Posted on 02/10/2004 7:53:52 AM PST by Starboard
Outraged Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday said the length and breath of leaked memos that fell into Republican hands warranted a criminal prosecution of the culprits.
Meantime, an ousted senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said aides to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) had access to the internal Democratic documents. Yet these GOP staffers have not yet been questioned by Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle, even though his investigation into the leaked memos has already stretched into its third month, said the aide.
Emerging from a nearly two-hour briefing by Pickle, the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), said the break-in and theft “leads you to assume that this eventually has to be looked at as a criminal matter.”
Leahy added: “I’ve been a prosecutor, and the last thing in the world I want to do is say something that in anyway jeopardizes a criminal prosecution.”
Another committee member, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said “the extent and duration of this has far exceeded anything I have imagined.”
And Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said, “I would characterize it as highly improper, highly unethical and probably criminal. I would expect that the leadership would have some recommendation further on down [the road”].
For his part, Manuel Miranda,the departed Frist aide, wrote:
“Pickle investigators have yet to interview all the staff with access to the computers in question,” Miranda, wrote in a resignation letter released yesterday. “Although I never discussed this with any other colleagues, I knew that other Hatch counsels and staff came to know about the glitch and that some had concluded that the access was not unlawful.”
Miranda recently added this revelation to the final draft of his resignation letter, which he made public the same day Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats received a closed-door briefing on the investigation from Pickle.
In defending himself, Miranda asserts in his letter that he did not violate any rules by reading the Democratic memos, which he said were easily accessible to GOP aides through their desktop computers.
Pickle is not expected to finish his report before the end of the month. Although it is far from clear that Miranda broke any rules, Hatch, as the Judiciary Committee chairman, pressured Miranda to resign in what conservative critics have skewered as a capitulation to the Democrats.
David Carle, a spokesman for Leahy, said Miranda “has just resigned in the midst of an investigation about theft and wrongdoing, and now he is lashing out in desperation at Republicans and Dem
Conservative critics suspect that Hatch’s efforts to assuage Democrats by ousting his party’s top aide on judicial issues may backfire if Democrats learn that other GOP staffers also read the memos. In their view, that suspicion is confirmed by Hatch’s effort to force out Miranda before the completion of Pickle’s report.
“One of the interesting decisions that’s been made is to have Miranda out before the report comes down,” said one conservative activist who lobbies on President Bush’s judicial nominees. “One possibility is that they are trying to create him as a bargaining chip.”
Doing so would allow Republicans to cut a deal with Democrats to protect other aides, said the activist.
“We’ve gotten rid of this important guy who caused you so much pain; let’s just agree behind closed doors not to release this report to have a white washed version,” he said.
But Democrats are not likely to let the matter drop. Instead, they are pushing for all GOP aides who accessed the controversial memos to be punished.
Committee Democrats may soon learn from Pickle how many other Republican aides are involved.
Pickle granted Democrats a two-hour private pre-briefing yesterday after they threatened last week to stall the Judiciary Committee in retaliation for being kept largely in the dark on the probe’s progress.
It may be difficult for Senate Republicans to defend themselves if Pickle concludes that other aides read the documents.
In a speech at the start of the investigation, Hatch declared in a hastily called press conference that he was “mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files may have occurred on my watch.”
In light of this statement and his role in Miranda’s forced resignation, it might be hard for Hatch to defend other aides who also read the documents.
A conservative strategist who works closely with the Senate on judges asserted that Hatch’s chief of staff Patricia Knight crafted the Hatch press statement that effectively sunk Miranda’s ability to defend himself.
Hatch’s Senate office — not the Judiciary Committee — has handled the Pickle investigation. Press inquiries on the subject are directed to that office.
Conservative staffers on the Hill, who have clashed with Hatch aides over how aggressively to push for Bush’s nominees, have accused Hatch aides of trying to regain control of the judicial confirmation process. With Miranda’s departure, much control over GOP strategy on confirmations will revert from Senate leadership to the Judiciary committee, which is tied closely with Hatch’s Senate office.
Conservative Senate staffs have maligned Hatch aides as being too willing to compromise on judges.
Conservative Senate staffs have maligned Hatch aides as being too willing to compromise on judges in order to advance non-related legislation Hatch favors through the Senate.
Hatch spokeswoman Margarita Tapia, who is on the committee payroll, has defended her boss as an ardent defender of Bush’s nominees.
They plan to prosecute the democrat staffers that put the files out on unsecured shared servers? After all, the democrat staffers are really the culprits responsible for making the memos available to the republican staffers.
After which the aide said "Here's your next set of documents as usual, sir."
After which the aide said "Here's your next set of documents as usual, sir."
That would be cool. That's why I think the Dims will eventually calm down and agree to bury the whole thing so that no one in the Republicrat party is hurt.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, Sen. Kennedy is a bigger criminal than any of these staffers.
You want to get rid of the leaker, fine, get rid of him. But, the more important part of this was the content of the memo!! The Senate Intelligence Democrats were not focused on protecting the USA, were not focused on fixing the Intelligence problems, were not focused on keeping all Americans safe. Nope, they were focused on their own personal power and their parties power. Pretty typical.
I do not expect ANY Republican in the Senate to grow a set. They seemed to lose that ability a long time ago. A bunch of eunichs.
And Sean Hannity, where are you? You were the one that "broke" this story. And I remember hearing you on your radio show telling us you would not back down on this one, you would not stop until the Dems paid for it!! Well, once again another spate of hot air with nothing behind it! If you are not going to do something, don't say you are going to do it. You sound like a liberal.
Would that be the same road leading to Chappaquiddick, you hypocritical, bloviating, buffoon? Isn't manslaughter a crime?
And the gall of "Leaky Leahy" to be talking about leaks!
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