Is our Justice Department corrupt?

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

The motto of the United States Department of Justice is: “Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur” (who prosecutes on behalf of justice). Under the present Attorney General, however, that motto is fast becoming an ironic oxymoron.

You may recall that Eric Holder served under Attorney General Janet Reno, in the Clinton Justice Department, and was directly involved in such fiascos as the kidnapping and deportation of Elian Gonzales, and the incineration of scores of men, women, and children in the Waco siege and attack.

Debra Saunders, writing in RealClearPolitics, reminds readers that Holder also had a role in the 1999 Clinton pardons of 16 Puerto Rico independence terrorists -- members of the bomb-happy FALN or the splinter group Los Macheteros -- who had been convicted on such charges as bank robbery, possession of explosives and participating in a seditious conspiracy -- even though none of the 16 had applied for clemency. As the Los Angeles Times reported, two of the 16 refused to accept the pardon -- as it required them to renounce violence -- while another later was killed in a shootout with federal agents.

 

Holder closed out his ignominious Justice Department career by helping to broker the corrupt pardon of Marc Rich, who was on the lam in Switzerland hiding from federal charges of fraud, evading more than $48 million in taxes, racketeering and trading oil with Iran in violation of a U.S. embargo. (Remember Rich’s lovely wife and the gold saxophone she gave to Bill Clinton?)

When President Barack Obama selected Eric Holder to serve as his Attorney General, many feared that the level of corruption experienced during the Clinton administration might return to the Obama Justice Department. Events of the past two weeks are certainly an indication that these fears were well-founded.

First, Holder announced that a review of eye-witness testimony and videotape evidence of club-wielding Black Panther thugs at polling places in Philadelphia last election day showed no signs of voter intimidation which would require further investigation by the Justice Department. Next, came the announcement that a special prosecutor would be appointed to investigate and prosecute CIA and other government officials involved in interrogating the 9/11 suspects at Guantanamo Bay. This, despite an Obama pledge during the campaign that no such witch hunt would be undertaken if he were to be elected president; and despite the fact that career prosecutors and members of the CIA Inspector General’s office have already reviewd the interrogations and found no illegalities.

 

When John L. Helgerson, the former inspector general of the CIA issued his interrogation report in 2002, he told the New York Times that he saw no basis for prosecuting the interrogators. His report revealed that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave up crucial information about planned terrorist attacks as a result of the CIA's detention and interrogation program. This information led to the thwarting of the planned terrorist attach on London’s Heathrow airport. It also enabled law enforcement authorities to stop a plan to fly planes into tall buildings in Los Angeles, and a plan to weaponize anthrax.

Finally, last Thursday, Holder put the kibosh on the grand jury investigation of New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration, who now won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal inquiry into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors.

Gov. Bill Richardson, with President Barack H. Obama

A federal grand jury began the investigation in 2008 into a possible pay-to-play scheme in which lucrative work on state bond deals went to a Richardson donor. The company in question, CDR, is alleged to have "funneled" more than $100,000 in donations to Richardson's PAC in exchange for state construction projects. The federal probe derailed Richardson's appointment as commerce secretary in President Barack Obama's administration.

An anonymous source inside the investigation told The Associated Press: "It's over. There's nothing. It was killed in Washington." Indeed. Why try to nail Democrat politicians, when there are so many Republican targets of opportunity about?

Coming soon, the new Justice Department motto: “Qui Pro Domino Obamo Sequitur” (who prosecutes on behalf of Obama).

Read more:   Richard Sisk reports in The New York Daily News