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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Just so no one thinks this is a Legal Times people item…
USA Kevin Ryan, who had been the lead Balco prosecutor is apparently one of several federal prosecutors that have been pushed out by the Justice Dept. using a provision of the USA Patriot Act.
His resignation came amid accusations by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and other Democrats that Bush was pushing U.S. attorneys out of office so he could appoint their replacements without Senate confirmation under a little-noticed provision of the USA Patriot Act passed by Congress in 2001.
Citing a Wall Street Journal article Tuesday that listed Ryan among seven prosecutors around the nation who reportedly were being forced out, Feinstein said she was co-sponsoring legislation that would reinstate a 120-day limit on the president’s power to name an interim U.S. attorney without Senate approval. After 120 days, federal judges would make the interim appointments, as they did before the Patriot Act.
Ryan is not the only high profile USA who has been pushed out. The article cites the prosecutor in the Rep. Duke Cunningham case also resigned under pressure.
I’ll leave my personal politics out of it, but it raises an important question - with the driving force behind the prosecution now out, what happens to the People v. Barry Bonds? Also, does MLB bring Ryan in in some capacity?
Sean McNally
Posted: January 17, 2007 at 01:43 PM | 40 comment(s)
Related News: General, San Francisco, Steroids
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While others, undoubtedly, will be unable to practice that particular bit of self-control...
I would think any effort by a former US Attorney to assist the defense in a case in which he/she worked, effectively "switching sides," would be a big time ethical violation on that attorney's part.
What warrants the self-control is the fact that the political side of it has little to do with baseball.
I'm with Answer Guy - I don't think this will affect the BALCO thing much if at all.
I bet Barry wishes he'd thought of that one.
It probably won't - but unless they are very close to indicting, it will give the new US Attorney an opportunity to redistribute resources in a way that he/she feels makes more sense.
Where did they find that Stimson guy anyway?
Fortunately, I doubt anyone who matters took that comment seriously and it was repudiated by official channels fairly promptly.
This Patriot Act issue is why one should never vote for legislation without reading it.
Then how would anything get passed?
Keep it Simple: No bills longer than a single page.
Seriously, the fact that special interests can write obnoxiously complicated legislature, slap a bribed politicians signature on it, and slide it through congress without anyone reading it should piss you off regardless of your political persuasion.
Worst. Administration. Ever.
Tempting as it is to utter even the most irrational statements as if they were blatant verities, you should probably forego this pleasure unless you are trying to convince the unintelligent to see it your way. They'd be the only ones buying.
And he'd be right.
Answer is nobody will hear besides Bubba, his cellmate.
While others, undoubtedly, will be unable to practice that particular bit of self-control...
And I'm sorry for not following any self control, but this is the offseason, and I'm sure some of us could use a good 3000 post megathread with partison politics.
Bill Clinton and Rush Limbaugh as cellmates?
Someone contact FOX, cuz that's the best reality show I've heard of yet!
here, here.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be debating Bert Blyleven's HOF credentials over at Daily Kos.
Megadittos?
Actually, I only talk baseball at non baseball sites... I know some may find this shocking, but i rarely have anything to add to a site where the general knowlege level of baseball is extrememly high.
Yet again, I prove my point...
You know who could have used a thread like that?
Hitler.
Doc, I'm pretty similar. I feel like I can be an apostle to the gentiles, but if I try to say too much in Church council I'll end up getting burned at the stake.
Of course, I probably have the gentiles worshiping some fellow named Jeeves.
What does this have to do with the US attorneys?
They are Presidential appointees, part of the Department of Justice. They are not civil servants and do not generally stay on when a new President is elected, particularly if there is a party switch.
The DoJ can make it crystal clear to these new prosecutors what they are expected to investigate - and what they aren't.
A hypothetical: the US Attorney for Louisiana could be told it wouldn't be a good career move to look too much into post-Katrina fraud committed by corporations. But hurricane evacuees trying to wheedle out some extra cash, nail 'em to the wall.
No, but as Ryan's resignation comes at a time when many other USAs are unexpectedly stepping down, well, it raises questions.
That sucks. Couldn't Louisiana local prosecutors look into that case, then?
Here's the resume for Tim Griffin, new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, per the Arkansas Times:
That political work includes serving from 1995-96 as an associate independent counsel investigating Henry Cisneros, who was President Bill Clinton’s secretary of housing and urban development; senior investigative counsel to the Republican-controlled House Government Reform Committee’s 1997-99 inquiry into foreign contributions to the Democratic National Committee; deputy research director for the Republican National Committee from 1999-2000; legal adviser to the Bush/Cheney recount team in Florida following the 2000 election; special assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff from 2001-02; and research director and deputy communications director for the Republican National Committee from 2002-05, after which he joined the White House political affairs office.
The British Broadcasting Corporation unearthed e-mail messages Griffin sent from the RNC in 2004 containing spreadsheet information on thousands of Florida voters. The spreadsheets were titled “caging,” which, according to the BBC, alludes to a voter suppression tactic.
In this case, emails from the White House to the prosecutor exerting pressure will not be necessary.
A hypothetical: the US Attorney for Louisiana could be told it wouldn't be a good career move to look too much into post-Katrina fraud committed by corporations. But hurricane evacuees trying to wheedle out some extra cash, nail 'em to the wall.
I don't think that's really true. What DoJ official is going to put his own career on the line by giving such an order? Not many. Every administration has its priorities, sometimes driven by events and sometimes with a politcal dimension, but U.S. Attorney's have a relatively free hand to act on the information that comes to them.
...until they get fired.
Since when have DoJ officials in this administration ever been disciplined for blatant acts of partisan politics? Hell, that's how you get ahead among these folks.
Besides, top officials almost never commit potentially damaging orders to e-mail. Person-to-person communication is easily deniable.
And there are always ways to spin it, if they have an ounce of cleverness. There are always more potential cases to follow up on than resources to do so. If an investigation is going the wrong way, a reminder of the importance of something else should be enough to stop or slow down the case.
Besides, top officials almost never commit potentially damaging orders to e-mail. Person-to-person communication is easily deniable.
Or put another way, the lack of any evidence that the practice occurs proves that it is surreptitiously widespread? Doubtful. There are plenty of potential whistleblowers in the FBI and assistant U.S. Attorney ranks.
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