Posted on 05/25/2010 5:08:15 AM PDT by Libloather
Sestak special counsel gets brushoff
By JOHN BRESNAHAN & JAKE SHERMA
5/24/10 7:05 PM EDT
The Justice Department has rejected a Republican request to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations that the White House offered a job to Rep. Joe Sestak if he would drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic primary.
In a letter sent Friday to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — but not publicly released — a Justice Department official said there was no need to have a special counsel to look into the allegations. Republicans have been pressing the issue for months, but the White House has insisted nothing inappropriate happened. Sestak himself has been the source of the allegation, stating publicly he was offered a job in order to clear the field for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).
Sestak ended up defeating Specter in last week’s primary, but Republicans are still pushing for a full-blown investigation of the job offer allegation. Sestak has refused to say specifically what administration job he was offered, but many think it was secretary of the Navy.
In the letter to Issa, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the DOJ could handle the allegations without creating a special counsel. But Weich gave no indication that the department was looking into the Sestak matter.
“We assure you that the Department of Justice takes very seriously allegations of criminal conduct by public officials. All such matters are reviewed carefully by career prosecutors and law enforcement agents, and appropriate action, if warranted, is taken,” Weich wrote in the letter, which was obtained by POLITICO. “The Department of Justice, however, has a long history of handling investigations of high-level officials professionally and independently, without the need to appoint a special counsel.”
Appointing a special counsel would be a significant move — upgrading what has been a minor controversy to a serious investigation, because the Obama Justice Department would be devoting resources to investigating the White House.
Weich’s letter was in response to an April 21 letter from Issa to Attorney General Eric Holder. Issa suggested that the Sestak job offer could be a violation of federal bribery statutes, though ethics experts strongly disagree with that assertion.
Issa says the Justice Department’s refusal to appoint a special counsel undermines administration claims of openness and transparency.
“You have a sitting U.S. congressman who has made a very specific allegation, numerous times that someone inside the Obama White House offered him what amounts to a bribe in order to manipulate the Pennsylvania Senate primary,” Issa said in a statement to POLITICO.
“The attorney general’s refusal to take action in the face of such felonious allegations undermines any claim to transparency and integrity that this administration asserts.”
Issa, one of the most vocal critics of the Obama administration on Capitol Hill, has been trying to draw attention to the alleged Sestak job offer for months, but he hasn’t been able to shed much light on the allegations beyond what Sestak and the White House have already said publicly, largely because Sestak and the White House have continuously dodged questions about any conversation.
Issa first sent a letter to White House General Counsel Robert Bauer in March, demanding information, but he never received a response. He then sent a second letter, in which he pressed Bauer for a reply and criticized White House press secretary Robert Gibbs for downplaying the issue to reporters.
And since Sestak scored his primary win over Specter, Issa has upped the ante. The California Republican said that if Sestak doesn’t fully explain the conversation he had with the White House official, and if an outside group doesn’t file a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics, he would file a complaint with the House ethics committee — a rarely used and highly confrontational move.
While he has declined to provide more information about the incident, Sestak has repeatedly confirmed that it took place.
Sestak told David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this Sunday that “I was offered a job, and I answered that” but noted that anything further was “for others to talk about.”
As he has since the offer was first disclosed, Sestak refused to provide additional information on what job was offered and who did the offering.
A new Hussein punch line.
ping
This issue only has legs if the media pursues it. Republicans asking that a special counsel be appointed by Obama’s Justice Dept. is just an exercise in PR posturing.
Refers to seeing light from the other side when looking into Obama or Biden’s ears..
They can stonewall, ignore, try and belittle and run away from this story but it ain’t going away.
We’re all peasants!
UpChuck Todd and other “repeaters” give out the White House line...”Nothing illegal happened, MOVE ON”!! Morning Joe is the only one covering this in depth.
I like the comments at politico.
Especially from the ones trying to defend Hussien
If it were a ‘Pub Administration then you can bet your a$$ the media would be all over it. Woodward, Bernstein, Bradlee, and all the other mainstream media ‘Rat scum would come crawling out from under their rocks to cover it.
I’m a little bit encouraged by the questions asked of Gibbs and Sestak on Sunday’s Meet the Press show. The press isn’t entirely negligent plus talk radio is still highlighting the issue.
A usurper in the White House appoints his pal to head the Justice Department and someone expects Justice to investigate illegal moves made by the Usurper??
You are joking——right?
Remember, we are talking about “a historic moment” with Chicago added for flavor.
And you thought Jimmuh Carter was a travesty! Not even in the same universe.
Yes and no. The media won’t pursue this on their own, but there are lots of things the GOPers could do to create media attention.
We know the rules. Dims get a free pass. Time for GOP to grow a set and take it to Zero and the media in a way that can’t be ignored.
Folks...we are no longer at the mercy of the lib media. The age of elite journalism is over. This is the age of information. Seize the day.
This, too, will fade away. You must understand that we are at the precipice of continual “historic moments”. Sit back and enjoy.
...which I find amazing, because no details have been released. So how can Todd say nothing happened?
Let me guess .... maybe Zero offered him another job if he keeps his mouth shut and loses to Toomey in November?
A Dictator only answers what he wants to answer. Obama is a DICTATOR. Believe it,
So anyone can file a complaint with the ethics office. I wonder what all this would entail.
Change that we can believe in.
Between this in the PA senate race and the officer of a corrupt failed bank running for senate in IL, The Poser in CT and a Klansman in WV... the Culture of Corruption is going well.
I hope the People are as sick of this as I am and throw these bums out.
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