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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.

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