The hits just keep on coming: U.S. Attorney scandal reaches Mississippi

As the U.S. Attorney scandal has unfolded over the course of the year, there’s been no shortage of questions about prosecutors who brought dubious charges against Democrats, looked the other way on wrongdoing by Republicans, or both. Thanks to Bush’s White House and Justice Department, the notion of equal-justice under the law hasn’t been this shaky in generations.

Worse, the examples highlighting the Bush gang’s politicization of law enforcement never seem to end. Today, the NYT’s Adam Cohen offers the latest, this time from Mississippi.

In 2003, Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) was seeking a second term, taking on Republican lobbyist Haley Barbour. Republicans wanted some way to discredit Musgrove’s allies, while limiting campaign contributions from Democratic supporters. So, they prosecuted Paul Minor, a trial attorney who has contributed generously to Democrats over the years.

Mr. Minor’s political activity may have cost him dearly. He is serving an 11-year sentence, convicted of a crime that does not look much like a crime at all. The case is one of several new ones coming to light that suggest that the department’s use of criminal prosecutions to help Republicans win elections may go farther than anyone realizes. […] Mr. Minor, whose firm made more than $70 million in fees in his state’s tobacco settlement, suspects it was his role in the 2000 Mississippi Supreme Court elections that put a target on his back. The United States Chamber of Commerce spent heavily to secure a Republican, pro-business majority, while Mr. Minor contributed heavily to the other side. The chamber was especially eager to unseat Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., a former trial lawyer. He was re-elected after a hard-fought, high-spending campaign. Then the prosecutions came from the politicized Bush Justice Department.

It follows a familiar pattern — using federal prosecution power to help Republicans win elections. In this case, it gets worse.



Mississippi’s loose campaign finance laws allow lawyers and companies to contribute heavily to the judges they appear before. That is terrible for justice, since the courts are teeming with perfectly legal conflicts of interest. It also creates an ideal climate for partisan selective prosecution. Since everyone is making contributions and nurturing friendships that look questionable, a prosecutor can haul any lawyer and judge he doesn’t like before a grand jury and charge corruption. The Justice Department indicted Justice Diaz and Mr. Minor on an array of unconvincing bribery and fraud charges. Justice Diaz was acquitted of all of them. The federal prosecutors then brought tax evasion charges against him. Justice Diaz was acquitted again and still sits on the Mississippi Supreme Court. Mr. Minor was not as lucky. He beat many of the charges in the first trial, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on others. Federal prosecutors went after him again, and this time Mr. Minor was convicted on vague allegations of trying to get “an unfair advantage” from judges — the very thing Mississippi’s lax campaign finance laws are set up to allow.

The scheme paid off. Trial lawyers who didn’t want to be investigated for making legal contributions backed off, the Democratic Party in Mississippi suddenly didn’t have resources to compete, and GOP efforts to tie Gov. Musgrove to Minor and Diaz became a key campaign issue that helped Barbour take office.

Best of all, there were trial lawyers contributing to Mississippi Republicans, engaged in the exact same dynamic, all of which was ignored by prosecutors.

It’s possible that we’ll never know the full extent of the Bush administration’s corruption of the justice system, but it’s little wonder Republicans on the Hill don’t want Congress to find out.