U.S. attorneys fallout seeps into courts

LATimes ^ | June 18, 2007 | Richard B. Schmitt

[CutePuppy]

Defense lawyers in different cases are raising new questions about government prosecutors and potential political biases.

WASHINGTON — For months, the Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales have taken political heat for the purge of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Now the fallout is starting to hit the department in federal courtrooms around the country.

Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics.

Justice officials say those concerns are unfounded and constitute desperate measures by desperate defendants. But the affair has given defendants and their lawyers some new energy, which is complicating life for the prosecutors.

.....

Lawyers for a former county official in Delaware who has been accused of corruption asked a judge in early May to allow them to subpoena the Justice Department and White House for documents to see whether political motives factored into charges being brought against the official.

.....

U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam eventually sided with the government, saying that if there were any improper motives for bringing the case, they would become evident at trial, in cross-examination. He also noted that the decision to bring the indictments was made in May 2004 — "long before Mr. Gonzales became attorney general." (Gonzales' swearing-in was in February 2005.)

The defendant subsequently pleaded guilty to bank fraud.

.....

"It has become part of the background that jurors have in their minds when they deliberate," said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), a former assistant U.S. attorney. "Jurors will think, 'Gee, is there a political motivation for this? ..."

.....

[CutePuppy]

I am so glad this article is entirely free of bias; it hasn't brought one bit of evidence of false indictment by Republicans yet it doesn't even mention persecution of DeLay by Ronnie Earl, Rush Limbaugh ordeal im Palm Beach, Mike Nifong's or Patrick Fitzerald's manufacturing of cases and lying to the court, or harassment of Curt Weldon with FBI raids just before the end of his reelection campaign etc. etc.

That's the thanks to Bush and his DoJ and AG AG for leaving corrupt high and low-ranking Democrats largely alone for many years...? Maybe they need to adopt a "new tone"?

[Jeff Chandler]

Que?

[Lancey Howard]

The Bush Justice Department is not only corrupt to the core, but incompetent and clownish as well, and there is no end in sight to the water torture the rats and their media allies are going to inflict on the administration (and by extension, the GOP) over the firings, thanks to Bush’s cowardice in dealing with the fiasco.

What a moron.

[sirchtruth]

...thanks to Bush’s cowardice in dealing with the fiasco.

What? He hasn't fired or forced Gonzalas out yet! What would you have him do, the DBM/dems are going to harp on this til the cows come home because they have nothing better to do!

Granted Bush is a priss sometimes and should have cleaned house, but he's sticking with Gonzalas and not going to waste his time playing tit for tat with that loser, Leahy!