You can't just resign and get away with perjury

Alberto Gonzales is not out of the woods just yet.  The Inspector General at the Justice Department is investigating whether the former Attorney General perjured himself in front of Congress in July.  In other words, the career professionals inside the government might try to make an example out of him:

The disclosure, by Glenn A. Fine, the department???‚¬?„?s inspectorgeneral, came in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee and was thefirst official confirmation that Mr. Gonzales was under investigationwithin the executive branch over the truthfulness of his testimony. Thecommittee???‚¬?„?s chairman, Senator Patrick J. Leahy , Democrat of Vermont, had requested the inquiry this month.

Forweeks, lawmakers from both parties have questioned whether Mr. Gonzalestold the truth in sworn statements to Congress on a number of issues,including his involvement in efforts to preserve the National Security Agency's program  of wiretapping without warrants, as well as his role in last year???‚¬?„?s dismissals of several United States Attorneys  for what appeared to be political reasons.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) sent out a press release thanking the Inspector General for his efforts.

Maybe the real question worth asking is whether Gonzales resigned because he thought it might lessen the chances of him being investigated.  Glenn Fine does not care.  Gonzales tarnished the reputation of a department whose purpose is to oversee the enforcement of US law.  A lot of career professionals who worked their entire lives to be part of that agency are angry.  Gonzales will not get off easy.  He will probably have to testify.

In the end, this is all about precedent.  If we let this kind of behavior fly, future Administrations will engage in similar behavior and say, "Gonzales did it and there was no wrongdoing found, so this must be fine as well."  A precedent needs to be set that lying in front of Congress, purging US attorneys for political reasons and stomping on our civil liberties is not only unacceptable, it is criminal.

Comments

[Robt]

I absolutely agree with the presumtpion of continuing the investigation of Gonzales' illegagal activities as AG. It is just that we all can see clear with suspicious eyes that Alberto was carrying out the orders of Rove and Cheney As The President wanted it so.