Obama's Enforcer

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by John Fund


  14. Raffaela Wakeman, “September 2013 Guantanamo Recidivism Report from DNI,” Lawfareblog.com, Sept 6, 2013.

  15. Meghan Clyne, “A Bleeding Heart to ‘Fight’ Terror,” New York Post, July 17, 2009.

  16. Andrew C. McCarthy, “ ‘Representing’ al-Qaeda,” National Review Online, March 29, 2010.

  17. Clyne, “A Bleeding Heart to ‘Fight’ Terror.”

  18. Andy McCarthy, “Who Are the Gitmo 9?,” National Review Online, Feb. 24, 2010.

  19. Mike Levine, “Exclusive: Unknown DOJ Lawyers Identified,” Fox News, March 3, 2010.

  20. Jennifer Rubin, “Gen. ‘Stonewall’ Holder,” Weekly Standard, May 10, 2010.

  21. Andrew C. McCarthy, “The Gitmo Volunteers,” National Review Online, March 5, 2010.

  22. Debra Burlingame and Thomas Joscelyn, “Gitmo’s Indefensible Lawyers,” Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2010.

  23. McCarthy, “The Gitmo Volunteers.”

  24. These memoranda were principally written by John Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Jay S. Bybee, a federal appeals court judge who headed the Office of Legal Counsel. These memoranda were released by Eric Holder and the Obama administration despite CIA Director Leon Panetta’s argument that “full disclosure would damage the government’s ability to recruit spies and harm national security.” Daniel Klaidman, “Independent’s Day,” Newsweek, July 11, 2009.

  25. The CIA contractor, David A. Passaro, was convicted of assault for hitting an Afghan captive with a flashlight. Carrie Johnson, Jerry Markon, and Julie Tate, “Inquiry Into CIA Practices Narrows,” Washington Post, Sept. 19, 2009.

  26. Siobhan Gorman, “Seven CIA Directors Ask Obama to Stop Criminal Probe,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 18, 2009.

  27. “Obama White House v. CIA; Panetta Threatened to Quit,” The Blotter, ABC News, Aug. 24, 2009.

  28. Johnson, Markon, and Tate, “Inquiry Into CIA Practices Narrows.”

  29. United States v. Richardson, 418 U.S. 166 (1974).

  30. “Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on Closure of Investigation into the Interrogation of Certain Detainees,” U.S. Department of Justice, Aug. 30, 2012.

  31. Marc A. Thiessen, “The CIA’s Exoneration and Holder’s Reckoning,” Washington Post, July 4, 2011.

  32. “Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on Closure of Investigation into the Interrogation of Certain Detainees,” U.S. Department of Justice, Aug. 30, 2012.

  33. Thiessen, “The CIA’s Exoneration and Holder’s Reckoning.”

  34. U.S. v. Slough, Criminal Action No. 08-0360 (D. D.C. Dec. 31, 2009).

  35. U.S. v. Slough, Criminal Action No. 08-0360 (D. D.C. Dec. 31, 2009), Slip Op. at 22.

  36. 385 U.S. 493 (1967).

  37. U.S. v. Slough, Criminal Action No. 08-0360 (D. D.C. Dec. 31, 2009), Slip Op. at 3.

  38. “The Real Blackwater Scandal,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 3, 2010.

  39. James Risen, “Ex-Blackwater Guards Face Renewed Charges,” New York Times, April 22, 2011.

  40. “New Charges in Blackwater Shootings,” Associated Press, Oct. 17, 2013.

  41. Glenn Greenwald, “The Bin Laden Raid Exposes the Obama Administration’s Selective Secrecy,” Guardian, Aug. 23, 2012.

  42. Ann E. Marimow, “A Rare Peek Into a Justice Department Leak Probe,” Washington Post, May 19, 2013.

  43. “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques,” House Committee on the Judiciary, Majority Staff Report to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, July 31, 2013, Executive Summary.

  44. Leonard Downie, “The Obama Administration and the Press—Leak Investigations and Surveillance in Post–9/11 America,” Committee to Protect Journalists, Oct. 10, 2013.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Patrick Howley, “Emails: White House, State Department Coordinated with Journalist on National Security Leaks,” Daily Caller, Oct. 23, 2013.

  47. “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques,” House Committee on the Judiciary, Majority Staff Report to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, July 31, 2013, p. 3.

