June 1, 2012

"A judge’s declaration of a mistrial on Thursday in the John Edwards campaign finance case was a new setback for the Justice Department’s public integrity section..."

"... a once-vaunted watchdog that has been trying to rebuild itself after its botched prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens four years ago," writes Charlie Savage.
The unit’s performance has been faulted by nonprofit groups that seek to limit the influence of money in politics. Melanie Sloan, director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the Justice Department deserved “to get slammed” for what she portrayed as undertaking a risky prosecution against Mr. Edwards that relied upon a novel interpretation of campaign finance laws, even as it shied away from more traditional corruption cases.

“The cases that they are deciding to prosecute, and not prosecute, reflect an incoherent strategy,” she said. “At some points they are willing to be incredibly aggressive, like with John Edwards, and on the other hand they are overly cautious in refusing to prosecute people like John Ensign and Don Young.”
Much more at the link. Read it.

11 comments:

aronamos said...

John Edwards said, “God isn’t done with me yet.”

I would hope not.

Comanche Voter said...

The "botched prosecution" of Senator Stevens wasn't botched--it was just damned unethical. It was an embarassment and an affront, and the prosecutors involved should now be sweeping alleys in a slum.

These "straight shooters" are often crooked themselves, and they sure as heck can't shoot straight.

Brian Brown said...

"... a once-vaunted watchdog

Really?

When was this again?

Ann Althouse said...

"John Edwards said, “God isn’t done with me yet.”"

Oh, no, you know what that means. He's going to get religion, write about book, become a spokesperson for God's grace....

Mr. D said...

"John Edwards said, “God isn’t done with me yet.”

Oh, but the rest of us are.

traditionalguy said...

Johnny just needs to find a new career that lets him talk all of the time in deepest sincerety about things he half understands.

There are only three of those careers: 1)Lawyers, 2) Preachers, or 3) con men/politicians.

John has already tried 1 and 3. So we may well get to see Preacher Jonathan Edwards redux.

n.n said...

A hundred thousand here. A million there. Several hundred million for Obama. I'm not sure who is worse, the civil servants without integrity, or the vaunted journalist class without integrity.

edutcher said...

The problem is the Justice Department’s public integrity section. Since '08, it hasn't had any.

Ann Althouse said...

John Edwards said, "God isn’t done with me yet."

Oh, no, you know what that means. He's going to get religion, write about book, become a spokesperson for God's grace....


Some people were saying it's the first speech of his '16 campaign.

Robert Marshall said...

CRE's Sloan complains that Justice is too aggressive with Edwards (D), not aggressive enough with Ensign (R) and Young (R). I think I see a pattern in her thinking.

Roman said...

This Justice Department's public integrity section is an oxymoron.

glenn said...

Speaking of the ability to do things we can't keep the roads in california in good repair.