DOJ Must Cough Up Records on Congressman

Imagine that. The Department of Justice is obstructing the very thing they are charged with pursuing. Who would ever have thought it? Just to alleviate any questions of Partisanship? Oh, this is where it gets a bit odd. The publicly named villains in the story are both Republican with what I think we can all agree is one of the more politically charged Justice Departments in recent memory. So what's the story? Well.....

WASHINGTON (CN) - A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to release more records on its investigation of former Congressman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., after "impressive" stalling on the government's part.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the DOJ in 2011 under the Freedom of Information Act after it refused to release any materials on its investigation of allegations that Lewis "improperly steered millions of dollars in earmarks for clients of lobbying firms."

It seems Rep. Jerry Lewis, a veteran of some staggering SEVENTEEN TERMS in Congress (1979 - 2013), may have had his paws deep in the proverbial cookie jar of corrupting legislation. I know.. hard to believe. We all thought Congress was so honest, right? (cough). There are some aspects to make this story stand out a bit though.

"DOJ also investigated allegations that Rep. Lewis improperly helped secure government contracts for donors," CREW stated in its complaint. "The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California notified Rep. Lewis in December 2010 that DOJ had concluded its investigation of him and declined to prosecute him."

Well, now that's interesting, isn't it? They apparently dropped the investigation in 2010, yet according to the Judge presiding on this case, have maintained impressive efforts to obstruct the FOIA requirements right to this day. The Judge was absolutely not impressed though, as Judges seem less and less likely to be these days. He wasn't as rude as some lately, when addressing members representing the Government in court, but he was far from soft.

Boasberg rejected the DOJ's arguments, granting in part CREW's motion for summary judgment.
"If DOJ does not produce the requested documents, it must provide full explanations of its withholdings under all relevant FOIA exemptions for any records and redacted portions not made available to plaintiff," Boasberg ruled.

Source: Courthouse News

Oh, the other Republican in the story? Another former Rep. from California Bill Lowery. He manages the firms that Lewis alleggedly steered the millions of earmarks into. As the story concludes, former Rep. Lowery left congress in 1990 where he became a lobbyist with a particular specialty for steering earmarks into bills.

I wonder how many 10's of billions those two have directly cost taxpayers in pork that would pass the very best USDA stamp inspection? Somehow, I'm thinking we'll never really know. At least they won't be able to just sweep away everything though.

As much as I have heard about how bad corruption is in other countries, corruption in our country is just as bad. I guess the biggest difference is that our corruption is written in a legal language thus making it legal corruption. Means that even if word gets out, evidence is discovered, people are named..in the end it doesn't matter because they did it within the law and if they happen to be found guilty by any miracle..it is usually just a slap on the wrist and a fine.

Hope they shed more light onto what really happened, but even then very little will come of it IMO.

Peace

They should file a request with the NSA for his Prisim records, might be nice if the knife cut two ways...

Could probably drum up treason charges with a quick purview of most of our elected officials phone and email records.

WASHINGTON (CN) - A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to release more records on its investigation of former Congressman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., after "impressive" stalling on the government's part.

Whaat?

DOJ is stalling?

Thought they would be jumping at the chance to roast Republicans, the 'public' does so love a good Republican roast.

reply to post by neo96


Yea... It does tend to give you a moment of pause ...or brain freeze, as a more appropriate word. Huh? Why? What the? ...and in California no less. Not exactly a pro-Republican kinda state among the power elite, to be REAL kind. (Smurfs gets told to leave for not being blue enough).

Something's rotten in the state of Denmark, I do believe.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


They may feign outrage, but everyone knows every state loves it when their 'representatives' bring home the 'bacon'.

Second verse same as the first verse with the third verse saying Yea!.

Yea ! !