More Bush’s Clone: Defending John Ashcroft

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This is no laughing matter. The Obama Justice Department is defending the worst Attorney General, John Ashcroft, from being sued by an American citizen whose Constitutional rights were clearly violated by AG Ashcroft’s stated policy to use the material witness law to prevent terror attacks by rounding up Muslim immigrants.

Last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermannn, Constitutional Law Professor, Jonathan Turley discussed the Prosecuting of John Ashcroft and the ramifications of a possible decision favoring the Obama administration’s support of abuse of the law by Ashcroft.

Jonathan Turley:

The amazing thing about this case is that there is an old expression of bad cases making bad law. This is a case of a bad guy making a bad law. They’re going to have to pitch this to the heart of the court to support one of the most abusive Attorney Generals in history. What will be left is truly frightening.

This is a case, as you have mentioned, where false statements were given to a Federal court to secure a warrant, a person was held without access to a lawyer, was held in highly abusive conditions and you have an Attorney General who was virtually gleeful during that period about his ability to round up people. This was at a time when material witness rationale was being used widely and rather transparently to simply hold people.

Smith, the judge, wrote a really incredible opinion, one of the better opinions I’ve read in the last ten years and he basically noted st the end, this is what the Framers fought against. And he right, we have become what the Framers fought against. What it is we defined ourselves against, this is what the Framers were talking about, arbitrary detention.

And my God, you have the Obama Administration arguing that you cannot hold an Attorney General liable for such an egregious and horrible act.

Turley:

. . . The Obama administration knows it has an excellent chance of creating this new precedent, and when you pile it up, it is truly frightening. The administration has already said it will not investigate torture. It has been said they will nor prosecute torture. It has already dismissed dozens of cases, including cases of victim torture. Now they are saying that even people who order abuses, that clearly knew they were abuses, cannot be held liable. And you are left with this curious seed of an Obama official expressing concern on why liberals are so lethargic in this elections, like it’s something that we said.

Yeah, it is, this is a truly – this is not a disappointing act by this administration. I gotta tell you, I find it a disgusting act to try to create this kind of precedent. I promise you this precedent will bear a horrible fruit and this will be repeated because of what President Obama and his administration are going to do before this court.

Olbermann:

Do I have this correct? In essence, te reason there is a case against Ashcroft, or Attorney General in this case, is because he announced beforehand, he was going to stretch the material witness law and then stretched it, that it is premeditated?

Turley:

Well, what the court here said was you knew this was illegal. This was well established law. So you went out and broke the law and now you come to us and say but I can never be sued at any time under th sun. That is the precedent again that President Obama may soon be establishing.