  48. David E. Sanger, “Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” New York Times, June 1, 2012.

  49. Howley, “Emails: White House, State Department Coordinated With Journalist on National Security Leaks.”

  50. Ibid.

  51. “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques,” House Committee on the Judiciary, Majority Staff Report to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, July 31, 2013, p. 4.

  52. Howley, “Emails: White House, State Department Coordinated With Journalist on National Security Leaks.”

  53. “CIA Foiled al-Qaeda Bomb Plot Around Anniversary of Bin Laden Death,” Guardian, May 7, 2012.

  54. “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques,” House Committee on the Judiciary, Majority Staff Report to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, July 31, 2013, p. 1.

  55. Mark Sherman, “Government Obtains Wide AP Phone Records in Probe,” Associated Press, May 13, 2013.

  56. Letter from Gary Pruitt to Eric Holder, May 13, 2013.

  57. Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria, “AP Records Seizure Just Latest Step in Sweeping U.S. Leak Probe,” Reuters, May 15, 2013.

  58. Presidential Statement on Signing the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, Oct. 14, 1980.

  59. Jennifer Rubin, “Five Questions About the AP Surveillance,” Washington Post, May 17, 2013.

  60. Steven Nelson, “AP Leak Investigation Isn’t Quite Over, Despite Charges,” U.S. News & World Report, Sept. 24, 2013.

  61. Ibid.

  62. Mark Hosenball, “Exclusive: Did White House ‘Spin’ Tip a Covert Op?,” Reuters, May 18, 2012.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Nelson, “AP Leak Investigation Isn’t Quite Over, Despite Charges.”

  66. James Rosen, “NK’s Post UN Sanctions Plans, Revealed,” Fox News, June 11, 2009.

  67. “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques,” House Committee on the Judiciary, Majority Staff Report to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, July 31, 2013, p. 6,

  68. Affidavit of Reginald B. Reyes, In the Matter of Search of E-Mail Account of James Rosen, Case No. 10-291-M-01 (D. D.C. May 28, 2010).

  69. “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques,” House Committee on the Judiciary, Majority Staff Report to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, July 31, 2013, p. 17.

  70. Ibid., p. 16.

  71. Ibid., pp. 15–16.

  72. Michael Issikoff, “DOJ Confirms Holder OK’d Search Warrant for Fox News Reporter’s Emails,” NBC News, May 27, 2013.

  73. “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques,” House Committee on the Judiciary, Majority Staff Report to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, July 31, 2013, p. 19.

  74. Ibid., p. 30.

  75. Brian Stelter and Michael D. Shear, “Justice Dept. Investigated Fox Reporter Over Leak,” Fox News, May 20, 2013.

  76. Marimow, “A Rare Peek Into a Justice Department Leak Probe.”

  77. Sari Horwitz, “Justice Dept. Tightens Rules on Subpoenaing Records of Journalists,” Washington Post, July 12, 2013.

  78. The prior guidelines were found at 28 C.F.R. § 50.10 and were incorporated into the Justice Department’s U.S. Attorney’s Manual at § 9-13.400.

  7
9. Matt Vasilogambros, “Feinstein: White House Behind National Security Leaks,” National Journal, July 24, 2012.

  80. Toby Harnden, “Joe Biden Opens His Mouth About US Navy Seals,” Telegraph, May 4, 2011.

  81. Jeffrey T. Kuhner, “The Betrayal of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6,” Washington Times, June 7, 2013.

  82. Ibid.

  83. “Scooter Obama Outs Navy SEAL Team 6 Leader for Movie,” Investor’s Business Daily, May 24, 2012.

  84. Rowan Scarborough, “Navy SEALS Cite Shabby Treatment as Team Obama Helps Hollywood Instead,” Washington Times, Nov. 17, 2013.

  85. Maureen Dowd, “Downgrade Blues,” New York Times, Aug. 6, 2011.

  86. Glenn Greenwald, “The bin Laden Raid Exposes the Obama Administration’s Selective Secrecy,” Guardian, Aug. 23, 2012.

  87. Rowan Scarborough, “Details of bin Laden Raid Leaked First by Obama Aides,” Washington Times, Sept. 16, 2012, “Judicial Watch . . . obtained via the Freedom of Information Act a series of internal emails that show close cooperation between the movie’s director and screenwriter and Obama political appointees at the CIA, Pentagon and White House.”

