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Report: Bush Official Violated Federal Law in Overseeing Civil Rights Division and Lied To Congress — But Will Not Be Charged

180px-bradley_schlozmanA federal investigation has found that Bradley Schlozman, the former acting head of the civil rights division, made false statements to Congress and violated federal law in overseeing the agency’s civil rights division. However, he will not face charges in a continuation of the Bush Administration’s record of barring prosecution of its own officials.

The report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General found plenty of evidence of how Schlozman acted as a political commissar who blocked the hiring of non-conservatives and harassed the politically unreliable. In one e-mail, Schlozman (who comes across as a real knuckle dragger) that it was a long time since he had a chance to “scream with a bloodcurdling cry at some commie.”

In his e-mail, Scholzman talks about “bitchslapping a bunch of (division) attorneys really did get the blood pumping and was even enjoyable once in a while.”

At other times, Schlozman reportedly urged the hiring of “real Americans,” to the apparent exclusion of “libs” and “pinkos.”

Notably, the report also criticizes other Bush officials who knew about Schlozman’s misconduct and did nothing.

The report was sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. for prosecution but the Mukasey administration blocked any prosecution. Mukasey has now blocked the prosecution of Bush officials for torture, unlawful surveillance, destruction of evidence, criminal contempt of Congress, and false statements to Congress. It is quite a legacy.

In the meantime, Schlozman is practicing law in Kansas. You are probably wondering what law firm would be eager to have such a person as “of counsel.” It is Hinkle Elkouri, which proclaims on its website that it has a “national reputation” and highlights its selection as “the best lawyers in America.” Scholzman, who is a graduate of George Washington University where I teach, has a bio that somehow omits all of the controversies that earned him the criticism of both Republicans and Democrats as well as Justice officials.

For the full story, click here.

13 thoughts on “Report: Bush Official Violated Federal Law in Overseeing Civil Rights Division and Lied To Congress — But Will Not Be Charged”

  1. “The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.” — Frank Zappa

  2. Bobfrog,
    I feel your quote is all to relevant to today’s Washington. Perhaps though, Polanski was really describing the universality of the truism.

  3. AP update:

    “WASHINGTON (AP) — If confirmed as attorney general, Eric Holder says he’ll review the decision not to prosecute a former Justice Department official for making false statements to Congress.”

  5. rafflaw:

    Chapter 4, Part IV of the Report states:

    “IV. Criminal Referral
    We have referred this matter [Schlozman’s alleged false testimony] to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for a decision on whether the evidence warrants a criminal prosecution. We provided to the prosecutor the evidence we gathered in the course of our investigation, including transcripts of interviews and relevant documents and e-mails.”

    Also this footnote was found in the report:

    “We referred the findings from our investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in March 2008. We completed this written report of investigation in July 2008.
    The U.S. Attorney’s Office informed us on January 9, 2009, of its decision to decline prosecution of Schlozman. The Interim U.S. Attorney, Jeffrey Taylor, was recused from the matter and the decision.”

    I think Mr. Fine’s office already sent this over on criminal referral, but our friend Mukasey declined to prosecute. I am not aware of any regulation preventing the Obama DOJ from reconsidering that decision.

  6. Maybe Mespo or Prof. Turley can answer this question. Can’t the Obama Justice Administration act on the information from the the Inspector General’s report and bring Schlozman up on criminal charges? Is there a statute of limitations that has already passed? I would guess that the Obama Justice department should be able to investigate the charges in the report and bring criminal charges on their own.

  7. “I have often wondered how the most academically accomplished persons—those straight-A, summa-cum-laude types—are frequently among the most corruptible.”

    *********

    The truth is that the most ambitious are the most corruptible, willing to cut corners to get what they desire be it money, fame, power, etc. That is why the Greeks believed virtue had to temper ambition. Ever met a corrupt hobo?

    “Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.”

    –Jonathan Swift

  8. This appears to be another example of how power and ideology corrupts even some of the most educated people in their profession. I have often wondered how the most academically accomplished persons—those straight-A, summa-cum-laude types—are frequently among the most corruptible. Mr. Schlozman ‘only’ achieved magna-cum-laude status, although that is close enough to fit in my corruptness category in this case based on his actions.

  9. Rich:

    I understand that this report was sent to the Bar’s of the states of licensure, but who knows what that really means.

  10. Good question Rich. I notice that Alberto Gonzales has yet to be disbarred as well. Mukasey should be disbarred for life for his gleeful inaction in doing the job he was sworn in to do. Since his confirmation he has done nothing as Attorney General. He just sits at his desk admiring his portrait of George Orwell, awaiting the next obstruction order from the WH. Not having a legal or Constitutional background I would like to ask whether or not the Obama Administration’s Justice Dept. could pick up this ball and run with it? Is there any recourse to rid the Justice Dept of sicophants that were hired specifically for there political beliefs by Schlozman and Monica Goodling?

    “If we do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.”
    -Francis Bacon

  11. Schlozman is a prime example of the evil wrought by the Bushies. He is obviously a true believer and viewed his law studies through a lens of mindless partisanship. He should be prosecuted for perjury in that he lied to Congress. To have this man at bar in any state is a stain on the profession. Sadly, Kansas appears to be one of those States where reason doesn’t prevail (as Mr.Frank has already documented)and so he will probably fit right in. Dorothy in the “Wizard” thought Oz strange and so different from Kansas, how wrong she was.

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