Attorney General Michael Mukasey's speech on public corruption yesterday in San Francisco made news for more than just its substance.
First, Mukasey was pressed to justify the recent closing of the public-corruption unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in a letter to Mukasey about the L.A. move this week demanded an explanation. Our sibling publication The Recorder has this take on his speech before the Commonwealth Club.
Second, his speaking engagement happened on the same day the feds announced an indictment against Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila — a Democrat — on fundraising-related charges. A Justice Department spokesman says Mukasey's speech was not timed. It was coincidence.
Lastly, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Thursday ordered the release from prison of Alabama's ex-governor Don Siegelman, a Democrat who had served nine months out of a seven-year sentence for a bribery conviction. Siegelman's case has been cited by Democrats as proof of selective prosecution by the Justice Department under ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
While he made no mention of Acevedo Vila or Siegelman in his remarks, Mukasey cited as successes the corruption cases against former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, ex-Rep. Robert Ney, former executive branch executives Stephen Griles and David Safavian, convicted Illinois Gov. George Ryan and several former legislators in Alaska.
"We have and we carry out a duty to ensure that the department’s investigations of public corruption are conducted without fear or favor, and utterly without regard to the political affiliation of a particular public official," Mukasey said. "After all, a corruption investigation that is motivated by partisan politics is just corruption by another name."
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