Deputy Attorney General Is Latest to Leave the Justice Dept.
New York Times
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
August 12, 2003The Justice Department faces potential tumult in the months ahead with the departures of a cadre of senior aides to Attorney General John Ashcroft who have made up his brain trust and a bulwark against his critics. The latest resignation came today with the announcement from Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson that he would leave at the end of the month. Mr. Ashcroft said he was losing ”my partner.”
Mr. Thompson, the nation’s highest-ranking black law enforcement official, has led efforts to intensify prosecutions of white-collar criminals after the scandals surrounding Enron and other corporations. Occasionally mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee, he will be joining the Brookings Institution, officials said.
Mr. Thompson’s departure was not altogether unexpected, and officials emphasized that the decisions by him and at least six other senior Justice Department aides to move on this summer did not reflect any substantive disagreements, but rather a desire to pursue other career paths. Some of the departures were simply a reflection of professional burn-out caused by the demands of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the aftermath, several officials said…
Since June, Mr. Ashcroft has also lost Viet Dinh, who was credited with shaping the antiterrorism legislation known as the USA Patriot Act and returned to teaching at Georgetown Law School; Michael Chertoff, who headed the Justice Department’s antiterrorism operation and became a federal judge; Adam Ciongoli, who was Mr. Ashcroft’s counselor and moved to AOL Time Warner; and several other senior officials…
Ashcroft’s DoJ was a who’s who of the American Conservative Legal minds. But in the summer of 2003, many of them quit. At the time, none of us knew that the Department of Justice had played such a key role in the lead-up to that invasion. I, for one, didn’t think to wonder if those resignations had something to do with the war directly and things happening at the DoJ. that had to do with the war. We didn’t yet kinow about the N.S.A. Domestic Spying or the Torture Program. Valerie Plame had just been "outed," but the story of how and why wasn’t yet in the public eye. But given what we know now, I’m curious. Could it have had to do with the Jay Bybee and John Yoo Torture Memos? or the N.S.A. Unwarranted Domestic Spying Program? or the absence of W.M.D.’s? or Joseph Wilson’s allegations? or something even else we don’t yet know?
Jay Bybee was confirmed for his judgeship a week before the invasion. John Yoo wanted the job, but was blocked by A.G. John Ashcroft, so he returned to teaching sometime after Bybee left. Their replacement, Jack Goldsmith, wasn’t appointed until October 2003. Larry Thompson, Deputy Attorney General, left at the end of August 2003 and wasn’t replaced by Jim Comey until December 2003. Comey’s now famous confrontation in the hospital room of John Ashcroft occurred in March 2004. The Torture issue first came to public attention in April 2004 with the exposure of the Abu Ghraib photographs..
| Other Important DoJ Resignations
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| Jay Bybee | Assistant Attorney General – O.L.C. | February 2001 | March 13, 2003 |
| John Yoo | Deputy Assistant Attorney General – O.L.C | February 2001 | March+, 2003 |
| Ted Olson | Solicitor General | February 2001 | July 10, 2004 |
| Jack Goldsmith | Assistant Attorney General – O.L.C | October 2003 | July 2004 |
| George Tenet | Director of the C.I.A. | June 11, 1997 | July 11, 2004 |
| John Ashcroft | Attorney General | February 2, 2001 | February 3, 2005 |
| Jim Comey | Deputy Attorney General | December 11, 2003 | April 20, 2005 |
Viet Dinh and Michael Chertoff were former aids to Ken Starr, and were the authors of the hastily written Patriot Act [under which the secret N.S.A. Domestic Spying commenced], aided by Adam Ciongoli. Viet Dinh had been an important liason with the O.L.C. while John Yoo and Jay Bybee were writing their Memorandia. Larry Thompson was a strong fighter of white collar crime [Enron], but he was also involved in formulating counter-terrorism policy after 9/11.
| John Yoo OLCMemorandia
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| September 25, 2001 | Memorandum Constitutionality of Amending Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to Change ‘Purpose’ Standard for Searches | Repudiated |
| October 23, 2001 | Memorandum Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States – | Repudiated |
| November 6, 2001 | Legality of the Use of Military Commissions to Try Terrorists | |
| November 15, 2001 | Memorandum Authority of the President to Suspend Certain Provisions of the ABM Treaty | Repudiated |
| December 28, 2001 | Memorandum Possible Habeas Jurisdiction Over Aliens Held in Guantanamo Bay | |
| January 22, 2002 | Memorandum Application of Treaties and Laws to al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees | Repudiated |
| February 7, 2002 | Memorandum Status of Taliban Forces Under Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 | |
| February 8, 2002 | Memorandum Classified Matter -prepared in response to a request for OLC views regarding the legality of certain hypothetical activities | Repudiated |
| February 26, 2002 | Memorandum Potential Legal Constraints Applicable to Interrogations of Persons Captured by U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan | |
| March 13, 2002 | Memorandum The President’s Power as Commander in Chief to transfer captured terrorists to the control and custody of foreign nations | Repudiated |
| April 8, 2002 | Memorandum Swift Justice Authorization Act | Repudiated |
| June 8, 2002 | Memorandum Determination of Enemy Belligerency and Military Detention | |
| June 27, 2002 | Memorandum Applicability of 18 U.S.C. 4001(a) to Military Detention of United States Citizen | Repudiated |
| August 1, 2002 | Memorandum Standards of Conduct for Interrogation Under 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A | Repudiated |
| October 11, 2002 | Memorandum concerning the legality of certain communications intelligence activities | |
| March 14, 2003 | Memorandum Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States | Repudiated |
Mr. Thompson’s departure was not altogether unexpected, and officials emphasized that the decisions by him and at least six other senior Justice Department aides to move on this summer did not reflect any substantive disagreements, but rather a desire to pursue other career paths. Some of the departures were simply a reflection of professional burn-out caused by the demands of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the aftermath, several officials said…
If you have time check out law.com article by Tony Mauro April 16, 07 titled Justice Department Independence “Shattered” says former DOJ attorney Daniel Metclafe a senior attorney at dept, former Director of Office of Information and Privacy at the U S Deptartment of Justice Metcalfe says in the article “Since the day he arrived at the dept of justice in Feb 2005, AG gonzales has “shattered” the department’s tradition of independence and politicized its operation more than any other attorney general in more than 30 years”.
[…] I want to go back to this post [What happened in the DoJ after the Iraq Invasion?]. The whole DoJ superstructure except the AG [Ashcroft] left about the time Bybee and Yoo moved on. […]