Reply #3: The Editorial: Depoliticizing Justice [View All]

[L. Coyote]

Depoliticizing Justice
Limiting contacts between the department and the White House should help.
Sunday, September 30, 2007; Page B06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/29/AR2007092901348.html?nav=rss_opinions

THE JUSTICE Department is taking a good first step toward restoring its integrity by revamping an internal policy that fueled the perception that it had become inappropriately politicized. The policy regulates who at Justice may speak with the White House about ongoing criminal and civil law enforcement cases. During the tenures of Attorneys General John D. Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales, dozens of department employees were authorized to speak with hundreds of White House personnel about such matters. Frequent contacts, along with controversies involving the firing of U.S. attorneys and the alleged politicization of other programs at Justice, reinforced the belief that politics too often drove law enforcement and legal decisions that should have been free from partisan considerations.

Justice is now changing the policy so that only the very top leadership of the department would be permitted to speak about pending law enforcement matters with top White House officials, including the president, vice president and White House counsel. ....