NACDL

“There is a black cloud hanging over the Justice Department,” says Martin S. Pinales in this month’s President’s Column. Two days before the Justice Department’s first giant document dump, Pinales called for a special prosecutor to investigate whether White House or DOJ officials were telling the whole truth about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year. Subsequent revelations have only raised more questions and further muddied the waters.

“We urge Congress to proceed with an expeditious investigation and urge the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether any official has testified falsely in violation of federal perjury and obstruction of justice statutes,” Pinales said in a public statement March 14 that was reported the next day in the Washington Post. “The appalling lack of candor by some and the attorney general’s professed ignorance of the purge of U.S. attorneys in recent months suggest the possibility of criminal