The Daily Caller, “Bribery, compromised officials leave indicted financial-crime suspects free from prosecution under Holder’s DOJ”:
A U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted.
The sitting governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, his attorney general and an unspecified number of Virgin Islands legislators also accepted bribes, the source said, adding that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is aware prosecutors and elected officials were bribed and otherwise compromised, but has not held anyone accountable.
The bribed officials, an attorney with knowledge of the investigation told TheDC, remain on the taxpayers’ payroll at the Justice Department without any accountability. The DOJ source said Holder does not want to admit public officials accepted bribes while under his leadership.
That source said that until the summer of 2011, the two compromised prosecutors were part of a team of more than 25 federal prosecutors pursuing a financial crime ring, and at least five other prosecutors tasked to the case were also compromised by the criminal suspects they were investigating, without being bribed.
TheDC is withholding the name of the source, a knowledgeable government official who served on the Justice Department’s arrest team and was involved in the investigation, in order to prevent career retaliation from political figures in the Obama administration.
A former high-level elected official vouches for the government source’s veracity. “[The source] was trustworthy … and you could tell [the source] information or [the source] could hear information and [the source] would keep things close to [the source’s] chest,” that former official told TheDC. “You could trust [the source] with your life.”
[…]
Eric Holder, the source said, personally approved the makeup of the investigation and arrest teams.
“The team which was put in place, of course, in tracking all the information that we had — Holder had to sign off on the teams. He signed off on them a year and a half ago,” the source said during an interview. “He wasn’t fully in control of it, but of course the knowledge and approval of it came from him.”
“There are internal documents, of course. He was briefed. He got a full scope of what transpired, and he got a full scope of what is going on with this case in particular. There is nothing going on in this case that Holder doesn’t know about right now.”
DOJ leadership has been fretting internally, the source said, about how to handle the story when the news breaks because it represents a new level of corruption in the Obama administration. The Holder Justice Department is concerned about the appearance that it lacks the competence to enforce the laws in which Obama has shown political interest, including those related to corruption and other financial crimes.
Consider this my shout out to the pragmatic “perception is reality” crowd: if all that matters is guarding the framing and distribution of the message (“I hope he fails” may be a valid hope, but it is, from the perspective of perception, well, unhelpful), then it follows that the framing and distribution of the message takes priority over all other considerations — and we shouldn’t be surprised or outraged when it does.
In fact, all that Holder is doing here is waiting until he can figure out the proper way to frame this latest bit of corruption in a way that is at the very least politically innocuous, and at best politically expedient.
My guess is, Holder will throw a few scapegoats under the bus, then swing the message over to corruption in the financial sector and its adverse impact on the 99%.
And luckily, the GOP is going to give them a Wall Street private equity fund multi-millionaire to use as their foil
You get the government you deserve.
Holder is taking an aggrieved stance at the hearings today. Nobody knows what a mess the DOJ was in three years ago, &c.
He’s shaking his finger at people, too.
bribes are very third world
He wasn’t fully in control of it, but of course the knowledge and approval of it came from him
We’ve recently found out that things like “knowledge” and “approval” don’t mean the same thing to Holder as they do to the rest of us.
Well, so far it looks like “Honest Eric” is going with the classic Sgt. Schultz defense…
It sounds like Issa is going to go to a federal judge about lil Eric’s lack of compliance with the subpoenas he was served.
Will Eric go to jail? Will Obama abandon him?
Hey, Eric is going right after the real criminals in DOJ, the whistleblowers!
And, despite this little F&F kerfuffle, he’s not getting any credit for his leadership, dammit!
From JohnInFirestone’s link:
Such are the consequences of ideological blindness.
According to the Sipsey Street Irregulars, ATF has working relationship with anti gun zealots, the Joyce Foundation.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2012/01/sipsey-street-exclusive-joined-at-hip.html
The Irregulars, in a sane world, would be up for a Pulitzer Prize. Instead, such prizes are now “participation trophies.” Doubt me? Then explain President Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Holder cited his role in “revitalizing” the civil rights division as an example of his good leadership, among other things.”
Is that what he’s calling the get out of jail-free pass, that he gave to the Black Panthers?
Precisely Danger. The civil rights division is restored by Holder to its racialist mission, focusing on doing justice to them that need it done to them.
Obama and Joyce.
Also here and here-pdf
Makes me wonder how much of fast and furious was about bribes.
No I don’t. I already know “trading favors” is 99% of the governments occupation…
“You get the government you deserve.”
Moi? I didn’t vote for these ching-wah tso duh liou mang politicians. Why do I deserve this?
Claire Wolfe is right, it’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards. But I’m stocking up on ammo….
Bribes are very human. In our country they tend to be at a higher level and better veneered. What’s third-world is when it’s money moving from a hand to a hand and the receiver tends to be a police officer or local bureaucrat.
Speaking of re-framing–This is emblematic of the problems of big government. The opportunities to hide the infraction and the coverup are far fewer in smaller governments. Government that is too big invites this kind of abuse.
Some dude harraunged me today about Losing hope when JFK died, the corporations rule the people, the oil people are gonna kill everybodyrybody and there is no answer.
I cannot convey here what a mewling pseudo intellectual pussy this man (and I use the term man in the broadest general sense) was. I told him I was for the corporations, JFK was a cartoon, and then asked him who his congressman is. He was confused and asked the bartender who said Jerry Brown.
All II was doing was trying to drink some beer and take a mineral bath. That’s right, a mineral bath. What have I become?
I take it you aren’t talking about some epsom salts in the tub. Don’t tell me you are at a spa.
sorry i’ve soft spot for kate
Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
Yes I am.
And it’s got a casino.
I’m doing a lost in the desert, Gram Parsons deal.
Tomorrow, I’m getting Deli at Sherman’s.
Well dude, you are a long way from Riverdale. Enjoy, but be safe.
Gold and silver are minerals. Somebody needs to offer a Scrooge McDuck style mineral bath for conservatives.
Scooter Libby is the real criminal.
JFK was a cartoon…
But a very useful cartoon at times. I mean, here’s a guy who started his term by announcing “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
Here’s a guy who proposed a 200,000-man increase in the military in 1961, to defend Europe from the Russians. Here’s a guy who ordered an invasion (botched, but still) of Cuba, and then had the Navy blockade the island. Here’s a guy who overtly and covertly opposed the spread of Communism in Central America and Southeast Asia.
Anyone ever tells me about “losing hope” after JFK gets the reply, “You didn’t lose hope — you lost your courage. How did it feel when you Democrats all lost your balls?”
“ching-wah tso duh liou mang”
Who’s a frog-humping sin of a bitch?