Mukasey: Accused officials under Gonzales unlikely to be prosecuted

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that criminal charges will probably not be brought up against several accused officials under his predecessor- Alberto Gonzales. A Justice Department report published last month blasted several aides to the Mexican-American former Attorney General for using politics as a “litmus test” in the hiring of lawyers and immigration judges:

A longtime prosecutor who drew rave reviews from his supervisors was passed over for an important counterterrorism slot because his wife was active in Democratic politics… And a Republican lawyer received high marks at his job interview because he was found to be sufficiently conservative on the core issues of “god, guns + gays.”

I’m not versed in the intricacies of the U.S. judicial system, yet Mukasey’s reasoning made little sense. His argument boiled down to claiming that illegal actions aren’t always crimes:

(…)While there was wrongdoing and "a failure of supervision by senior officials in the department," the conduct was not criminal, Mukasey said in a speech.

"Where there is enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we vigorously prosecute," he told the American Bar Association annual meeting in New York. "But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."

Mukasey emphasized that “much has changed since the period covered by these reports” though he neglected to give more details. Meanwhile, the inspector general is expected to issue more reports on the politicization of the Justice Department under Gonzales. Thus, Gonzales’ post-AG career may be going from bad to worse.

Image- Fox News

Sources- Bloomberg, CNN, Reuters, AHN, New York Times,