  88. Daniel Halper, “Gates to National Security Team on Osama Raid: ‘Shut the F– Up,’ ” Weekly Standard, June 6, 2012.

  89. Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” New York Times, May 20, 2012.

  90. Greenwald, “The bin Laden Raid Exposes the Obama Administration’s Selective Secrecy.”

  91. Interview with Joe Connor, Dec. 3, 2013.

  Chapter 9: Corruption Abroad

  1. 15 U.S.C. § 77dd-1.

  2. Ammon Simon, “Wal-Mart and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” National Review Online, Dec. 21, 2012.

  3. Mike Koehler, “Lanny Breuer and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement,” White Collar Crime Report, Bloomberg BNA, March 22, 2013.

  4. http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/speeches/2012/crmspeech-1211161.html, Nov. 12, 2012.

  5. Matthew Rosenberg, “With Bags of Cash, C.I.A. Seeks Influence in Afghanistan,” New York Times, April 28, 2013.

  6. Koehler, “Lanny Breuer and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement.”

  7. Ibid.

  8. Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer Speaks at the New York City Bar Association, Sept. 13, 2012; http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/speeches/2012/crm-speech-1209131.html.

  9. Koehler, “Lanny Breuer and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement.”

  10. Mike Koehler, “An Examination of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Issues,” 12 Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business 317,332 (2013).

  11. See Prepared Remarks by Former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, May 2012, http://www.wallerlaw.com/portalresource/lookup/wosid/cp-base-4-13102/media.name-/TAP%20-%20Speech%20to%20LCJ%20by%20Judge%20Gonzales%202012%2005.pdf.

  12. John L. Smith, “FBI Stung After Sting Involving Corrupt Foreign Practices,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Feb. 29, 2012.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Del Quentin Wilber, “Racy, Vulgar Texts Hurt Justice Department’s Largest Sting Operation Targeting Foreign Bribery,” Washington Post, Feb. 13, 2012.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Smith, “FBI Stung After Sting Involving Corrupt Foreign Practices.”

  18. Wilber, “Racy, Vulgar Texts Hurt Justice Department’s Largest Sting Operation Targeting Foreign Bribery.”

  19. “A Guest Post from the Africa Sting Jury Foreman,” FCPA Professor, Feb. 6, 2012, http://www.fcpaprofessor.com/a-guest-post-from-the-africa-sting-jury-foreman.

  20. Transcript of Judge Leon’s Remarks Dismissing the Indictments with Prejudice for Amaro Goncalves and 15 Co-Defendants,” U.S. v. Goncalves, Case No. 09-CR-335 (D.D.C. Feb. 21, 2012).

  21. “Africa Sting—A ‘Long and Sad Chapter in the Annals of White Collar Criminal Enforcement,” FCPAProfessor, Feb. 22, 2012, http://www .fcpaprofessor.com/2012/02/page/2.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Walter Pavlo, “Government Witness, Richard Bistrong, Gets Jail Time While Targets Walk,” Forbes, Aug. 2, 2012.

  24. U.S. v. O’Shea, Indictment H-09-629 (S.D. TX Nov. 16, 2009).

  25. Richard L. Cassin, “Judge to DOJ: Your Principal Witness Knows Almost Nothing,” FCPAProfessor, Jan. 19, 2012, http://www.fcpablog .com/2012/1/19/judge-to-doj-your-principal-witness-knows-almost-nothing.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Dane Schiller, “After Losing Everything, Mexico Bribery Suspect Acquitted,” Houston Chronicle, Jan. 17, 2012.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Ibid.

  30. “California Company, Its Two Executives and Intermediary Convicted by Federal Jury in Los Angeles on All Counts for Their Involvement in Scheme to Bribe Officials at State-Owned Utility in Mexico,” Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, May 10, 2011, http://www .justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/May/11-crm-596.html.

  31. Lisa Riordan Seville, “Battling Corporate Crime,” The Crime Report, Jan. 8, 2012; thecrimereport.org/news/article/2012-01-battling-corporate-crime.

  32. Order Granting Motion To Dismiss, US v. Aguilar, Case No. 10-01031 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 1, 2011), p. 1.

