American Conservative Union calls for rehire of Miranda (Judicial Committee computer files)

The Hill ^ | April 14, 2004 | Alexander Bolton

[berserker]

The American Conservative Union (ACU) is spearheading a campaign that has sent hundreds of e-mails to Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee urging them to rehire Manuel Miranda, a former panel staffer and former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

The ACU sent an alert to members this month urging them to demand that Miranda be rehired. Miranda was forced to resign in February after he admitted having access to internal Democratic Judiciary documents. He served as a GOP counsel on the Judiciary Committee from December 2001 to January 2003 and then handled strategy on judicial nominees for Frist from January 2003 until early this year. The Justice Department is reviewing whether to prosecute Miranda for improperly obtaining private Democratic documents.

Frist has supported Miranda since he left the Senate, say sources familiar with their relationship. At a recent meeting of conservatives sponsored by Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, Frist praised Miranda effusively. “[Frist] said he had great respect for him and loved him and thought his work was excellent or words to that effect,” said Weyrich.

Jeffery Mazzella, executive director of the Center for Individual Freedom, supported the ACU’s call to put Miranda back to work on judicial nominations. “There was no better advocate for removing corruption out of the judicial confirmation process than Miranda,” said Mazzella. “His resignation is a big loss to the judicial battle.”

Kay Daly, the president of Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, said she “would be happy to join with ACU on that.” “I would love to see him back in the process now that the Pickle report has shown there is no there there,” Daly said, referring to a probe Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle conducted into how GOP aides obtained sensitive Democrat documents stored on a shared computer server.

Last month, Pickle presented his report on the matter to the office of James Comey, deputy attorney general in charge of the criminal division at the Department of Justice, said a Pickle aide.

Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee say they haven’t heard anything from the Justice Department about the report. Neither has Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who said he expected Justice would not pursue a criminal investigation, as Democrats have demanded.

Since Miranda’s resignation, the pace of activity on judicial nominees in the Senate has slowed. While Hatch has moved district-court nominees briskly through the Judiciary Committee, few appellate-court nominees have been called up, conservative activists say.

More troublesome for advocates of President Bush’s nominees is a freeze Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) has placed on all executive branch and judicial nominees.

Democrats say they are retaliating for two circuit-court appointments Bush made while the Senate was in recess, bypassing the confirmation process.

Conservatives are also frustrated that Senate Republicans have failed to pursue evidence of corruption contained in the publicized Democratic memoranda. Seizing the initiative on the issue, the Center for Individual Freedom, yesterday filed a bar complaint against a former aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) for attempting to use her Senate position to influence a high-profile affirmative action case in which she was involved. Kennedy’s spokesman declined to comment.

Mazzella said Senate Republicans have failed to demonstrate a desire to investigate possible ethical lapses by Democrats revealed by their internal documents. “It’s been a source of frustration on my part,” he said.

The Center for Individual Freedom filed a complaint against Olatunde Johnson with the New York state Departmental Disciplinary Committee after discovering she authored a memo advising Kennedy to delay the confirmation of a conservative nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

Johnson suggested delaying the nomination until after the appeals court had completed en banc consideration of Gratz v. Bollinger, a high-profile case on the constitutionality of an affirmative action program at the University of Michigan.

Johnson’s identity as author of the memo was revealed when Pickle’s staff accidently released an unredacted report of his investigation to the public.

That enabled the Center for Individual Freedom to realize that Johnson was a party to the affirmative action case. Prior to joining Kennedy’s office, Johnson served as counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. According to the bar complaint, Johnson filed a brief on behalf of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund as an “Attorney for Defendant-Intervenor” in the Gratz case. The complaint alleges that violated New York’s Code of Professional Responsibility for lawyers which states “[a] lawyer serving as a public officer or employee shall not … [p]articipate in a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially while in private practice or non-governmental employment.”

However, Bruce Green, a professor at Fordham University School of Law who also sits on a committee that is redrafting New York’s disciplinary laws, said he did not believe Johnson violated any professional conduct rules by her action.

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Someone at the church I go to who used to work in the Senate. He was not impressed with Miranda's conduct in this matter, and like me, would have IMMEDIATELY brought this matter to the attention of the Senator he worked for.

If I were a Senator, I would not hire someone who departed the employment of a preivous Senator under such circumstances. I certainly would not REHIRE a guy who allowed me to get blind-sided. Senators Hatch and Frist should have been notified the instant that the NAACP memo was first read. They should NOT have found out about it in a Wall Street Jourtnal editorial months after the fact.