The LA Times reports that Eric Holder actively sought to blunt opposition to President Clinton's pardon of members of two pro-Puerto Rican independence terrorist groups.
New interviews and an examination of previously undisclosed documents indicate that Holder played an active role in changing the position of the Justice Department on the commutations.
Holder instructed his staff at Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney to effectively replace the department's original report recommending against any commutations, which had been sent to the White House in 1996, with one that favored clemency for at least half the prisoners, according to these interviews and documents. . . .
The 16 members of the FALN (the Spanish acronym for Armed Forces of National Liberation) and Los Macheteros had been convicted in Chicago and Hartford variously of bank robbery, possession of explosives and participating in a seditious conspiracy. Overall, the two groups had been linked by the FBI to more than 130 bombings, several armed robberies, six slayings and hundreds of injuries.
None of the 16 whose sentences were commuted had been convicted of murder, and most had already served lengthy prison terms.
A spokesman for the Obama transition, Nick Shapiro, confirmed that Holder asked for the "options memo" that preceded the clemency. . . .
George Terwilliger, who served as deputy attorney general under President George H. W. Bush and was asked by the Obama transition team to comment, said that although he disagreed with the FALN clemency, Holder's conduct in the case was appropriate. . . .
When Clinton issued the commutations on Aug. 11, 1999, the House and the Senate passed resolutions condemning his decision. . . .
Holder was called to testify on the case by the Senate Judiciary Committee but, invoking Clinton's claim of executive privilege, declined to say whether the Justice Department had changed its position on the commutations. Asked what happened after the 1996 report opposing any commutations, he told the senators: "There were subsequent communications with the White House in the months after that recommendation."
Given the concerns raised by GOP Senators over the Holder nomination, this story could be significant.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Eric Holder and the FALN Pardons:
- Eric Holder and the Marc Rich Pardon:
Hmmmm. Remember all the uproar the left got into when we found that the political appointees in the Bush DOJ Civil Rights division were overruling the career personnel? Let me venture a guess that, all of a sudden, those leftwingers will now think it's perfectly appropriate for the political appointees to overrule the career folks...
(Mind you, I think that it's OK for political appointees to overrule careerists. It's just going to be interesting to see how fast the people who hounded Bradley Schlotzman out of a job change their minds.)
The DOJ was a paragon of non-partisan, sterling legal advice untainted by any whiff of politics, until Bush came along. And Ashcroft. Then it immediately turned into a hotbed of
secondtenth rate political hack lawyers with correspondence degrees from carribean law schools, and the hacks' depravity is so deep that even Satan himself would recoil in horror.But with a few new brilliant non-partisan minds being appointed to top-slots, like NARAL's former general counsel, the very model of non-partisanship, DOJ will turn again, flowering, into the most ennobling, non-partisan, lovely legal practice in the world, with the only excess to be found in the practitioners' burning zeal to look out for the well-being of the American People.
There, I think that about covers every possibility.
Can someone opine on this. I've never heard or conceived of a rational reason.
Hillary Clinton was going to run for a Senate seat in New York, and wanted the support of Puerto Rican groups at the time.
Then go into Elian Gonzales and how Holder was totally in league with Castro!
OK, I'll bite. What, exactly, was his role int the "perpetration" of the Davdian massacre? Wasn't he a judge in DC at the time?
And I'm also curious what role it is you think he played in a coverup.
Can't speak to motive. However, all of the offenses for which they were charged are unconstitutional. I don't expect that was part of their reasons, though.
No less interesting than Democrats abdandoning their belief in the "independence" of the Justice Department.
However, I don't actually see any Republicans dancing with your straw man.
It was Clinton's call and I agree that Holder was in his legal right to overrule his subordinates.
However, morally he, and Clinton, were wrong. They were pardoning convicted terrorists. People who belonged to groups that killed Americans. For political advantage.
Holder's role is a valid subject of inquiry.
If David Addington was nominated by a GOP president, I guess you think that his 2001-2009 activities have no relevance?
And I wish Dems would stop being angry at Clinton for replacing all the US Attorneys when he got into office.
It's "morally wrong" to conclude that someone's sentence was excessive? Are you of the opinion that there is some kind of objective morality that dictates the appropriate sentence length for each and every criminal? Because I'm not tapped into that particular source of morality.
He was brought in as part of the cleanup team, so was complicit after the fact to the assault, but the coverup is a separate offense, and since it was committed on the territory of DC, a federal enclave, prosecution for it is constitutional.
