On Friday, the Washington Post reported on new evidence documenting Karl Rove’s influence on the decision to remove several U.S. Attorneys. Rove now acknowledges being a “conduit” for complaints from home-state politicians about some of the fired prosecutors and copies of e-mails obtained by the Post suggest he and White House counsel Harriett Miers were both more involved than either has publicly acknowledged. This is but one example of alleged politicization of the Justice Department under the Bush Administration.
President Obama promised to end the politicization of the Justice Department. Responding to criticism of his involvement in controversial pardons during the Clinton Administration, Attorney General Eric Holder promised Congress he would “work to restore the credibility of a department badly shaken by allegations of improper political interference.” Writing in The Weekly Standard, Jennifer Rubin suggests this promise has yet to be fulfilled
in the first seven months of the Obama administration, a series of hyper-partisan decisions, questionable appointments, and the inexplicable dismissal of a high-profile voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther party have once again fanned suspicions that the Justice Department is a pawn in partisan political battles.
Orin Kerr and I posted extensively on Holder’s treatment of OLC, yet this is just one of the many episodes detailed in Rubin’s piece. If her account is accurate, it’s quite troubling.