Friday, January 15, 2010

Judicial Watch, 11/21/08

From historical mail files.

Bruce

From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:

Welcome to the Third Clinton Administration

The news out of the fledgling Obama administration went from bad to worse. Last week I told you about Valerie Jarrett, the corrupt Chicago politician serving as co-chair of President-elect Obama's transition team. (This is in addition to Clinton co-conspirator John Podesta as the other transition team co-chair and Clinton attack dog Rahm Emanuel as Obama's Chief of Staff.)

Now we can add two other Clinton insiders to the list: Clinton impeachment lawyer Greg Craig and former Janet Reno deputy Eric Holder, reportedly tapped as Obama's White House Counsel and Attorney General respectively. These are bizarre selections indeed for the man who promised to "bring change" to Washington. Instead, it is like the Clinton Administration, Act III.

Someone asked me the other day, "What will Monica Lewinsky's job be?" Maybe we should ask Greg Craig.

As I mentioned, Craig served as Clinton's impeachment lawyer. He defended the very worst of the Clinton scandals, most notably the former president's affair with Monica Lewinsky, in which Clinton was found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice by the House. Earlier this week I said to the press, given Craig's defense of Bill Clinton's lies and obstruction, what sort of legal advice will Mr. Craig give to President Obama? Will it all depend on what the meaning of "is" is?

The leftist Craig also defended the violent government raid that delivered Elian Gonzalez to Castro's Cuba. In fact, we believe that Craig was working with communist Cuban government during the Elian affair. It was widely reported Craig helped kill a deal that would have transferred custody of Elian to his father as long as the father could freely choose where they were to live.

Craig defended Ted Kennedy during the trial of Kennedy's nephew William Kennedy Smith in the infamous Palm Beach rape case. He also defended Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. (Craig helped piece together Hinckley's insanity defense.) He's also represented a war criminal or two. That's quite a record.
Unbelievably, the Bush State Department hired Craig to defend it against Judicial Watch litigation on behalf of a Clinton era State Department official who blew the whistle on UN corruption. (The litigation ended in settlement.)

Now Craig will be asked to run interference for the Obama administration.

Eric Holder, Obama's choice for Attorney General, was also involved in the Elian Gonzalez raid. As deputy attorney general under the craven Janet Reno, Holder participated in planning the raid that not only traumatized Elian, then six years old, but also led to the violent abuse of peaceful protesters outside of the home of Elian's Miami relatives. The protesters, many of them older women, were simply praying the Rosary when they were gassed and beaten by heavily armed government agents. (You may recall Judicial Watch sued Reno and Holder on behalf of the raid victims.)

Remember all of those last-minute, controversial pardons issued by President Clinton in the waning days of his administration? Guess who was in charge of approving the list, which included convicted felons who had paid large sums of cash to the Clintons? That's right. You guessed it: Eric Holder. He was the acting attorney general at the time. That list, by the way, included two Weather Underground terrorists and the infamous fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife made substantial contributions to the Clintons. Holder not only personally helped Rich get the pardon, but he upended the rule of law by undermining Justice Department procedures put in place to protect the pardon process from abuse.

His record is dismal and includes support for commutations for members of FALN, a Puerto Rican terrorist organization, and he derailed investigations of the Clinton fundraising scandals while at Justice.

Holder admitted he should have handled the Rich pardon differently. As I told Politico, Holder "admits he's on the wrong side of an issue that ruptured Washington at the last day of the Clinton administration, and he gets a promotion?"
Now Holder will be asked to serve as the highest law enforcement officer in the land. It's frightening.

Pardons for terrorists may not bother Obama, given his close relationship with Bill Ayers and company, but principled Senators ought to reject Holder's nomination and give strict scrutiny to others.

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