The White House, John Ashcroft, and congressional Republicans continue to insist the Plame Game scandal should be investigated by the Justice Department, not an independent special counsel.
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking Dem on the House Judiciary Committee, did a fantastic job yesterday explaining why appointing a special counsel wouldn’t only be appropriate, it’s almost certainly necessary under the law.
In a column in the Detroit Free Press, Conyers, who personally led the fight in the House against Nixon in the Watergate scandal, explained that as a legal matter, Ashcroft and Bush have little choice. (via TomPaine.com)
“Although the independent counsel law expired in 1999, the Justice Department promulgated regulations that require the appointment of a special counsel under specified circumstances,” Conyers wrote. “Under the regulations, the attorney general is required to appoint a special counsel when (1) a ‘criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted,’ (2) the investigation ‘would present a conflict of interest for the Department’ and (3) ‘it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside special counsel to assume responsibility.’ All three factors are present here.”
Damn right they are. Conyers’ case is extremely compelling. Look at his points one at a time:
* A criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted — Obviously the Plame Game scandal meets this criterion. The Justice Department has already opened a criminal investigation of the White House for the illegal leaking of classified information.
* The investigation would present a conflict of interest for the Department — The conflicts of interest are pretty apparent here. First, as TomPaine.com said, it’s Bush’s Justice Department investigating Bush’s White House. As John Ashcroft himself said six years ago, it’s tough for an attorney general to investigate “the man who signs” the checks. Second, Karl Rove, one of the possible leakers, was a well-paid political consultant to Ashcroft for many years.
* It would be in the public interest to appoint an outside special counsel to assume responsibility — Let’s see, White House aides leaking classified information about an undercover CIA agent, undermining national security and putting the agent and her contacts at risk? I’d say that was in the public interest to investigate this in a neutral and fair-minded fashion.
“Only an independent probe conducted by an individual of unimpeachable credentials can assure the public that the investigation is not biased,” Conyers wrote. “An administration that promised ‘to change the tone’ in Washington should not be solely concerned with whether a crime has been committed but also about the unseemly appearance of White House attempts to smear truth-telling critics.”
Conyers added, “[W]hen charges were made concerning President Bill Clinton’s involvement in the Whitewater land deal in 1993, he asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a special prosecutor, and she complied. Here the charge — outing a CIA operative — is far more serious. The law mandates no less.”