"Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's Chief Gremlin" now to head Homeland Security

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel06112003.html

Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's Top Gremlin

Spreading Mischief from DoJ to the Federal Bench By ELAINE CASSEL

<>But now I have a new gremlin to watch, someone who is as intent on undermining the law and Constitution as Ashcroft. I am referring to the man behind the criminal prosecution of terrorists, Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, former chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, and a scary looking guy if ever there was one, has been elevated to the level of Court of Appeals judge--the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. What's so scary about Michael? Well, besides having no judicial experience and being a right-ring radical who does not believe in the Constitution and wants to rewrite federal law and rules of procedure on an ad hoc, case by case basis, as it suits him, nothing I guess.


A good place to look for Chertoff's legal philosophy is in the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui , now taking place in the Eastern District of Virginia. Chertoff is not the prosecutor of course, Paul McNulty of the Eastern District is. But Chertoff is McNulty's boss and he is calling the shots. So Chertoff argued the government's case in the super secret hearing before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The government is trying to block trial judge Leonie Brinkema's ruling that Moussaoui and his lawyers have access to the government's star witnesses against him. The government has refused and appealed. Judge Brinkema, who still believes in the Constitution, rightly ruled that to deny Moussaoui that access is a blatant violation of the Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses.


Brinkema indicates that she will not be a party to making exceptions to the Constitution on a case-by-case basis. She, in effect, suggests that maybe Justice better take Moussaoui to Guantanamo and try him there in secret, in the military tribunals they set up. Easy there to not only try him, but convict him, and execute him . So why is the government insisting on keeping him in federal court?


I have the answer, and it lies in Chertoff. Chertoff's goal, I believe, and the goal of Ashcroft and Bush in supporting this prosecution in federal court, is to subject federal trials, as they see fit, to ad hoc exemptions of whatever laws (be they constitutional, criminal code, or rules of procedure) that will suit their purposes. Their grand scheme is to ultimately cripple and dismantle the federal courts as we know them, one brick at a time.

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[Name removed]

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[kentuck]

2. Wasn't he the little bald guy that went after Clinton

so vigorously....like a bulldog?

[flpoljunkie]

3. Yes, he was the Republican counsel to the Senate Whitewater committee.

http://www.waasinfo.com/clients/waas/geo/amerpro/waas-m-06-01.html

The same day that Hillary Clinton urged her colleagues to mount a filibuster to stop Olson's nomination, the former first lady displayed her lingering and deep resentment over the Whitewater probes of her and her husband by casting the sole vote opposing the Justice Department nominations of two lawyers who had connections to the Whitewater investigation.

The first, Michael Chertoff, a former U.S. attorney in New Jersey, who served as the Republican counsel to the Senate Whitewater committee, had been nominated by President Bush to head the Justice Department's criminal division. The Senate voted 95-1 to confirm Chertoff's nomination.

A second nominee was Viet Dinh, a Georgetown University law school professor, who had served as both an associate counsel to the Senate Whitewater committee and as an attorney for Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Dinh had been nominated by President Bush to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy. His nomination was approved by the Senate 96-1.

[quaoar]

4. Yet another POS nominee from Bush

And the beat goes on.

[spanone]

5. This guy is a creep in the true Asswipe sense. Thanks mr. bush*.

...and I'm sure that Congress will welcome him with open arms.

[Inland]

6. Yes, can he be relied upon for patronage and cronyism?

That is what I expect from the Homeland Security appointment, becaue he has the largest bureacracy and no civil service restrictions.