Chertoff, candidate to succeed Gonzales, pledged to investigate Sen. Clinton
Published: Wednesday September 5, 2007
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Chertoff_candidate_to_suceed_Gonzales_pledged_0905.html"Shortly after President Bush took office in 2001, Michael Chertoff, then head of the Justice Department's criminal division, met with the conservative group Judicial Watch," begins an article that went all but missed in Tuesday's LA Times. "It wanted criminal charges brought against Hillary Rodham Clinton in connection with a lavish fundraising event in Los Angeles the year before."
"Chertoff personally assured us he would pursue it," the group's president, Tom Fitton told the Times' reporters, recalling the meeting with several top Justice officials. "They said they weren't afraid of taking on the Clintons."
The Department opted not to pursue a case against New York's junior senator, they note. Instead, they went after one of her fundraisers, David Rosen, who was later acquitted.
In the wake of Alberto Gonzales' resignation as Attorney General, Chertoff appears among the shortlisted candidates to succeed him. "Justice Department officials say pressure from Judicial Watch -- which made its name by suing the Clintons in the 1990s -- played no role in the decision to prosecute Rosen," adds the Times. "Chertoff will not discuss the case. But it seems to be an early example of department actions under Bush that critics say were tinged with partisanship."