Dick Thornburgh (Bush Sr. Attorney General) Slams Gonzo's DOJ

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Even the Republicans can't stand the politicization of the Department of Justice:

Dick Thornburgh, the Republican former attorney general under George H.W. Bush, didn't mince words in his testimony before a House subcommittee today.

The case against his client Dr. Cyril Wecht, he said, is a raft of "nickel and dime transgressions" that include using the county coroner's office fax machine for personal business. It's far from the type of case normally constituting a federal corruption case, he argued, since there's "no evidence of a bribe or kickback" and no evidence that Wecht traded on a conflict of interest.

(Update: You can see video of Thornburgh's testimony here.)

So why was the case brought? Wecht is a high-profile Democrat, "an ideal target for a Republican U .S. Attorney trying to curry favor with a Department which demonstrated that if you play by its rules, you will advance," Thornburgh said, referring to the U.S. attorney firings scandal. Put that together with the fact that U.S. Attorney for Pittsburgh Mary Beth Buchanan has prosecuted "not one" Republican, while prosecuting Democrats in a "highly visible manner," and you have your conclusion.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004534.php

[Rageneau]

1. Call Pelosi! Thornburgh must apologize!

Nancy better start doing her job, keeping Bush Administration critics on the defensive.

[L. Coyote]

2. Did Buchanan use her DOJ position for political purposes? = Chong's Bongs

Did Mary Beth Buchanan use her DOJ position for political purposes?
From the 4/23/07 edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
http://firealbertogonzales.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/did-mary-beth-buchanan-use-her-doj-position-for-political-purposes


Cracking down on drugs and pornography was big business in former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Department of Justice. When federal prosecutors in California passed on cases involving glass bongs and hard-core sex movies, Pittsburgh-based U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan swooped in and stole the show.

Critics blasted “Operation Pipe Dreams,” calling the nationwide sting on drug paraphernalia trafficking a waste of resources. Buchanan charged on, though, and in 2003 won a conviction against Tommy Chong — the Los Angeles actor made famous by the marijuana-laced “Cheech and Chong” movies.

That same year, she charged Extreme Associates and the California owners of the porn production company in the first major federal obscenity prosecution in more than a decade. Critics again wailed about resources and the government fiddling with constitutional freedoms.

The Justice Department and Ashcroft praised both cases. Buchanan was rewarded with a string of lofty posts, one of which — director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys — has landed her at the forefront of a congressional investigation into a group firing of fellow Republican prosecutors. ...............

[L. Coyote]

3. Former Attorney General Raps White House

Former Attorney General Raps White House
By BEN EVANS – 7 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_ecHTm94igS6HwfH5SC4A8aZzHA

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican U.S. attorney general from the first Bush administration told a House panel Tuesday he thinks the Justice Department had political aims in prosecuting a high-profile Democratic coroner from Pennsylvania.

Dick Thornburgh, whose law firm is representing coroner Cyril Wecht in the pending trial and who acknowledged speaking as an advocate for Wecht, said the outspoken Democrat was "an ideal target for a Republican U.S. attorney trying to curry favor with a (Justice) Department which demonstrated that if you play by its rules, you will advance."

Politics should never play into a decision to prosecute, Thornburgh said at a House Judiciary hearing examining "selective prosecution" by the Justice Department, but "sadly, that appears to have been so in the case against Dr. Wecht."

Republicans shot back that Thornburgh was simply trying to help his client in a public forum where he knows the Justice Department cannot discuss the case, ..........

[L. Coyote]

4. Prof. Donald Shields on Political Prosecutions "the numbers are staggeringly disproportionate: "

Profs Update Study on Political Prosecutions
By Paul Kiel - Oct 23, 2007
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004529.php

Testifying alongside former attorney general Dick Thornburgh (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004520.php)and a lawyer for Don Siegelman (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004523.php) at the House Judiciary Committee's hearing this morning on selective prosecutions is Prof. Donald Shields, the co-author of a study on federal investigations of Republicans and Democrats......

You can see Shields' opening statement for the hearing here (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/shields-statement/?resultpage=1&), which draws on an update of the study. The key to his findings, he says, is a much higher rate of “below the radar” prosecutions of state and local officials.
.....
But "when it comes to investigation and indictment of local officials by the , the numbers are staggeringly disproportionate: 80% Democrats; 14% Republicans; and 6% Independent – that's 5.6 Democrats investigated for each Republican: 5.6:1 when the ratio should be 1.2:1."