Ranger Rick
FBI Officials Blast Ashcroft Over Leak
Thu Oct 16 00:33:23 2003
64.140.158.125

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [LEAK-GATE] FBI Officials Blast Ashcroft Over Leak Inquiry.....Cite Conflict of Interest
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 03:23:26 -0000
From: "Ranger Rick"
Reply-To: LEAK-GATE@yahoogroups.com
To: LEAK-GATE@yahoogroups.com


BREAKING NEWS:
Senior Federal Prosecutors and F.B.I. Officials Fault
Ashcroft Over Leak Inquiry

By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — Several senior criminal prosecutors at the
Justice Department and top F.B.I. officials have privately criticized
Attorney General John Ashcroft for failing to recuse himself or
appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the leak of a C.I.A.
operative's identity.

The criticism reflects the first sign of dissension in the department
and the F.B.I. as the inquiry nears a critical phase. The attorney
general must decide whether to convene a grand jury, which could
compel White House officials to testify.

The criminal justice officials, who spoke on the condition that they
not be identified, represent a cross section of experienced criminal
prosecutors and include political supporters of Mr. Ashcroft at the
department's headquarters here and at United States attorneys'
offices around the country.

The officials said they feared Mr. Ashcroft could be damaged by
continuing accusations that as an attorney general with a long career
in Republican partisan politics, he could not credibly lead a
criminal investigation that centered on the aides to a Republican
president.

Democrats have criticized each step of the inquiry as tainted by Mr.
Ashcroft's relationship with the White House.

The investigation is trying to determine who told the syndicated
columnist Robert Novak, as he wrote in July, that Valerie Plame, the
wife of a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, was a C.I.A.
employee. Mr. Wilson was a critic of the administration's Iraq
policies.

A senior Justice Department official acknowledged on Tuesday that the
question of whether Mr. Ashcroft should step aside had stirred
discussion in the department, but said that the dissent was limited
and did not reflect the overall thinking of the career lawyers who
are in daily control of the leak case. The official said that the
option of recusal or referral to a special prosecutor remained "wide
open."

The official said that the question of whether Mr. Ashcroft should
step aside had been discussed among Mr. Ashcroft's senior advisers,
but that so far none of the career lawyers on the case had
recommended that the attorney general remove himself.

The official said Mr. Ashcroft had twice gathered his investigative
team to urge them to find out who had leaked the identity of the
C.I.A. operative and to prosecute that person if possible. "He's
angry about this," the official said.

But Mr. Ashcroft faces the same political and legal dilemma that
haunted his predecessors when the Justice Department has been forced
to examine the conduct of senior officials in the White House or the
Cabinet.

Janet Reno was forced to turn to independent counsels seven times in
her nearly eight-year tenure at the department. But her refusal to
seek an outside prosecutor to investigate charges of campaign finance
irregularities in President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign in
1996 permanently damaged Ms. Reno's standing in the capital.

Mr. Ashcroft's relationship with the White House is far closer than
Ms. Reno's was with President Clinton. Mr. Ashcroft has closed ranks
with President Bush in the war against terrorism, which has altered
nearly three decades in which most attorneys general and F.B.I.
directors sought to keep a distance from the White House.

But Mr. Ashcroft and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III,
operate as major members of Mr. Bush's antiterror team, a closeness
that complicates a criminal inquiry at the White House managed by Mr.
Ashcroft and Mr. Mueller.

Several alternative approaches have been suggested both inside and
outside the Justice Department, the officials said. In one approach,
Mr. Ashcroft would recuse himself from the case once James B. Comey,
the federal prosecutor in Manhattan, took over as deputy attorney
general in either an acting or permanent basis.

Mr. Bush said earlier this month that he intended to appoint Mr.
Comey as deputy attorney general. Mr. Comey brings established
prosecutorial credentials to the job.

If Mr. Comey took charge, it would avoid the time-consuming prospect
of appointing a special counsel who would then have semi-independence
to investigate the case, but would still be answerable to the
attorney general.

Mr. Ashcroft is aware of the political sensitivity of the case, and
aides said he had worked hard to ensure an aggressive investigation.

After a news report indicated that the F.B.I. would move cautiously
because of the intense scrutiny, an angry Mr. Ashcroft had an aide
call the F.B.I. immediately to let officials there know that that
would not be the case, a Justice Department adviser said. "He wants
to make certain we're moving with all appropriate dispatch."

Mr. Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, have
also been under fire for their initial handling of the case. The
Justice Department allowed the White House to wait overnight on Sept.
28 before sending an electronic message ordering White House
employees not to destroy records related to the leak.

Ashley Snee, a spokesman for Mr. Gonzales, said he believed the delay
was acceptable because no one in the White House had any idea there
was an investigation. But The New York Times and The Washington Post
had reported the day before that the C.I.A. had forwarded the matter
to the Justice Department for possible investigation.
========================================================

LEAK-GATE: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LEAK-GATE/join

This White House Scandal Finally Tips the Scale!
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/leakgate.htm

Post message: LEAK-GATE@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: LEAK-GATE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: LEAK-GATE-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

List owner: LEAK-GATE-owner@yahoogroups.com

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" - Thomas Jefferson

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be...
The People cannot be safe without information." -- Thomas Jefferson
http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html