COMEY: The program was reauthorized without us and without a signature from the Department of Justice attesting as to its legality. And I prepared a letter of resignation, intending to resign the next day, Friday, March the 12th.
Let me re-emphasize this point, the reason that Comey and 30 other members of the Justice Department were willing to resign isn't because of threat that the president would authorize an illegal program - it's because HE DID authorize and implement an illegal program over the objections of just about everyone at DOJ.
(NOTE: Ashcroft asked Comey to wait until Monday and he felt better - so that they could RESIGN TOGETHER!)
On Friday, the day Comey had originally planned to resign he had a private meeting with the president - afterwhich Bush decided to change the program in order for it to be "legal" in the view of the OLC.
COMEY: Right. We had the president’s direction to do what we believed, what the Justice Department believed was necessary to put this matter on a footing where we could certify to its legality.
And so we then set out to do that. And we did that.
It took some weeks for the DOJ to resolve the legal issues, and in the meanwhile the illegal version of the program continued to perculate away in the background.
If the program which Judge Ann Digg-Taylor determined to be illegal was the post-DOJ modified version, the pre-DOJ version must have been completely off the charts.
A numerous set of crimes were indeed committed here particularly gross violations of FISA.
In addition to the illegality of the NSA spying there is also the specture of multiple crimes involving the purging of the DOJ (which in hindsight may have been at least partially prompted by the previous battles between DOJ and the White House over the NSA issue.)
First and foremost there is the Hatch Act which prohibits the...
- use of official authority or influence to interfere with an election
- solicitation or discouragement of political activity of anyone with business before their agency
- from engaging in political activity while on duty, or in a government office.
Agencies prohibited by the Hatch Act from political activity include the Department of Justice (Criminal Division).
We now know from Monica Goodling's testimony that she engaged in partisan solitication of potential hires for career positions through-out the DOJ, and that she did so with the knowledge and apparent approval of her bosses.
Although it's true that US Attorney's serve at the "Pleasure of the President" it is another matter when the White House's political wing uses a Patriot Act provision to avoid Senate scrutiny in order to slide into place several replacement USA's like Tim Griffin who had a known history of "influencing and interfering with elections", and Brad Schlozman who had violated DOJ guidelines to charge election workers with voter fraud just prior to an election (because of it's potential to influence the outcome) in a case that was found to be completely without merit.
Psst.. Voter Suppression is a Crime, particularly when voters are targeted on the basis of race - it's a violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Despite their initial protestations that the White House had nothing to do with the DOJ Firings and Replacements we now learn from Solicitor General Paul Clement's refusal to abide by Congressional Subpoenas that the White House was intimately involved.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
