Selective Prosecution in the Federal Criminal Justice System? (Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement and Corrections)

Since July 2007, the Committee on the Judiciary and its staff have been investigating allegations that political considerations may have improperly influenced federal criminal prosecutions in a number of cases around the country. For the reasons described as follows, further action along the following lines is recommended: 1) Justice Department internal oversight offices should conduct a thorough investigation and report on these troubling allegations of selective, politically motivated federal prosecutions 2) The Committee's investigation should continue and further efforts should be made to obtain relevant documents about the cases described in this book, and 3) As part of that investigation, efforts should be made to obtain testimony from Karl Rove. This book describes the progress of the investigation on allegations of selective and politically-motivated prosecution and summarises troubling evidence regarding several federal criminal cases. Because the Department of Justice has largely refused to co-operate with the Committee's investigation, key facts remain unknown and reliable final judgements cannot be made. However, given the troublesome facts identified to date, it is clear at a minimum that current and former Department leadership has been derelict in failing to review these matters and reassure the American people that federal law enforcement is impartial and fair.