  33. Ibid., p. 2.

  34. Ibid., p. 20.

  35. Ibid., pp. 14–15.

  36. Ibid., p. 32.

  37. Ibid., p. 38–39.

  38. Ibid., p. 40.

  39. Samuel Rubenfeld, “U.S. Drops Appeal in Lindsey Manufacturing FCPA Case,” Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2012.

  40. “Writer’s Cramp at the DOJ?,” FCPAProfessor, Feb. 3, 2012, http://www.fcpaprofessor.com/writers-cramp-at-the-doj.

  Chapter 10: What Is to Be Done?

  1. Andrew McCarthy, “The Rule of Law,” New Criterion, Sept. 2011.

  2. “Investigation into the Office of Legal Counsel’s Memorandum Concerning Issues Relating to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Use of ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’ on Suspected Terrorists,” Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Justice, July 29, 2009, p. 11.

  3. “Memorandum for the Attorney General,” Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, Jan. 5, 2010.

  4. Letter of Jan. 9, 2009, to H. Marshall Jarrett, Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Justice.

  5. “Vindicating John Yoo,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 22, 2010.

  6. See Hans A. von Spakovsky, “Revenge of the Liberal Bureaucrats,” Weekly Standard, Jan. 23, 2009.

  7. “Vindicating John Yoo,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 22, 2010.

  8. Charlie Savage, “For Holder, New Congress Means New Headaches,” New York Times, Dec. 30, 2010.

  9. At the Justice Department, a “detail” is when a lawyer is temporarily assigned to a different office inside Justice, another federal agency, or even to Congress. The lawyer remains a DOJ employee and all benefits and salary continued to be paid by DOJ.

  10. J. Christian Adams, Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department (New York: Regnery, 2011), p. 163.

  11. Ibid., p. 162.

  12. Ibid., p. 163.

  13. “Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Department of Justice—2013,” Memorandum for the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, from Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General, Dec. 11, 2013, reissued Dec. 23, 2013.

  14. “Annual Report—2012,” Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Justice, p. 16, fn. 10.

  15. Fine issued a four-hundred-page report on the faux scandal of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department during the Bush administration that claimed the process used to remove them “was seriously flawed.” He made a federal case out of a molehill, basically ignoring the fact that U.S. attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president and can be terminated at any time for any reason or no reason. There was nothing to investigate in the president’s termination of nine political appointees. But refusing to investigate this supposed scandal that had been whipped up by polit
ical opponents of the administration would not have served Fine’s political allies. It was his decision to investigate this matter that was “seriously flawed.” See “An Investigation into the Removal of Nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006,” Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Justice, Sept. 2008.

  16. “A Review of the Operations of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division,” Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, March 2013, p. 188.

  17. Andrew M. Grossman, “Use and Abuse of Consent Decrees in Federal Rulemaking,” Testimony Before Subcommittee on the Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Feb. 3, 2012.

  18. Ibid.

  19. “Department Policy Regarding Consent Decrees and Settlement Agreements,” Memorandum from Edwin Meese III to All Assistant Attorneys General and United States Attorneys, U.S. Department of Justice, March 13, 1986.

  20. “Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2013,” Committee on the Judiciary, House Report 113-230, Sept. 26, 2013.

  21. “Authority of the United States to Enter Settlements Limiting the Future Exercise of Executive Branch Discretion,” Memorandum from Randolph D. Moss, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Office of Legal Policy, to Associate Attorney General Raymond Fisher, U.S. Department of Justice, June 15, 1999.

  22. See H.R. 1493 and S. 714.

  23. Grossman, “Use and Abuse of Consent Decrees in Federal Rulemaking.”

  24. See H.R. 317.

  25. Interview by Hans von Spakovsky with Edwin Meese III, Jan. 12, 2014.

  26. Hans von Spakovsky, “Porteous Impeached: The Vote Breakdown,” National Review Online, Dec. 8, 2010.

  27. Interview by Hans von Spakovsky with Edwin Meese III, Jan. 12, 2014.

  28. Isaac Chotiner, “Eric Holder, Cave Man—Why the Attorney General Always Disappoints Himself,” New Republic, June 20, 2013.

  29. Ibid.

  30. McCarthy, “The Rule of Law.”

  31. Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515 (1832).

  32. This quote by Jackson is probably apocryphal and derived from a letter in which he said that the Supreme Court’s decision was “still born” and that the court could not “coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate.” Paul F. Boller and John H. George, They Never Said It: A Book of False Quotes, Misquotes & False Attributions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 53.

 

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