Posted on 06/20/2002 7:46:48 AM PDT by RaceBannon
Ashcroft to Make it Official: Clintons Are Above the Law
Attorney General John Ashcroft is said to be ready to close out a key aspect of his Justice Department investigation into the Clinton pardon trading scandal, effectively confirming that both the ex-president and his New York senator wife are now officially above the law.
"The Justice Department is expected within a month to shut down its probe into whether (then-President) Clinton gave clemency to four convicted felons of the Hasidic enclave of New Square after the town voted 1,400 to 12 for Hillary Clinton in her Senate election," the New York Daily News reported Thursday.
"The New Square part is likely to be closed without criminal charges being brought," a source familiar with the investigation told The News.
Four New Square Hasidic rabbis, who had been jailed for bilking the government out of millions of dollars earmarked for anti-poverty programs, were freed from jail earlier this year as a result of the Clinton clemency deal.
Hasidic communities surrounding New Square that weren't granted any special presidential favors voted heavily for Mrs. Clinton's opponent, Rick Lazio.
The decision to clear Mrs. Clinton comes despite earlier reports that at least one witness had fingered her in the vote-trading conspiracy.
Prosecutors had found a witness who says the senator was present during discussions of clemency before the election, sources familiar with the probe told the News in January.
The investigation into Clinton's illegal pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, as well smoking gun evidence that former first brother Roger Clinton traded pardon promises for cash, remains open. But after more than a year of relative inactivity, observers also expect those probes to end without indictments.
The contrast with other more recent Justice Department prosecutions couldn't be more stark, illustrating what government probers can do when they're not constrained by political considerations.
The accounting giant Arthur Andersen, for instance, was convicted just last week based on an indictment that charged the entire company with obstruction of justice. The conviction left more than a few legal experts wondering about prosecutorial overreach.
The recent conviction of Michael Skakel for the 26-year-old murder of Martha Moxley was based entirely on circumstantial evidence, in a case that appeared far weaker than the one prosecutors have built against the Clintons.
Though the Skakel conviction wasn't a federal prosecution, the surprise guilty verdict illustrates what prosecutors can accomplish when they're interested in actually enforcing the law.
Beyond Pardongate, the Bush Justice Department has either plea bargained or abandoned outright other possible prosecutions against the Clintons, while ignoring altogether additional serious reports of wrongdoing, including:
• Allegations that Indonesian billionaire James Riady illegally funneled millions of dollars into Clinton presidential campaigns.
• Reports that the Clinton White House withheld and or attempted to destroy millions of evidentiary e-mails that had been subpeonaed by the Office of Independent Counsel.
• Complaints from Clinton accusers Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and Elizabeth Ward Gracen that they were subjected to politically motivated IRS audits after speaking out about sexual encounters with the president.
• Charges from Democratic Party contributor Peter Paul that the Clintons failed to report his $2 million donation to the Federal Election Commission.
• Allegations that Mrs. Clinton's acceptance of an $8 million book advance after she was elected to the Senate may have violated federal bribery statutes.
• A complaint from White House whistleblower Linda Tripp that officials with the Clinton Pentagon illegally leaked information from her confidential employment file to the media.
• Reports that a Westchester County police officer may have been threatened with the loss of his job for talking about an accident where he was seriously injured by a car carrying Mrs. Clinton.
Rush Limbaugh started the phrase RULE OF LAW...whatever happened to it?
That's just the way it is.
Some things never change.
My blood pressure is through the roof right now.
DITTO bump!
Rule of Law----what a joke
Really, we screamed for yeeeears to have the law upheld, and now our man we voted for, (Some holding our nose but voting to keep Algore out) is spitting in our face by not going after the biggest criminal in the history of our government!!
I need a lot more than a muffler to keep me happy about this; illegal aliens voting and being allowed to stay, draggin his feet on upholding the law on aliens, draggin his feet on securing our borders, failure to give a realistic tax cut that meant anything to stimulate the economy, failure to increase defense spending to an amount necessary to replace aging aircraft and ships, failure to increase troop levels to fight this war without straining our reserves and material, failing to secure our ports and search shipping for terrorists and aliens, failing to enact realistic search regulations for airlines by profiling instead of random searches of crippled Nuns...
I'm sure they took this step so they wouldn't damper morale of the "WAR". Or at least that's what I expect all these administration enablers to use as the excuse, We'll hafta see.
Second - I wish the case would not be dropped.
Third - the Justice Dept. like all Federal Executive Branch agencies remains full of Clintonistas. They are imbedded in the bureaucracy and can't be removed. Perhaps Atty General Aschcroft has been influenced by these Clintonistas to let it all drop.
Or perhaps he is doing what President Bush has said from the beginning he wants - which is to change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington.
What must happen is for US to let the President KNOW that no American must be above the law. That we want the Clintons prosecuted wherever and however possible since they have trashed our laws and "gotten away with it", they think.
Perhaps the President thinks to make Mrs. Clinton a "target" is to make her an object of "sympathy" something he wants to avoid.
Who knows?
But why don't you let your voice be heard. Contact people in the Republican Party heirarchy, send an email to the White House.
Contact people in the Republican Party heirarchy, send an email to the White House.
Or yell at your wall.
It’ll do just as much good.
Calm down, take a deep breath, do whatever you do to relax. We can't afford to lose any Conservatives!
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Changing the "poisonous atmosphere" is impossible without holding those crooks accountable and ridding the city of their stench.
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