Senate panel expected to curb DoJ?s power to discuss investigations
By Elana Schor
August 30, 2007
The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to take up a bill next week that would rein in the Justice Department?s power to discuss pending criminal or civil investigations with White House aides.
The measure, written by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), would undo a policy set forth in an April 2002 memo issued by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft that greatly expanded the number of Justice and White House employees permitted to discuss open investigations.
Allegations that Justice officials shared sensitive details of criminal probes with White House aides helped the U.S. attorney firings scandal gain momentum this spring.
hitehouse, himself a former federal prosecutor, blasted now-resigned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the revised policy during Gonzales?s tense April testimony.
?The more political people whom you allow to weigh in on sensitive investigations and cases, the more you run the risk ? or make it possible ? that those investigations and cases become inappropriately politicized,? Whitehouse said in May.
The Judiciary panel could approve the bill as soon as next Thursday. But it is unclear whether Democratic leaders would bring it to the floor quickly amid their conciliatory discussions with the Bush administration over Gonzales?s replacement.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senate-panel-expected-to-curb-dojs-power-to-discuss-investigations-2007-08-30.html