The following links provide some sense of it:
CESNUR
GreadDreams
Jeremiah Films
Moore on Danforth Report
Progressive Review
Waco: Rules of Engagement
DC Examiner
POSTED Nov 23, 2008
Note that I am not necessarily agreeing with these criticisms. I am not an eyewitness. I am pointing out that there is a lot of criticism that is being neglected.
If a bank is on state territory the feds do not have constitutional jurisdiction, even if you grant that banks have become federal government operations, unless the state legislature has ceded exclusive jurisdiction to the parcel of land on which they rest. See
Jurisdiction over Federal Areas within the States
Federal Jurisdiction — Brief by attorney Larry Becraft.
Of course perhaps you were referring to prosecution for "money laundering" by making a large cash withdrawal. But there is no constitional authority for that on state territory, either.
You are a grade-A idiot if you think that all Puerto Ricans in the United States support independence.
I personally disagreed with the pardons and thought that they were remarkably cyincal, but Our Boy Willie had that power, I did not.
/cynacism
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Also, I don't care about what anyone says. Puerto Rico is in no hurry to be independent or to become a state. Why should they? They get all of the benefits of being U.S. citizens without those pesky taxes.
I say of they want independence, give it to them. They'll be the Dominican Republic or Haiti within a decade, if not sooner. Hell, they are halfway there now.
My buddy in college once said something I'll never forget. The call for Puerto rico to become another state will get loud and overwhelming if it ever gets to the point where the Dems can't get any other Senate seats because of permanent political shifts.
Otherwise, they'd have to deal with a sordid, vote-getting political move.
Richard Aubrey: They already have. Remember Bill Ayers?
Oh. Yeah. I forgot. Blame it on the Friday evening manhattan.
It will be interesting in the future, the near future, watching O's supporters justifying some really stupid or rotten issues they'd never have contemplated for an instant, in order to justify their support for the guy.
IIRC, and I do, C's supporters were asking that same question.
But, now that I think of it, I suspect O's supporters would have asked that question regarding terrorism even if O had not managed to get the Ryan divorce decree unsealed (and remained stuck in Springfield).
What a hoot. The president of the most powerful nation in the world owes his position solely to Jeri Ryan's scruples.
As they say in France, it is to puke.
Or maybe I should quote Sheldon Whiteside's first line.
Oh, well.
Becraft has represented many tax protesters of illegal taxes and has won many of those cases. If you are ever targeted by the IRS for your political views (something that happens often), you might want to hire him. His brief provides much material anyone will need in a tax case.
Nick
No, the fact of the matter is that your "theory" (better known as a gratuitous swipe against both Hillary and Puerto Ricans) assumes that the recipients of the pander will be swayed by the appeal -- an appeal that assumes they want independence and are willing to see terrorists pardoned to get it. Neither assumption is particularly correct.
Now what point did keeping these men in prison serve? There was no deterence value as we no longer seem to face a serious threat of peurto rican style terrorism and the difference in jail terms is unlikely to make a difference to al qaueda or any other terror threat or national resistance movement we are likely to face. Moreover, people who commit political violence, unlike people who steal and murder for more mundane reasons, don't pose any particular threat to the public after they cease supporting the revolutionary movement/group. What they did may be terrible but I don't want to spend my tax dollars to keep someone in jail just so they suffer when it benefits no one.
Moreover, as the article points out the motivation here was (officially and it has plausibility) to help reduce bad feelings about US rule by the peurto ricans. That is certainly a valid governmental objective and while it may be orders of magnitude less serious than what the israelis do when they exchange terrorists for hostages or in the hope of gaining a ceasefire or peace treaty but then again release ex-terrorists who are no longer a threat is a lot less serious than releasing dangerous militants who still belong to an active terrorist movement. So if it's okay for the Israelis to release terrorists to gain goodwill why isn't it for us?
The complaints here seem to smack of "How dare they" rather than serious attempts to balance the harms and benefits of releasing these people as a responsible president must do.
I have issues with clinton's other pardon but this? Moreover, the AG can't fight the president on every issue. It seems like small potatoes.
I'm more worried about Holder's suggestion that we censor the internet after Columbine and I'm curious what this science issue is.
See TruePath. We're right. Can't wait for other issues to surface for True to minimize.
