND happily took the immunity deal.

Source: Associated Press

AP: Internal DoJ Probe Targets Goodling
By Paul Kiel - May 2, 2007, 4:21 PM
How deep, how wide did the politicization at the Justice Department go?

From the AP:

The Justice Department is investigating whether its former White House liaison used political affiliation in deciding who to hire as entry-level prosecutors in U.S. attorneys' offices around the country, The Associated Press has learned.
Doing so is a violation of federal law.

The inquiry involving Monica Goodling, the former counsel and White House liaison for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, raises new concerns that politics might have cast a shadow over the independence of trial prosecutors who enforce U.S. laws.

Justice spokesman Dean Boyd confirmed Wednesday that the department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility were investigating Goodling's role in hiring career attorneys — an unusual responsibility for her to take.

MORE

Read more: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003137.php

Where is the underlying crime...

Ah, they will never be able to prove it...

Hmmm...

We already know she did because she follows all WH instructions. It's just a matter of finding concrete prove before it gets destroyed or goes "missing".

asks her a question about her hiring practices,
and her response will be "... well Alberto told me to hire politcal operatives ..."
and she'll be off the hook with her "Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free-Card"

Give me a BREAK! :eyes:

Justice Dept. Announces Inquiry Into Its Hiring
By ERIC LIPTON and DAVID JOHNSTON
WASHINGTON, May 2 — The Justice Department has begun an internal investigation into whether a former senior adviser to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales improperly tried to fill vacancies for career prosecutors at the agency with Republicans loyal to the Bush administration, department officials said Wednesday.

The inquiry focuses on whether the former adviser, Monica Goodling, sought to determine the political affiliations of job applicants before they were hired as prosecutors — potentially a violation of civil service laws and a break with a tradition of nonpartisanship in the career ranks at the Justice Department.

The inquiry by the department’s inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility was announced on a day in which the House and Senate Judiciary Committees advanced their broader investigations of issues related to last year’s dismissals of eight United States attorneys.

The Senate committee issued a subpoena to Mr. Gonzales for all Justice Department e-mail about the dismissals involving Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/washington/03attorneys.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Josh notes:

...But this raises a weird possibility: the fact that the DOJ is investigating Goodling could put a roadblock in the way of the investigating committees' efforts to give her immunity and force her to testify on Capitol Hill. So Goodling's new alleged wrongdoing could have the perverse effect of preventing her from being forced to go up to Capitol Hill and reveal what she knows about what happened in the Purge.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013950.php