Another Special Prosecutor (Senate Judiciary Committee memos)

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 30, 2004 | Editorial

[OESY]

Of all the issues ripe for further investigation in the scandal over the leak of Democratic strategy memos from the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, the least relevant is whether GOP staffers "stole" the documents. That's the charge Democrats have so far successfully made to deflect attention from the memos' actual content.

On this point alone, the Justice Department's decision this week to open a criminal investigation into the matter could turn out to be useful. David Kelley, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, and a Democrat, has been tapped to lead the probe. We doubt Mr. Kelley is going to discover a "crime" resulting from the Democrats' negligence in leaving their files unprotected on a computer drive shared by Republican and Democratic staff.

Mr. Kelley has an additional, far more important, mandate. He is also tasked with exploring charges of political corruption allegedly described in some of the unpublished memos.

In a February 10 letter to the Public Integrity Section of Justice's Criminal Division, a coalition of Washington watchdog groups called for an analysis of the unpublished memos "with an eye towards ascertaining the applicability of criminal statutes to the conduct of their authors and recipients." Specifically, it asks for an investigation of charges that liberal interest groups were trying to influence the actions of Democratic Senators in exchange for promises of campaign funding and election support. A Justice official tells us that "this inquiry was referred to the Southern District of New York as well."

Mr. Kelley has a lot of reading to do. Just 14 memos have been made public out of 4,670 in the custody of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. We don't know what he'll find, but we're glad that at last someone apparently will be examining them for what they say, not just for how they came to light.

[jocko12]

O-BOY ANOTHER CLOWN ACT.

[MamaLucci]

Specifically, it asks for an investigation of charges that liberal interest groups were trying to influence the actions of Democratic Senators in exchange for promises of campaign funding and election support. A Justice official tells us that "this inquiry was referred to the Southern District of New York as well."

This democrat collusion, and the weak GOP response to it, also needs to be brought up when making calls to keep Arlen Specter from becoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The courts are the big enchilada...........too important to entrust to the Scottish Rino, Specter.

[MamaLucci]

bttt