Thursday, May 27, 2010

Senate Republican Judiciary Committee Members Call for Special Prosecutor | LaRouchePAC

Senate Republican Judiciary Committee Members Call for Special Prosecutor LaRouchePAC

May 27, 2010 (LPAC)—On Wednesday, all 7 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder to "urge the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Congressman Joe Sestak's claim that a White House official offered him a job to induce him to exit the Pennsylvania Senate primary race against Senator Arlen Specter."
In the letter, the Republican Senators wrote that they "do not believe the Department of Justice can properly defer to White House lawyers to investigate a matter that could involve 'a serious breach of law.' The White House cannot possibly manage an internal investigation of potential criminal misconduct while simultaneously crafting a public narrative to rebut the claim that misconduct occurred."

The Senators argue that the Attorney General, by appointing a special prosecutor, "would avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest and square with the precedent of Attorney General Ashcroft's recusal from a White House-related investigation in 2003," referring to the appointment of "Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate suspected White House misconduct in the Plame matter."

The letter points out that at his confirmation hearing, Holder "pledged to be an independent Attorney General and explained: 'Though I am a part of the president's team, I am not a part of the president's team in the way that any other cabinet officer is. I have a special and unique responsibility. There has to be a distance between me and the president.'"

The Senators then urged Holder to reconsider the decision expressed in a letter to Congressman Darrell Issa by Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, refusing to appoint a special prosecutor. "We hope you will reconsider this position. This controversy deserves full investigation, as well as public confirmation that steps are being taken to preserve records consistent with prior investigations of alleged White House wrongdoing. For example, in the fall of 2003, the Department of Justice and White House Counsel both confirmed that document preservation requests were sent to White House personnel relating to the leak of Valerie Plame's identity. Such actions should be taken in this case. Additionally, the Department should confirm that it is not deferring to internal White House lawyers to conduct a criminal probe of allegations raised by a sitting Congressman."


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