Mark Middleton, The Clintonista Shielded by Pres. Bush's Executive Privilege Claim

Alamo-Girl, various ^ | Wednesday, September 5, 2001 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

I wish I could say, "it's my pleasure," but this is not pleasurable.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree. Nixon is still shreded in public. Clinton has all but been forgotten, even though he's running that global shakedown racket. This nation is imploding.

[goldstategop]

Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch should file suit if necessary to stop the President from improperly invoking the claim of "executive privilege." There are certainly situations when confidentiality in the work of the Presidency and the executive branch is called for but it shouldn't apply to events surrounding a criminal investigation undertaken against a former President. And Congress does have the right to know if the decisions made then served justice. We must under no circumstances allow this administration to set a precedent for the possible abuse of power by either the President or his underlings down the road. We did not elect President Bush to be William Jefferson Clinton II and Judicial Watch should do everything possible to see to it "executive privilege" isn't invoked as a cover to conceal past or future crimes from the American people. Never again!!!

[kristinn]

As much as we see some of these matters the same way, I don't like to flag people to provoke arguments with them. Please try to use rational persuasion on this one.

[kristinn]

At least we were able to derail Clinton's post-presidential gravy train stateside for awhile. It was a 'moral' victory, even if it was a short-term one.

[bayourod]

"Apparently, the Bush administration is willing to cover up treason and corruption at the highest levels of the previous administration in order to keep the tool of "deliberative process" so that it, too, can use the Justice Department for political purposes."

That's a pretty strong conclusion from such incomplete information.
Do you still work for Judicial Watch?

[Alamo-Girl]

I think the House Committee will probably take this on up to the U.S. Supreme Court. If you read the full letter from Burton to Ashcroft, it sounds like the DOJ is inviting them to do this.

The way I understand it, the White House counsel and DOJ is recommending that strategy discussions with prosecutors should not be subject to discovery.

IMHO, where that will fall apart is if the prosecutor himself is a suspect to an obstruction of justice. That is of course what we have in a number of these cases.

In fact, that aspect seems so obvious to me I can't help but wonder if the end result won't be the airing of Clintonian laundry by judicial mandate, i.e. the Bush administration couldn't be accused of being mean-spirited, partisan, witch hunting, etc.

[HAL9000]

Another Middleton scandal was his connections to fugitive Clinton donor Mark Jimenez.

According to the House Committee on Government Reform -

"Mark Middleton is connected to at least three major figures in the campaign finance scandal who have been indicted: John Huang, Charlie Trie and Mark Jimenez," Burton said. "His lawyers have informed us that Mr. Middleton plans to plead the 5th before our committee, while at the same time claiming that he has nothing to hide. I can only hope that Mr. Middleton will change his mind, particularly since we have an opinion from the Congressional Research Service stating that, under the circumstances, they believe he has waived his 5th amendment privileges and must testify."

[snip]

Mark Jimenez, a client of Middleton’s, contributed over $806,000 to the DNC, Clinton/Gore, and other entities related to the Democratic party or President Clinton. Middleton arranged for Jimenez to attend a White House coffee with the President on February 6, 1996. Jimenez has been indicted for organizing, making and concealing illegal conduit contributions to the Clinton/Gore campaign. Jimenez fled to the Philippines and the Justice Department has requested that Jimenez be extradited.

The extradition proceedings against Jimenez are continuing in the Philippines.

According to press reports from the Philippines a couple of weeks ago, Jimenez has hired Kenneth Starr to act as his U.S. lawyer. Starr is apparently trying to block Jimenez's extradition back to the U.S. to answer for his crimes, or to arrange a plea bargain for Jimenez with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Jimenez managed to get elected as a legislator in the Philippines recently - running under the name "Mario Crespo" - and is claiming immunity from extradition on that basis.

Jimenez is ranked as the wealthiest member of the Philippines legislature.

[MissAmericanPie]

This has really, really, got to be hard on you kristinn.

[Publius]

In fact, that aspect seems so obvious to me I can't help but wonder if the end result won't be the airing of Clintonian laundry by judicial mandate, i.e. the Bush administration couldn't be accused of being mean-spirited, partisan, witch hunting, etc.

Never in American history has a government of a different party come into office and arrested most of the people in the previous government for treason. Such things happened in Europe during the Age of Kings when politics was a rougher sport, but we've never done that here.

For Ashcroft to make such a play would bring the unanimous condemnation of the Establishment Media and the Democratic Party. Worse, it would appear even to unbiased Americans that this was dirty pool -- unless something happened to show Americans that China was not their friend. In the absence of a crisis with China, it becomes necessary to get this information out by different means.

To make this gambit work, it must appear that Burton is holding a gun to Ashcroft's head. If the courts are to be players in this game, so much the better. Ashcroft and Bush don't need their fingerprints on this, and it looks better if they bow to the demands of a courageous crusader in Congress backed by the law.

If this is the game, it's absolutely brilliant. It's the kind of thing that Cheney would dream up.

[Alamo-Girl]

Well said, Publius! And I agree with you, that it would be absolutely brilliant!

[goody2shooz]

I hope that both you and Alamo Girl are correct. Somehow the spetre of Iran/Contra seems to hover over this scenario. Know what I mean?

[Aerial]

I think the House Committee will probably take this on up to the U.S. Supreme Court. If you read the full letter from Burton to Ashcroft, it sounds like the DOJ is inviting them to do this.

Who's betting on what the Supreme Court would decide...should this happen?

[Publius]

It puts me in mind of Joel Chandler Harris' stories of Br'er Rabbit.

"Please, oh please don' throw me into that there briar patch!"

[Alamo-Girl]

I believe the USSC will rule against the Bush administration because the prosecutor himself could be a suspect in the obstruction of justice.

[Alamo-Girl]

Yes indeed! What an excellent comparison!!!

[going hot]

I was waiting for someone to state the obvious. It is only not obvious if one is listening to the left serenade about Bush's lack of clarity and wit. And there are people who still believe it.

Time to get stocked on more movie time pop corn, with extra butter. These next few years are going to be an interesting show.

[Alamo-Girl]

Absolutely! I do enjoy popcorn! Hugs!!!

[going hot]

I don't know if you have ever been around chickens..but when there is a whole bunch of them, sort of clucking and strutting around, scratching for stuff, and suddenly, one will find a worm, or some other morsal.
The squawking suddenly rises, and the morsal is swiped from bird to bird, all vieing for some of the juicy tidbit, until it is devoured, then they all go back to strutting and scratching, looking for more stuff.

That is what the liberal media remind me of, as well as some whose posts appear on this site.

Gotta get to sleep, g'night.

ps, love your work.