Creepier by the Dozen

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — A coalition of left-wing advocacy groups filed legal ethics complaints on Monday against 12 former Bush administration lawyers, including three United States attorneys general, whom the groups accuse of helping to justify torture.

The coalition, called Velvet Revolution, asked the bar associations in four states and the District of Columbia to disbar the lawyers, saying their actions violated the rules of professional responsibility by approving interrogation methods, including waterboarding, that constituted illegal torture.

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Smell that? The turds must be blossoming!

Editorial from The New York Times:

Last year, Karl Rove defied a Congressional subpoena ordering him to testify about the politically driven hiring and firing of United States attorneys. The House Judiciary Committee has now issued another subpoena. Congress and the Obama administration should do everything they can to compel him to testify.

Americans deserve a full accounting. Monica Goodling, a top aide to Alberto Gonzales, admitted that she hired lawyers for nonpartisan jobs based on their politics. The Justice Department’s inspector general found that Bradley Schlozman, the onetime head of the civil rights division, politicized his staff and made false statements to Congress. Other witnesses have told investigators that prosecutors were allowed to keep their jobs or were fired based on whether they brought cases that helped Republicans win elections.

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Uncivil Right

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — A former senior official at the Justice Department routinely hired Republicans, Federalist Society members and “R.T.A.’s” — “Right-Thinking Americans”— for what were supposed to be nonpolitical posts and gave them plum assignments on civil rights cases, an internal department report released Tuesday found.

The former official, Bradley Schlozman, who helped lead the Civil Rights Division for about three years beginning in 2003, also gave false statements to Congress when he denied factoring politics into his hiring decisions, the report from the inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility at the Justice Department found. But last week federal prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against Mr. Schlozman, who left the department in 2007 amid an uproar over accusations of widespread politicization.

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Look at that putz. You know he got the crap beat out of him in high school. He should have the crap beat out of him now.

This Canary Should Be a Jailbird

From Scott Horton at The Daily Beast:

When a former Alabama governor was convicted for selling public offices, it set off an investigation into improper conduct at the Justice Department that leads directly to the White House.

The most dramatic political prosecution in the 21st century—involving a former governor in Alabama, the U.S. Attorney’s office, and the Bush White House and Justice Department—has been rocked by incriminating new disclosures by a knowledgeable career Justice Department staff member who has provided information charging serious misconduct by the prosecutors.

Among other disclosures shattering the credibility of the case, U.S. Attorney Leura Canary’s “recusal” for conflict of interest is revealed as a sham. Moreover, The Daily Beast has learned, the matter has touched off concerns within the Justice Department over efforts to sweep accusations of unethical conduct under the carpet.

It appears the Justice Department was aware of even more startling allegations of misconduct but it chose to hide this from the court and from opposing counsel.

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Gonzogate: Department of Just Asses

Oh, kids! I had something else planned for this evening, but when I got home, I noticed that there was news of Gonzogate, and you know I just cannot resist a Monica Goodling story! Sorry that this is a bit of a rush job.

From the Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — Top aides to former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales employed a political and ideological litmus test to weed out candidates for career and other positions at the Justice Department, an internal department report concluded Monday.

The audit by the department’s Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that former Gonzales aides Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson violated department policies and federal civil-service laws.

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Dis-Honored Program

From Law . com:

A former candidate for the Justice Department’s honors program is suing for $100,000 in damages, alleging Justice officials violated his rights and those of others when they brought political bias into vetting honors-program applications.

The class action by Sean Gerlich — filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — is the first suit resulting from an internal Justice report issued last week that says two former Justice officials illegally screened applicants to the honors and summer intern programs.

The two officials were Esther Slater McDonald, then counsel to the associate attorney general and now an associate at Seyfarth Shaw, and Michael Elston, then chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and now a partner at McGuireWoods.

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And Bias For All

From The Boston Globe:

LAST YEAR, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had to resign after he could not explain why the Justice Department had fired nine US attorneys, all Bush appointees, who had prosecuted Republican officials or declined to pursue flimsy cases against Democrats. Now it turns out that the politicization of the Justice Department under President Bush went even deeper. A report by the department’s inspector general and its Office of Professional Responsibility finds that officials used political litmus tests in the hiring of staff lawyers and even interns.

According to the report, applicants for the department’s entry-level honors program — which attracts highly qualified lawyers from top schools — would get tossed in the reject pile if they had links to organizations like The Nature Conservancy or the Battered Immigrant Women Project. One rejected applicant was a high-ranking law graduate who had written a paper on the detention of people under the USA Patriot Act. By the same token, department officials went out of their way to hire members of the conservative Federalist Society. Investigators found e-mails from officials clearly indicating political bias in hiring.

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