River. The point is not whether pardoning some terrorists will really get the votes of the Puerto Ricans, or pardoning some scam artists will really get the votes of some particularly orthodox Jews. The point is whether the pardon has any political down side. If not, then why not take a shot? Is it worth trying? Hell yes. If it doesn't get the votes, what's the big deal? Takes about as much thought as an ad buy someplace, except it doesn't cost the campaign any money.
People who don't like scam artists or terrorists wouldn't vote for a Clinton in the first place, so it's not like they'd lose anything.
WRT PR independence. I'll chip in for a half dozen Evinrudes to be stuck on the west end of the island and let them motor off to Caribbean anonymity. The sooner the better. How'd that Vieques thing work out, anyhow.
"No, the fact of the matter is that your "theory" (better known as a gratuitous swipe against both Hillary and Puerto Ricans) assumes that the recipients of the pander will be swayed by the appeal -- an appeal that assumes they want independence and are willing to see terrorists pardoned to get it. Neither assumption is particularly correct"
That those of Puerto Rican descent living in New York may not support a change in status for Puerto Rico is irrelevent. It's the thought that counts.
Speaking of pandering - Don't forget
... four Orthodox Jews from New York State who had bilked the government out of $40 million in education aid, housing subsidies and small-business loans. During Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign, the First Lady visited the Skver sect in New Square, N.Y., trying, successfully, to lock in a group that usually swings Republican. After the Skver turned out in force for Hillary, she invited the group's spiritual leader to the White House, where he asked the President to lighten the men's sentences. The subsequent commutations only heightened suspicions — vehemently denied by Clinton and the Skver — that there was a quid pro quo for their support on Election Day...
An Othodox community which never previously voted Democrat.
The point is that the Clintons thought they might.
Since there's no cost, no downside, to pandering by pardon, there's no reason not to. Might work. If it doesn't, well, it didn't cost anything.
I hold both Clinton's in particular contempt for their willingness to take and change opinions for political expediency, and so I'll admit this "gratuitous swipe" holds a certain appeal for me.
I have no deep knowledge of whether NY Puerto Rican's would respond well to the commutations, and your tone suggests that you do. Please educate me...
He has also managed to personally be sanctioned for making frivolous arguments.
None of which goes to the merits his arguments as a matter of history and logic. All of that is nothing more than evidence that the courts are, in the words of Judge Edith Jones, "corrupt beyond all recogntion".
I personally witnessed one of those trials. What I witnessed was blatant corruption on the part of the judge and prosecutors. And the ignorant jurors were too gullible to see through it (although I have unverified information, not for attribution, that several of them got hints that if they acquitted they would be aggressively audited). I have gotten information that some judges have been threatened in the same way. In private conversations the prosecutors are no longer even pretending to be lawful.
I invite people to do your own research on the legal merits without regard to court decisions, assuming you are not a complete legal realist who holds that the law is whatever judges do. If that is your position then for you the Constitution is just a "goddamn scrap of paper".
I am not a legal realist. However, I am sane. Which means I can tell the difference between legitimate legal arguments and loony ones. Fringed flags are not a sign of conspiracy or corrupt judges; they're a decoration.
Can someone opine on this. I've never heard or conceived of a rational reason.
I'll bite.
1. Most if not all the FALN members referred to here received commutations of their sentences rather than pardons. Those who had their sentences commuted already served more than what would have been the typical sentences for the "vanilla" crimes they were convicted of: bank robbery, possession of illegal firearms and the like.
2. The reason they were still in prison was that they were convicted of an offense just one step below treason. The post above describes it as "seditious conspiracy."
3. The FALN nowadays comes from a different era when there were many other domestic terrorist groups waging war against the U.S. They no longer pose any kind of national security threat if they exist at all.
4. The U.S. has a long history of pardoning treasonous individuals once the U.S. has the opportunity to firmly claim victory and vanquish its opponents. See the Whiskey Rebellion or the post-bellum pardons of Confederates, for instance.
Note I'm not saying this is the actual justification for the commutation of prisoners' sentences, just that it is a possible justification.
The rich irony with this comment is that one of the most prominent lobbyists in the D.C. establishment pushing for Puerto Rican statehood is Ralph Reed. Yes, that Ralph Reed, former roommate of Jack Abramoff and former head of the Christian Coalition.
Thanks for biting. But we're talking about the Clintons here. The orthodox community in New York. Marc Rich. Neither of which were seditious treason persons whose cause had been justly and righteously overcome.
So it doesn't look as if you're right.
Did the FALN guys repent, or did they do a Bill Ayers? I know it makes no nevermind to fans of O and Clinton, but I'm curious.
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