As Congress debates proposals to deny funding for civilian trials of the accused terrorists behind the Sept. 11 attacks, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have written a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) saying that selecting the venue for the prosecution of terror suspects is a function of the executive branch.
“The exercise of prosecutorial discretion has always been and should remain an Executive branch function,” write Gates and Holder. “We believe it would be unwise and would set a dangerous precedent for Congress to restrict the discretion of our Departments to carry out specific terrorism prosecutions.”
“Indeed, we have been unable to identify any precedent in the history of our nation in which Congress has intervened in such a manner to prohibit the prosecution of particular persons or crimes,” write Holder and Gates.
The letter was reported by Adam Serwer of The American Prospect and is embedded below.
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Main Justice was the first to report early last week that Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates, who had approved the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and the first voter intimidation case against black defendants in Noxubee County, Miss., had been transferred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina.
Christopher Coates underwent an ideological conversion shortly after a black lawyer in the Voting Rights Section, Gilda Daniels, was promoted to deputy section chief over him in July of 2000 (U. of Baltimore photo).
Now Adam Serwer of The American Prospect has written a story that puts the shake up in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division into context. Coates, writes Serwer, “underwent an ideological conversion shortly after a black lawyer in the Voting Rights Section, Gilda Daniels, was promoted to deputy section chief over him in July of 2000. Outraged, Coates filed a complaint alleging he was passed up for the job because he is white. The matter was settled internally.”
Voting section employees help a goodbye lunch for Coates on Tuesday, writes Serwer:
At the end, the attendees were startled when Coates pulled out a binder and began reciting a written defense of his decision to file the New Black Panther and Noxubee cases. Voting Section employees exchanged glances in disbelief.
“It felt like he was summing up to a jury,” one attendee said.
Serwer also writes that Coates “has been identified by several current and former Justice Department officials as the anonymous Voting Section lawyer, referred to in the joint Inspector General/Office of Professional Responsibility report, that [Bradley] Schlozman recommended for an immigration judge position.”
One of the key players in the politicization scandal, Bradley Schlozman, wrote a letter to Monica Goodling, a former senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who was also implicated in the scandal involving politicized hiring, wrote of Coates:
Don’t be dissuaded by his ACLU work on voting matters from years ago. This is a very different man, and particularly on immigration issues, he is a true member of the team.
Be sure to read the whole story at the American Prospect.
