CrimLaw

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A Bad Day at the Justice Department

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Tuesday was a bad day for the Justice Department:

First, federal lawyers had to react to and live with the disturbing conclusions reached by the Department's own inspector general's office. This internal watchdog concluded that the federal law enforcement community overreacted after the terror attacks on America by making "little attempt to distinguish" between genuine terror suspects and simple immigration law violators. The later of these detainees, hardly in a position to exert much legal or political force on their own behalf, were kept in jail too long, often in harsh conditions, the report found. And when some Justice Department lawyers raised question about the treatment of these people, The New York Times reported Tuesday that those lawyers either were ignored or countermanded by their superiors.

And then the day got a little worse for Justice. In Detroit, federal prosecutors didn't get the shutout victory they have come to expect in the legal war on terror. A jury refused to convict all four men accused of providing material support to terrorists as part of a "sleeper cell' captured after Sept. 11, 2001. Two men were so convicted but one man was acquitted outright and another was convicted only of a lesser fraud charge. So the first terror case to actually go trial since the terror attacks — John Walker Lindh, Richard Reid, and others all pleaded guilty before trial — ended with a decidedly mixed result

Finally, there was the Moussaoui hearing before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. If there is a more conservative appellate court in America — a court more in tune with the current Administration's legal and political views — I am not aware of it. Yet the panel that heard argument Tuesday didn't exactly phone in their approval of the government's extraordinary position that a capital defendant (Moussaoui) cannot have access in some material form to the testimony of witnesses (in this case two Al Qaeda chieftains) who could either exonerate him or generate mitigating factors during the sentencing phase of a trial.

from CBS

And then, of course, they filed charges against Martha Stewart, which has the potential to be a massive public relations disaster. Her lawyers and PR people should have a field day talking asking why they are pursuing her instead of Eron or Global Crossing.

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