Longtime reader checking in on latest Schlozman findings:
So Justice managed to interview more than 120 people, review 200,000 e-mails, and sift through mountains of documents in less than a year, but it took six full months for someone at the DC US Attorney’s Office to decide not to prosecute?
This decision stinks in three ways:
(1) No one is taking responsibility for it. We know who didn’t make the decision, but not who did. That’s more than a little unusual – there’s generally a rush to identify the impeccably credentialed career prosecutor who made the decision, to avert charges of political bias.
(2) It was announced less than two weeks before the new administration takes office. Sitting on the report for this long prevented electoral embarrassment; releasing it now prevents the new administration from cleaning house.
(3) As best I can tell, no one consulted Congress. The IG found that Schlozman had lied to Congress. That finding ought to have been reported to the relevant committees, which would then have been able to refer the matter to the DC USA for prosecution. Instead, the USA’s office reached its own decision, and then authorized the release of the findings. If Congress refers it back to the USA, it would now have to overturn its own previous decision. That short-circuits the process and undermines Congressional authority.
I hope you’ve got a call in to Senate Judiciary – Pat Leahy is usually good for a nicely outraged quote, and I imagine Kennedy is none too pleased. But really, I’m curious about what they’ll do. The man sat there and lied to them, which is a crime – are they going to press for prosecution?
Our reporter Zack Roth is on a conference call with Leahy now regarding the Holder nomination. We’re going to try to get a question in on Schlozman.
