By Andrew Zajac
Most of the attention paid to the Justice Department these days focuses on its future in a new administration, presumably under the leadership of Eric Holder, President-elect Obama's pick for Attorney General to replace caretaker AG Michael Mukasey.
Holder will have his plate full restoring morale in the 110,000-employee agency plagued by scandal, including the unprecedented firings of nine U.S. attorneys and politicized hiring for civil service posts.
He also may inherit an unpleasant reminder of the partisan handiwork he'll be trying to undo.
The Justice Department recently approved paying up to $24,000 per month for a private attorney for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, on whose watch the political shenanigans broke into public view.
The payments, first reported by McClatchy newspapers, would be used to defend Gonzales against a suit filed in June by a group of law students, who charge they were denied entrance into Justice's coveted Honors Program because they were deemed to be political liberals.
Earlier this week, Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers and Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairs of the House and Senate committees overseeing the Justice Department, weighed in with a letter to Mukasey asking him to explain the decision to pay for private legal help.
Among the points raised by Conyers and Leahy: Justice is authorized to pay for attorneys for officials acting within the scope of their duties, but the DOJ Inspector General found that some of the politicized behavior violated department policy and civil service law -- so how can the department justify financing a defense of such activity?
Being hauled into the dock is part of a bleak of post-government exile for Gonzales, who was AG from 2005 until 2007. Officials of his stature normally cash in as rainmakers or wise men in elite law firms, or perhaps as senior executives in blue chip corporations.
But the taint of excessive partisanship and deep involvement in crafting controversial detention and interrogation policies for terror suspects has made Gonzales close to an untouchable for such mainstream sinecures.
Comments
Why is this news? Governments always undertake the defense of government officials for actions taken in their official capacity. Just look in your own back yard. Cities and counties routinely defend (or pay for the defense for) police, firemen and other officials sued for torts. In fact, governments routinely pay the judgments from successful suits against these officials. Therefore, the fed's defense of Gonzales against a lawsuit for stuff he did while acting as Attorney General is not surprise.
.
BTW - I am no fan of Alberto, but I still hope those law students/lawyers lose their case - for two reasons. Number One, certain political beliefs could well be an indicator that a lawyer will not use all of his/her skill to pursue certain policies in suits and prosecutions. Thus, political orientation is not entirely an invalid criterion in hiring and firing at the DOJ. Number Two, anyone whose life goal is to become Justice Department lawyer needs his or her head examined. Career prosecutor is not a job description. It is a mental disease category.
Posted by: John W. | November 29, 2008 12:29 AM