We’ve been debating internally the propriety of referring to Nora Dannehy, whom Michael Mukasey appointed this morning to investigate the U.S. attorneys purge, as a “special prosecutor.” The New York Times uses the phrase, as have we intermittently.
But the truth of the matter is that the term “special prosecutor” has a specific meaning in DOJ regulations. Nora Dannehy has not been appointed pursuant to those regs (neither, as I understand it, was Patrick Fitzgerald, even though he was often referred to as “special prosecutor” in the Plame case).
Under the DOJ regs, the attorney general is to appoint a special prosecutor when:
(a) That investigation or prosecution of that person or matter by a United States Attorney’s Office or litigating Division of the Department of Justice would present a conflict of interest for the Department or other extraordinary circumstances; and
(b) That under the circumstances, it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel to assume responsibility for the matter.
You would certainly think those circumstances present themselves here and virtually scream for an outside attorney to lead this case. But the attorney general has concluded otherwise.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), for one, isn’t happy with the attorney general’s decision to keep the investigation in-house.
