Sunday, June 24, 2012
The important question to ask about Attorney General Eric
Holder is: Whom does he protect and whom does he pursue?
Until recently, Holder claimed "deliberative
privilege" to justify his refusal to comply with House Oversight Committee
subpoenas for documents involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives "Fast and Furious" program of 2009-2010. The infamous
"gun-walking" program allowed Mexican smugglers to walk away with
about 2,000 firearms, two of which were found at a December 2010 shootout that
left Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry dead.
On Wednesday, as the committee was set to vote to find
Holder in contempt of Congress, President Obama protected Holder with a
first-in-his-presidency claim of "executive privilege." Obama was not
deterred by his previous criticism of predecessor George W. Bush's use of said
power.
Holder had had more familiarity with executive privilege
than the president. In 1999, Holder worked in the Clinton Department of Justice
when the president commuted the sentences of 16 convicted Puerto Rico
independence terrorists. During his 2009 confirmation hearing, Holder cited
Clinton's claim of executive privilege when he refused to explain why the
department switched its position on freeing the 16 FALN terrorists.
Holder also gave the "neutral leaning to
positive" recommendation that covered Clinton's last-minute pardon of
big-donor fugitive Marc Rich, who had fled to Switzerland to escape federal
prosecution on fraud and tax evasion charges. Such are the people whom Holder
protects.
Holder, however, does not stand up for politically
powerless figures such as Clarence Aaron, who is serving a sentence of life
without parole for a first-time nonviolent drug conviction when he was 24.
Under Holder's guidance, the president has commuted only one sentence --
despite Obama's earlier criticism of draconian federal mandatory minimum
sentencing.
Holder has protected administration officials from
Republican calls for a special prosecutor to investigate national security
leaks. Holder instead assigned two U.S. attorneys, one an Obama donor, to probe
the leaks.
Me? I prefer a DOJ investigation to a special prosecutor
-- when I trust the impartiality of the department.
Holder didn't always feel that special prosecutors are
bad. When Obama first took office, his DOJ sicced a special prosecutor on CIA
interrogators who already had been investigated for their use of enhanced
interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration -- even though DOJ
officials had recommended against prosecuting those operatives. It was a
vindictive act against public servants who stuck out their necks to protect
this country.
Holder was hell on wheels with interrogators who might
have waterboarded three high-value detainees, but he has demonstrated no such
scruples when it comes to the Obama administration's reliance on drones in the
war on terrorism.
Under Holder's watch, the Drug Enforcement Administration
has seized states' supplies of sodium thiopental, a drug used in lethal
injection, because the drug is not approved by the Food and Drug
Administration. That's just plain ridiculous.
At first, Obama's Justice Department advised U.S.
attorneys not to focus on medical-marijuana prosecutions in states that have
legalized its usage. Now U.S. attorneys are raiding medical-marijuana
facilities regularly. Why? I don't know, but the answer can't be principle.
The answer to my question seems pretty clear. Holder
protects Democratic administrations. He helped free well-connected FALN
terrorists who didn't even submit presidential-pardon applications and a
gazillionaire fugitive. He protected any administration aides who might have
leaked national-security information to make Obama look good.
Meanwhile, Holder takes no prisoners when it comes to CIA
officials guilty of trying to protect national security, states that apply
their death-penalty laws or try to uphold their medical marijuana laws.
As for small fish like Clarence Aaron, they don't even
rate. In Eric Holder's world, only politically connected people rate any
privilege.
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