Via Hans von Spakovsky at NRO:

“Given the apparent political motivations behind so many of the recent decisions at the Department of Justice (DOJ) — from the dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party to the re-investigation of CIA interrogators after DOJ prosecutors had already reviewed the matter and decided there was no reason for further criminal prosecution — the latest news about the dropping of the investigation against New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, Obama’s former nominee to be commerce secretary, raises a lot of questions. The Associated Press report cites a DOJ source saying that the investigation of pay-to-play allegations involving one of the governor’s largest political donors “was killed in Washington” by top DOJ officials.

For anyone familiar with internal Justice Department procedures, this is particularly suspicious. The DOJ has a manual called “Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses” (I helped edit the latest edition when I was at Justice) that sets out the rules and procedures for U.S. attorneys when they are investigating these types of public-corruption cases. It is the U.S. attorney in New Mexico who would normally make the final call on a local public-corruption case, not “top Justice Department officials” in Washington. The DOJ manual sets out the consultation rules for U.S. attorneys, who are required to “consult” with the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division in Washington. But only consultation is required; the Public Integrity Section does not make the final decision on whether an investigation should go forward. (Attorney General Eric Holder should not have forgotten this, since Public Integrity was the first place he worked at Justice.) So if the AP is correct in reporting that “top” officials in Washington killed the investigation, then political appointees within the department did not follow normal DOJ procedures.”

I am familiar with the procedures and this is the most suspicious activity I’ve ever seen from the DOJ. To take it further and more distinct the PIS doesn’t NOT make the decision to drop cases, much less “kill them”. What needs to be seen here is “who” talked to who to have these cases dropped and that would of course would be a special investigation.

Of course the Senate Judiciary Committee should at the least be looking into this, but with rabid partisans such as Leahy and Schumer and Durbin it would be an uphill climb.

Nevertheless Senator Jeff Sessions is the ranking member along with Tom Coburn, Jon Kyl, John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, and anyone of these could recommend hearings.

It’s time they stepped up. Something is seriously wrong with Holder’s DOJ. If Democrats were serious when they went after Alberto Gonzales about “politicizing the DOJ”, then they have the opportunity to prove it wasn’t just a witch hunt.

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