Justice Department Names Prosecutor to Probe 'Memogate'

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 4/27/04 | Susan Jones

[kattracks]

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into 'Memogate,' but the probe may not go far enough to satisfy outraged conservatives.

According to various newspaper reports, the Justice Department on Monday asked David N. Kelley, a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to investigate how confidential memos of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee ended up in Republican staffers' hands.

Democrat and Republican staffers shared a computer, and some of the Democrats' memos were downloaded and leaked to the press.

Judiciary Committee Democrats had asked for an outside investigation into the memo "stealing," and on Monday, they applauded the Justice Department's decision to ask Kelley to conduct the probe.

But critics insist that any probe should include a focus on the content of the Democrats' memos. At the very least, they say, memos written by Sen. Ted Kennedy's staffers indicate unethical -- if not illegal -- efforts to obstruct the judicial nomination process.

According to The Center for Individual Freedom, a government ethics watchdog group, two of Sen. Kennedy's former aides -- in a memo dated April 17, 2002 -- recommended that Kennedy delay the confirmation of Judge Julia Smith Gibbons to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The reason? To influence the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, then pending before the 6th Circuit appeals court.

According to the Center for Individual Freedom, Memogate is an ethics scandal that goes far beyond the Kennedy memo. "Its origins represent an abuse of power, and the stonewalling by participants represents the arrogance of that power," CFIF said in a statement on its website.

The Senate sergeant-at-arms looked into the Republican downloading of Democrats' memos earlier this year, but that probe focused only on computer security breaches.

A report by the Senate sergeant-at-arms said improper implementation of computer network security procedures allowed two GOP staffers to read and download 4,670 memos circulated between committee Democrats, their staffs and liberal special interest groups who were trying to block President Bush's conservative judicial nominees from confirmation.

The Sergeant-at-Arms' report does not recommend that any specific actions be taken against the two Republican staffers, but it does suggest that their acts may have violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,

See Earlier Stories:
Kennedy Dodges Questions on Judicial 'Memogate' (April 7, 2004) Memogate? Conservative Leader Calls for Probe (February 24, 2004) Judiciary Democrats Want Criminal Probe of Published Memos (March 5, 2004)

[NHResident]

The Congressional Republicans just can't seem to get things right. This report from CNS reads very differently from the way this is being portrayed elsewhere AND the majority will read this as the REPUBLICANS being the criminal offenders.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

If someone produced a videotape of John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy in a secret meeting discussing how to blow up the Hoover Dam so that Bush would get blamed for it, the only one prosecuted would be the illegal video taper.

[alnick]

I just called the DOJ comment line, 202-353-1555, and asked them to investigate the content of the memos, including the intelligence committee memo.

202-353-1555

[marway]

You're right about that... the first article I saw this morning was linked from Drudge to the NYTimes article, which mentioned NOTHING about the content of the memos. I'm glad, at least, it's still out there. I was beginning to think that this would get swept under a rug to be forever forgotten. I'll call the DOJ comment line too. If enough of us do, it could help. It just infuriates me that the dems could get away with trying to affect the outcomes of active court cases, by stalling the judicial nominating process. grrrrr