Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Thursday, March 15, 2007
OoJ
What we have here is called "obstruction of justice":
Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.

Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work.

It is unclear [yeah, right] whether the president knew at the time of his decision that the Justice inquiry -- to be conducted by the department's internal ethics watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility -- would almost certainly examine the conduct of his attorney general.

Had it not been quashed, a Justice Department inquiry into the domestic eavesdropping program would likely have examined the actions of Alberto Gonzales.

Sources familiar with the halted inquiry said that if the probe had been allowed to continue, it would have examined Gonzales's role in authorizing the eavesdropping program while he was White House counsel, as well as his subsequent oversight of the program as attorney general.
This should put another fork into the well-done Abu Gonzales. I'm still not convinced it will. But more importantly, this is yet another felony perpetrated by Bush.

In days gone by, there was at least a degree of semblance separating the legal and political arms of the government. Bush has obliterated that which is pretty bad news for the integrity of our justice system.

By-the by, this little legal problem for Bush and Gonzales may also be the exact reason that Bush caved on the domestic spying program, reverting back to getting FISA warrants. If anyone looks into it too closely, they might find mroe fun stuff like this. You knew at the time that if the administration stopped pushing the illegal domestic spy program that there had to be a self-serving reason. Well. Here it is.
Written at 1:28 PM by Greyhair.
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