The Daily Muck

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) disclosed in a letter to Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) that it is investigating the “circumstances surrounding” the production of memos authorizing the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding during the interrogation of terrorist suspects. The OPR is also investigating the DOJ’s authorization of the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. (Washington Post)

As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee in 1998, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) warned the head of the Federal Communications Commission that if the FCC closed a broadcast ownership loophole he would do his best to overhaul the agency. That loophole was significant to a client of Vicki Iseman, Glencairn Ltd. McCain’s campaign insists that McCain was not acting on behalf of Iseman (who was in contact with McCain’s staff about the issue) but merely wanted the FCC to “not act in a manner contradictory to Congressional intent.” (New York Times)

The House Judiciary Committee will vote soon on whether to issue a subpoena to former Attorney General John Ashcroft so that it may learn more about the no-bid, 18-month monitoring contract, worth $28 million to $52 million that Ashcroft was awarded from a former employee. The House committee had initially invited Ashcroft to testify at a hearing Tuesday but the hearing has been canceled without any explanation. U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, who awarded Ashcroft the contract, has stated that if the Justice Department instructs him to testify to the House committee, he will go. (New York Times, PolitickerNJ.com)

The House Judiciary Committee has decided to conduct a hearing into the New Hampshire Phone jamming scandal from 2002. The inquiry is, in part, a response to a letter from representative Paul Hodes (D-NH) to the committee inquiring if the White House and Department of Justice participated in a “politically motivated plot” to obstruct justice. (Union Leader)

Federal Elections Commission records and Republican sources reveal that the National Republican Congressional Committee stopped conducting independent audits (sub. req.) of its finances five years ago. The NRCC will not comment on its bookkeeping history or the specific financial “irregularities” recently uncovered. (Roll Call)

Over six years after the opening of the detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, many of the details of the legal systems governing the detainees are still being worked out. The USA Today has an overview of three ongoing sets of cases, involving “whether Congress can prevent detainees from challenging their confinement in federal court through a writ of habeas corpus”; “what evidence the government What evidence must the government produce when a detainee appeals an enemy-combatant determination, and the government seeks to defend that determination”; and the prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five others for their role in the attacks of September 11, 2001. (USA Today)

According to a new report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a loophole in congressional ethics rules has allowed more than 20 senators to shell out over half a million dollars in campaign contributions to family members as stipends – Barbara Boxer (D-CA) paid her son $320,409 and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) paid his daughter-in-law $306,718.18 Ethics rules bar lawmakers from receiving stipends directly from corporations or unions, but their relatives can be compensated without limit. (Washington Post)

The House will soon consider the creation of an independent ethics panel – the Office of Congressional Ethics – composed of six members (not lobbyists and not current members of Congress) who would be authorized to review the conduct of representatives. Though the proposal has become controversial, the recent indictment of representative Rick Renzi (R-AZ) may provide enough incentive for the bill to pass. (New York Times)

John McCain has vowed that if elected president he will not issue any signing statements designed to enable him to disregard portions of laws passed by Congress. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have criticized President Bush’s abuse of signing statements but have taken less definitive positions on this executive tool. (Washington Post)

Prosecutors in the Larry Craig case have rejected claims by the American Civil Liberties Union, in a friend-of-the-court brief, that even if Craig was seeking bathroom sex he was protected by a legal expectation of privacy. Prosecutors also argue that Craig’s appeal misconstrues Minnesota’s disorderly conduct law – the statute does not require that disorderly conduct arouse “alarm, anger or resentment,” but rather that such conduct has a tendency to arouse those feelings. (USA Today)