No Comment Necessary

by: huntsu

Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 10:11:43 AM EST

Quite often on blogs we take information and opinion from a number of other sources, turn it over and put our own stamp on it. It's a way to make connections the traditional media doesn't, and to ask questions that have been avoided.

On the other hand, sometimes the traditional media says something so perfectly there's really no point in adding and comment. Today the NY Times has such a piece on its editorial page. Enjoy:

A Little Help From His Friends
Congress is looking into the decision by the United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher Christie, to hand former Attorney General John Ashcroft a hugely lucrative job monitoring a wayward company.
The issue, however, is larger than any one appointment. Congress should conduct a broader inquiry into prosecutors' selection of richly rewarded monitors and require that appointments are made based on merit.
United States attorneys are supposed to be nonpartisan and beyond favoritism. But we have already seen how federal prosecutors appointed by the Bush administration used their offices to help Republicans win elections. Congress needs to ensure that they are not using their positions to throw patronage to friends and political allies.
The Ashcroft appointment came in a "deferred prosecution agreement," a fast-growing arrangement ripe for abuse. Rather than file criminal charges against corporations, federal prosecutors - looking to dispose of cases efficiently and to avoid damaging companies needlessly - increasingly are striking deals. These agreements are done without court supervision and sometimes in secret.
In this particular case, Mr. Christie arranged for a medical supply company accused of fraud to hire his former boss to monitor its activities for a payment between $28 million and $52 million. There was no competitive bidding. If Mr. Christie runs for elected office in the future, Mr. Ashcroft could be an important supporter and fund-raiser. This isn?t the only time Mr. Christie's appointment of a monitor has raised questions.
When he struck a deal in a 2005 case involving Bristol-Myers Squibb, the company was required to make a donation to Seton Hall University's law school, Mr. Christie's alma mater. In another case, Mr. Christie reached across the country to bestow a high-paid monitoring deal on Debra Wong Yang, a former federal prosecutor from Los Angeles who had close ties to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Mr. Ashcroft has reportedly agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the monitoring appointment. The committee should insist on hearing from both him and Mr. Christie, and it should inquire into other lucrative appointments made to former Justice Department insiders.
Congress also needs to reform the system. Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, has introduced a bill that would require that federal judges or magistrates choose monitors for deferred prosecution agreements from a pool of qualified firms. It would also require that monitors be paid according to a predetermined fee schedule set by the court.
United States attorneys have traditionally played an important role in rooting out patronage and corruption. Congress has to ensure that the prosecutors charged with stamping out these practices do not engage in them.

huntsu :: No Comment Necessary

Tags: corruption, John Ashcroft, Chris Christie, (All Tags)

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No Comment Necessary | 3 comments

Mary Jo White (4.00 / 2)

pioneered the use of DPAs and has now sat across the desk and represented clients negotiating them with federal attorneys.

Here is an interview with Ms. White where she discusses their use.

My point is that the government should be more sparing in its use of deferred prosecution agreements and limit those to situations where they certainly would have indicted otherwise for all the right reasons on their part. Or limit use to where the SEC or other civil regulators failed to act against the corporate culture that the government feels needs to be fixed.
Prosecutors are at their best when they decide to charge or not and not get into managing corporate America.

by: Thurman Hart @ Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 16:51:33 PM UTC

Comments Invited at NYT.... (0.00 / 0)

...... http://community.nytimes.com/a...

I understand that Huntsu feels that this editorial kind of "says it all"....and that's true.....kind of. But they do invite comments at their site and some of them are truly worth a read!

I hope some of us can try to break through their screening process to get a "bluejersey" perspective in there.

So far they haven't "published" my two cents...but in case it doesn't meet their "standards" (and any one cares to read it lol) I'll copy it here:

Kudos to the NYT Editorial board!
You have begun to catch up with the excellent blogging of Bluejersey.com's "Huntsu" on the topic of Chris Christie's "misbehavior" in these matters.
As I have been saying for many months now, Chris Christie is, functionally, a partisan hack. He is an instrument of the NJ political "machine" that is qualitatively identical to any local "boss".....though the kickbacks and sweetheart deals orchestrated at Christie's "level" are, perhaps, more subtle.
These practices are corrupt on their face; yet they are currently 100% legal!!! That's an abominable fact.
When former AG Ashcroft testifies, he will, no doubt, present a smooth seamless set of rationales and explanations that paint this situation as no "big deal" and some of the Republican's on the committee will, likely, frame their own hearing as some kind of partisan "fishing expedition". Ashcroft knows well the techniques of obfuscating before congressional hearings...he's an "expert" who has sat on both sides of the table. No one will "lay a glove on him"; Ashcroft is a "real pro".
No clear cut "quid pro quos" will emerge. There aren't any "clear cut" direct "tits for tats"; there don't need to be.
These "players" operate with winks and nods, nothing will ever show up on paper or on tape....there's no need for anything so crass (or so traceable). This is how the legalized bribery that is our system of governance "works".
The whole system is drenched with de facto corruption to the point of saturation. American taxpayers are suffering a kind of financial waterboarding.
Most American's are too busy simply trying to survive, or too distracted by mass media "pablum laced with mind/spirit crack cocaine" to be able to pay much attention to the existence (let alone the details) of this kind of "unsexy" story.
This situation is emblematic/typical/symbolic of the way government spends/allocates just about every dollar it gets access to. Again, it's all "perfectly legal".
Tragically, only white collar criminals hiding behind the corporate veil are allowed to break the laws without any individual HUMAN being held criminally accountable for the illicit decisions. Then insult is added to injury when the "remedy" for law breaking is "policed" by other corporate entities that themselves richly profit from legally corrupt practices.....and then the "Prosecutor" who orchestrates the whole charade gets to claim that he's a "crime buster" and gets to run for governor.
We can do better than this in New Jersey and in America!

by: Nick Lento @ Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 19:56:20 PM UTC

My hope for Huntsu (0.00 / 0)

You ought to be able to get a Ph.D dissertation and a book out of all the research you've done on this whole business. Don't stop now!!

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." (Teddy Roosevelt)

by: DottieG @ Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 22:12:21 PM UTC