Report: No grand jury for Gonzales(Mukasey: No Investigation into Attn'y Firings of 9 USAG's)

maddezmom

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Sun Sep-28-08 07:12 PM
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Report: No grand jury for Gonzales(Mukasey: No Investigation into Attn'y Firings of 9 USAG's)

Edited on Sun Sep-28-08 07:36 PM by maddezmom

Source: UPI

Report: No grand jury for Gonzales
Published: Sept. 28, 2008 at 7:35 PMOrder reprints | Print Story | Email to a Friend | Post a Comment Related Stories

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Justice Department officials do not plan to recommend a grand jury investigation of former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reports.

However, officials will recommend that a prosecutor continue investigating the role of the White House and members of Congress in the 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys, the newspaper reported Sunday, citing two people familiar with a report to be issued Monday by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility Director H. Marshall Jarrett.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is expected to appoint a career Justice Department prosecutor to examine questions that remain about the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys.

The impending official report is based on an 18-month review of the matter.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/28/Report_No_grand_jury_for_Gonzales/UPI-21331222644912/

Murray Waas Exclusive: Bush Appointees Attempted to Thwart US Attorney Probe

A report to be made public tomorrow morning by the Justice Department detailing findings of its investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys will say that the efforts of investigators were severely stymied in large part by the lack of cooperation by some Bush administration officials and others outside the Department, according to sources who have seen the report.

The investigation was conducted jointly by the Justice Department�s Inspector General (IG) and the Department�s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR.) Both of those internal watchdogs have no potential prosecutorial power, but can make recommendations that career prosecutors take up their work after they finish their final report. It is unclear whether Attorney General Michael Mukasey will do so.

Despite the fact that its efforts were stymied in part by non-cooperation by witnesses, the report will say- not much of a surprise-that several of the firings were due to the politicization of the Justice Department by Bush administration appointees and that the White House played a role in some of them.

The lack of cooperation by some former Bush administration officials with investigators probing the firings of nine U.S. attorneys is not the first time that former administration officials have thwarted investigators probing the politicization of the Justice Department by refusing to answer their questions.

As I first reported on the Huffington Post in August, several former political appointees of the Justice Department�s refused to answer questions posed to them by the Department�s Inspector General about the politicization of the Civil Rights Division.

more:http://murraywaas.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/28/bush-appointees-attempted-to-thwart-us-attorney-probe/

Investigators: Probe on U.S. Attorney Firings Should Continue
Report to Be Released Monday Says Gonzales Won't Be Referred to Grand Jury

Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility director H. Marshall Jarrett, who wrote the report, will not absolve Justice Department officials of blame but will recommend that efforts continue to resolve unanswered questions, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings have not yet been made public.

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey is likely to announce he will name a career prosecutor from within the Justice Department to address the open questions, ensuring that the politically charged issue will extend into the next administration, the sources said. An intense effort to determine how the firing plan originated and whether perjury or obstruction of justice laws were violated in refusing to reveal the basis for the dismissals has been thwarted, partly because investigators lack the power to compel testimony from people outside of the Justice Department. Some of those officials may have played a critical role in recommending that specific prosecutors be fired.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092801057.html