Reply #28: DoJ Refuses Turnover of Internal Docs for Controversial Cases

[L. Coyote]

DoJ Refuses Turnover of Internal Docs for Controversial Cases
By Paul Kiel - September 10, 2007, 7:10 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004126.php


Back in July, Democrats asked (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003707.php) the Justice Department for internal documents relating to a trio of controversial prosecutions -- cases where suspicions were high of political interference. They were the prosecution of Georgia Thompson in Wisconsin, former Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL), and Dr. Cyril Wecht, a Democratic coroner in Pennsylvania.

Last week, the Justice Department replied by providing documents (http://judiciary.house.gov/Printshop.aspx?Section=678) -- most of them already public case filings (although there was one telling email http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004081.php). The Department did not turn over documents that Congress was really after, internal memoranda discussing the cases. Such "deliberative" material, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski wrote in a letter, could not be turned over, because it would have a chilling effect on "candid internal deliberations." In a letter today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and other members called that response "unacceptable" and asked to work out some arrangement to view the documents (see below).

The Dems also pounced on Benczkowski's assertion (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/conyers-siegelman/?resultpage=2&) in the letter that the Department didn't want to turn over the documents because "We want to avoid any perception that the conduct of our criminal investigations and prosecutions is subject to political influence." That's precisely why the Department should turn over the documents, they wrote.

Here's the full text of their letter: ..............