How the Bush Administration Uses Intel and Justice Resources

Martin Bright has a good post on his blog on the New Statesman (UK) on a bit of history in the runup to the Iraq War -- The woman who nearly stopped the war. Some interesting history on the use of intelligence to pursue a policy decided upon.

And ... guess who sent the FBI a letter about Spitzer and alleged escapades in Miami? The same Roger Stone responsible for shutting down the 2000 presidential election recount effort in Miami-Dade County. Amy Driscoll has the story on the Miami Herald (Mar 21, 2008, Beach man told FBI of alleged Spitzer sexscapades).

Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime, How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers by Eliot Spitzer (February 14, 2008, Washington Post).

Interesting use of Justice Department resources to avenge themselves on Spitzer.

AG Mukasey Limits White House Access

Marisa Taylor on McClatchy Newspapers reports on Attorney General Mukasey's reversal of Bush Administration policy:

...The original policy authorized more than 40 Justice Department officials and 400 White House officials to know about ongoing investigations, according to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a leading Democratic proponent of changing the policy.

During the Clinton administration, seven White House and Justice officials were permitted to receive such information.

Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said Mukasey's new policy mirrors the Clinton administration's, but allows more officials to receive details about national security matters.

Mukasey's predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, resigned after a nine-month long firestorm over the ouster of nine U.S. attorneys and allegations of improper political meddling in Justice Department business.

One of the fired U.S. attorneys, David Iglesias of New Mexico, accused Republican Senator Pete Domenici of trying to pressure him to indict Democrats before the 2006 congressional elections. Domenici admitted calling Iglesias but denied making any inappropriate demands.

White House officials also acknowledged contacting the Justice Department after they received Republican complaints about the department's handling of election fraud investigations.

DOJ - Obstructing justice again

Greg Gordon on McClatchy Newspapers has the latest obstruction of justice being committed by DOJ personnel:

The Justice Department delayed prosecuting a key Republican official for jamming the phones of New Hampshire Democrats until after the 2004 election, protecting top GOP officials from the scandal until the voting was over.

An official with detailed knowledge of the investigation into the 2002 Election-Day scheme said the inquiry sputtered for months after a prosecutor sought approval to indict James Tobin, the northeast regional coordinator for the Republican National Committee.

The phone-jamming operation was aimed at preventing New Hampshire Democrats from rounding up voters in the close U.S. Senate race between Republican Rep. John Sununu and Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Sununu's 19,000-vote victory helped the GOP regain control of the Senate.

While there were guilty pleas in the New Hampshire investigation prior to the 2004 presidential election, involvement of the national GOP wasn't confirmed. A Manchester, N.H., policeman quickly traced the jamming to Republican political operatives in 2003 and forwarded the evidence to the Justice Department for what ordinarily would be a straightforward case.

However, the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, told McClatchy that senior Justice Department officials slowed the inquiry. The official didn't know whether top department officials ordered the delays or what motivated those decisions.

The official said that Terry O'Donnell, a former Pentagon general counsel who was representing Tobin, was in contact with senior department officials before Tobin was indicted.

In October, the House Judiciary Committee opened an investigation to determine whether partisan politics undermined the federal probe.

The official said that department officials rejected prosecutor Todd Hinnen's push to bring criminal charges against the New Hampshire Republican Party.

Weeks before the 2004 election, Hinnen's supervisors directed him to ask a judge to halt action temporarily in a Democratic Party civil suit against the GOP so that it wouldn't hurt the investigation, although Hinnen had expressed no concerns that it would, the official said.

Paul Twomey, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party, said the delay spared Republicans embarrassment at the peak of the campaign because a pending deposition would have revealed that several state GOP officials knew about the scheme, which was hatched by their executive director, Charles McGee. The delay also stalled the case beyond its statute of limitations, depriving Democrats of full discovery, he said.....

DOJ's voting rights chief stepped down Friday

Greg Gordon reports on McClatchy Newspapers:

...In recent months, McClatchy has reported on a pattern of decision-making within the department's Civil Rights Division, of which the Voting Rights Section is a part, that tended to narrow the voting rights of Democratic-leaning minorities.

{John} Tanner has been enmeshed for months in congressional investigations over his stewardship of the unit that was established to protect minority-voting rights. He drew increased focus this fall after he told a Latino group: "African-Americans don't become elderly the way white people do. They die."....

...Department spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement that Tanner, of his own accord, ``made the decision to pursue (an) opportunity" to work in the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices. But his transfer to a lower-profile job appeared to continue a quiet housecleaning that began after retired judge Michael Mukasey took over as attorney general early last month with a vow to rid the agency of partisanship.

Chris Coates, a veteran lawyer in the Voting Rights Section, was named the acting chief....

...Shortly after he became section chief in 2005, Tanner reversed the recommendation of the career staff that the department object to a Georgia law requiring voters in that state to produce photo identification cards. The staff had argued that the law would disenfranchise minority voters.

A federal judge later blocked implementation of the law, likening it to a Jim Crow-era poll tax because poor minority voters, who are most likely to lack driver's licenses, would be required to buy photo IDs.

This October, after making his comments about the shorter life span of blacks while defending the Georgia law, Tanner apologized for his "clumsiness" before a House Judiciary subcommittee.

Tanner also drew harsh criticism for directing a crackdown to force states to purge hundreds of thousands of names from voter registration rolls, an initiative that critics charge was aimed at disenfranchising minority voters, who move frequently.

He's facing an investigation by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility into multiple allegations that he mistreated staff and abused his travel privileges. At least two of the
inquiries stem from formal complaints from members of his staff.

In late November, the Web site TPM Muckraker reported that Tanner had made taxpayer-funded trips to Hawaii for three straight years, twice staying a full week although his work was completed within a couple of business days. The Web site said he'd made 36 trips covering 97 days since taking the helm in May 2005.