Legal Commentary

What is DOJ's OPR Doing?

By TChris

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility has been charged with "taking on some of the weightiest issues in government -- examining the role Justice's lawyers played in formulating administration interrogation policies for suspected terrorists and in endorsing a National Security Agency program of warrantless electronic surveillance." The Los Angeles Times reports that OPR is operating in the stealth mode that characterizes the Bush administration:

[T]he internal unit that polices the lawyers' conduct has been operating under a growing shroud of secrecy, shutting down what were once regular, public disclosures about its activities. ... [O]fficials have declined to say whether even one government lawyer has been found to have engaged in professional misconduct in connection with the war on terrorism -- despite often fierce criticism from civil liberties groups, defense lawyers and judges. ...

After President Bush took office in 2001, the Justice Department reversed a decade-old policy of publicly disclosing detailed summaries of OPR investigations of department lawyers found to have committed professional misconduct.

It would be useful to know the reasoning behind OPR's undisclosed and unexplained decisions in controversial cases like these: [more ...]

According to a redacted copy of a confidential OPR report obtained by The Times, the office found that department lawyers had not engaged in misconduct in connection with the controversial practice of using special warrants to round up and incarcerate men after Sept. 11 who were considered witnesses to crimes. Human rights groups said the technique was a way to illegally detain, sometimes for months, dozens of Muslims whom the government suspected but could not prove were engaged in criminal activity.

The report, issued more than a year ago, concluded: "Department of Justice attorneys involved did not misuse the material witness statute, and thus did not commit professional misconduct or exercise poor judgment."

Really? Remember Brandon Mayfield?

Even in matters that don't pertain to national security, the OPR has been mysteriously forgiving:

[A] multimillion-dollar securities fraud case in Las Vegas was dismissed two years ago after an assistant U.S. attorney acknowledged in the middle of trial that he had failed to turn over evidence to defense lawyers that undermined the credibility of some crucial government witnesses.

"This is prosecutorial misconduct in its highest form; conduct in flagrant disregard of the United States Constitution; and conduct which should be deterred by the strongest sanctions available," a federal appeals court ruled in agreeing that dismissal of the fraud charges was warranted. The U.S. attorney reported the allegations to the OPR, which sent a team to Nevada to investigate.

Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas, told a legal newspaper that the OPR found no evidence of "intentional misconduct" by the office. She declined to say whether any other misconduct was found or whether any discipline was ordered. The OPR declined to comment.

Accountability, we all understand, is not the watchword of the Bush administration. It's not surprising, then, that OPR has adopted the administration's tactic of stalling the release of required reports that would tell lawmakers and the public what our government is up to.

The OPR also has been far behind in producing required annual public reports summarizing its activities. Last month, it released its report covering fiscal year 2005. That means many investigations undertaken during the tenure of former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales remain under wraps. Some legal experts say there is an impression that the Justice Department is hiding something.

And what, you might wonder, is the OPR doing to move forward its investigation of the Justice Department's prosecution of Don Siegelman? The Tuscaloosa News reports:

The Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility had been charged for some time with getting to the bottom of the many scandals in the Alberto Gonzales DOJ (don't hold your breath), including the allegedly politically-motivated prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

But I can report today that the [OPR] finally contacted Siegelman's attorneys on Monday, although at this point I don't know the extent or nature of that contact.

Maybe by 2015 or so OPR will get around to issuing a secret decision exonerating the prosecutors who handled Siegelman's case.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 08, 2008 (boomark / email).