G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
The Porn Plot Against Prosecutors
By Max Blumenthal
Created Mar 20 2007 - 9:19am
- first posted at The Nation [1]
In September 2006, just weeks before pivotal Congressional midterm
elections, Paul Charlton, US Attorney for Arizona, opened a preliminary
investigation into Republican Representative Rick Renzi of the state's First
Congressional District for an alleged pattern of corruption involving
influence-peddling and land deals. Almost immediately, Charlton's name was
added to a blacklist of federal prosecutors the White House wanted to force
from their jobs. Charlton is someone "we should now consider pushing out,"
D. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's chief of staff, wrote
to then White House Counsel Harriet Miers on September 16. In his previously
safe Republican district, Renzi had barely held on in the election. On
December 7, the White House demanded Charlton's resignation without offering
him any explanation.
Stacks of internal Justice Department e-mails subpoenaed by Congress in
early March from the White House provided evidence that the dismissals of
Charlton and seven other US Attorneys was a political purge orchestrated to
install "loyal Bushies," as Sampson called them, into their posts and to
protect Republican lawmakers like Renzi from indictments for corruption. The
Administration's explanation that the ousters were "performance-related" has
been discredited in light of the exposure of the e-mails--and especially
proved false in Charlton's case. A model of professionalism, Charlton's
office was honored with the Federal Service Award and hailed by the Justice
Department as a "Model Program" for its protection of crime victims.
The Justice Department and the White House offered a scattershot of alibis
for firing Charlton. The Bush Administration's case against Charlton rested
ultimately on the account of a little-known Justice Department official
named Brent Ward [2], who claimed in a September 20, 2006 e-mail that
Charlton was "unwilling to take good cases." Ward's allegation was vague in
its claim, mysterious for its submission and vacant in context.
What accounts for this bizarre e-mail? And who is Brent Ward?
Ward first came to prominence in Utah, where as US Attorney during the
Reagan era he cast himself as a crusader against pornography. His battles
made him one of the most fervent and earnest witnesses before Attorney
General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography [3]; he urged "testing the
endurance" of pornographers by relentless prosecutions. Meese was so
impressed that he named Ward a leader of a group of US Attorneys engaged in
a federal anti-pornography campaign, which soon disappeared into the back
rooms of adult bookshops to ferret out evildoers. Ward returned to
government last year as the chief of the Justice Department's newly created
Obscenity Prosecution Task Force [4], where his main achievement has been
the prosecution of the producer of the Girls Gone Wild film series.
The appointment of the obscure Ward was a sop to the Christian right. His
accomplishments, such as they are, have been symbolic at best. But when a
paper trail to support the charge that US Attorneys were deficient in their
performance was required to cover the reality of political dismissals, the
Justice Department finally discovered an important use for its top porn cop.
The US Attorneys sensed that the White House was organizing smear campaigns
against them, apparent in a February e-mail written by Bud Cummins, the US
Attorney for Arkansas, who was fired last December to make room for the
appointment of one of Karl Rove's political proteg
By Max Blumenthal
Created Mar 20 2007 - 9:19am
- first posted at The Nation [1]
In September 2006, just weeks before pivotal Congressional midterm
elections, Paul Charlton, US Attorney for Arizona, opened a preliminary
investigation into Republican Representative Rick Renzi of the state's First
Congressional District for an alleged pattern of corruption involving
influence-peddling and land deals. Almost immediately, Charlton's name was
added to a blacklist of federal prosecutors the White House wanted to force
from their jobs. Charlton is someone "we should now consider pushing out,"
D. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's chief of staff, wrote
to then White House Counsel Harriet Miers on September 16. In his previously
safe Republican district, Renzi had barely held on in the election. On
December 7, the White House demanded Charlton's resignation without offering
him any explanation.
Stacks of internal Justice Department e-mails subpoenaed by Congress in
early March from the White House provided evidence that the dismissals of
Charlton and seven other US Attorneys was a political purge orchestrated to
install "loyal Bushies," as Sampson called them, into their posts and to
protect Republican lawmakers like Renzi from indictments for corruption. The
Administration's explanation that the ousters were "performance-related" has
been discredited in light of the exposure of the e-mails--and especially
proved false in Charlton's case. A model of professionalism, Charlton's
office was honored with the Federal Service Award and hailed by the Justice
Department as a "Model Program" for its protection of crime victims.
The Justice Department and the White House offered a scattershot of alibis
for firing Charlton. The Bush Administration's case against Charlton rested
ultimately on the account of a little-known Justice Department official
named Brent Ward [2], who claimed in a September 20, 2006 e-mail that
Charlton was "unwilling to take good cases." Ward's allegation was vague in
its claim, mysterious for its submission and vacant in context.
What accounts for this bizarre e-mail? And who is Brent Ward?
Ward first came to prominence in Utah, where as US Attorney during the
Reagan era he cast himself as a crusader against pornography. His battles
made him one of the most fervent and earnest witnesses before Attorney
General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography [3]; he urged "testing the
endurance" of pornographers by relentless prosecutions. Meese was so
impressed that he named Ward a leader of a group of US Attorneys engaged in
a federal anti-pornography campaign, which soon disappeared into the back
rooms of adult bookshops to ferret out evildoers. Ward returned to
government last year as the chief of the Justice Department's newly created
Obscenity Prosecution Task Force [4], where his main achievement has been
the prosecution of the producer of the Girls Gone Wild film series.
The appointment of the obscure Ward was a sop to the Christian right. His
accomplishments, such as they are, have been symbolic at best. But when a
paper trail to support the charge that US Attorneys were deficient in their
performance was required to cover the reality of political dismissals, the
Justice Department finally discovered an important use for its top porn cop.
The US Attorneys sensed that the White House was organizing smear campaigns
against them, apparent in a February e-mail written by Bud Cummins, the US
Attorney for Arkansas, who was fired last December to make room for the
appointment of one of Karl Rove's political proteg
