It sounds like Sen. Pat Leahy isn’t too happy about the US Attorney’s office’s decision not to prosecute Bradley Schlozman for making false statements to Leahy’s Judiciary committee.
In a speech on the Senate floor this morning, Leahy left no doubt that he disagrees with the US Attorney’s office’s decision, and declared: “When somebody deliberately, purposely sets out to subvert the constitution of the United States, and then lies about it, lies about it, Mr. President, I find that a heinous crime.”
You can watch the speech here, but here’s the entire relevant excerpt:
I really wish that the current U.S. attorney’s office appointed by this administration had prosecuted. I think that the only way you stop such blatant criminal violations by people who know better, people who are sworn to uphold the law, (unint.) that they know they’ll go to jail for breaking the law. That’s what should have been done. And just because they broke the law in the Bush administration and the Bush administration did not, or deemed not to prosecute, I think that raises real questions. Prosecution should be done no matter who breaks the law. I think about one of the people who testified that same investigation and said that, uh, “we swear an oath to President George Bush.” I said, “no, you swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. That constitution is the constitution you’re sworn to uphold and I’m sworn to uphold and it’s the constitution that reflects all Americans.”
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And when somebody deliberately, purposely sets out to subvert the constitution of the United States, and then lies about it, lies about it, Mr. President, I find that a heinous crime. We will see some kid who steals a car, they’ll be prosecuted as they probably should. But when you have a key member of the DoJ lie about it under oath, who subverts the consitution of the United States, all the more reason to prosecute that person. Mr. President what Mr. Schlozman did was reprehensible, it was disgusting, it was wrong, goes at the very core of America’s principles. The distinguished presiding officer, like me, had the great opportunity to serve as a prosecutor, and I have every reason to believe that he did not show fear of favor when he brought prosecution, as I did, as I did not, I did not show fear of favor, most prosecutors do not. And when you have somebody who is part of the Justice Department lie under oath, and do it in a way to cover up subverting the laws that protect all of us, the civil rights laws protect all of us, white, black, brown, no matter what our race, our creed, it protects all of us. And what has marked this country since the time I was a young lawyer in the sixties, is our adherence to the civil rights laws. You can’t go back to a time where they’re enforced for some but not for others.
