Aug 12th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Mukasey: Law-breaking is Not a Crime
Michael Mukasey explains that just because his predecessors in the Justice Department were breaking the law with their hiring processes doesn’t mean anyone should be held accountable: “not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.”
It’s an excellent slogan for the Bush administration.
35 Responses to “Mukasey: Law-breaking is Not a Crime”
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August 12th, 2008 at 11:57 am
What the quote says is in fact true, since not every violation of the law is a violation of the criminal law. But funny nonetheless.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Um… it’s Michael Mukasey. Guess Matt doesn’t have a proofreader after all.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Crime is the breach of a rule or law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a punishment.
“I have made repeatedly clear…that it is neither permissible nor acceptable to consider political affiliations in the hiring of career department employees,” Mukasey said.
So it’s not permissible, acceptable, or punishable. Crystal clear, Bob!
August 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I mean Mike.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Stupid is what you get when you hire belief over ability.
.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Though it is true that “not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime,” that not traditionally a big problem for criminal investigations. Conspiracy and false statement charges go a long way, if just for ‘the process is the punishment’ purposes. The problem is the Federal judiciary, which might just find this an opportune time to change the rules.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
With respect to violations of the civil service laws, Mukasey is correct: those aren’t crimes. That doesn’t mean there is no accountability–for example, managers found to have violated the civil service laws can be subject to disciplinary action. But in this case the relevant people are already out of government.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
The Att. Gen. is right, as others have pointed out.
Probably the best example of how breaking a law may not be criminal is illegal immigration. Being out of status violates immigration law, but it is a civil infraction, not criminal. A technical point, to be sure, but given the way folks talk about this, it’s worth remembering.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Hrmm. I just got through hearing a MCain commercial on MSNBC (the Olympics) that explains that Obama is popular, attractive and well-liked, so that means he’s a fake, whereas McCain is apparently not popular, attractive or well-liked, so that proves that McCain has the real alternative energy program. [He could claim that he's going to fund nuclear reactors, which at least would not involve oil, but of course, there's no money and no way in hell that will be funded. So that leave drilling for oil! Yes, drilling for more oil is an alternative energy program!
I guess it's just Up-Is-Down Week.
max
['Togo got a medal!']
August 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
So the people that did illegal politically-based hiring are not going to be punished.
And (later in Mukasey’s statement) the people who were hired, using illegal politically-based criteria, aren’t going to be fired, demoted, moved, etc. No consequences for anyone.
Looks to me like the Bush gang just got away with another crime against the nation, and Mukasey is driving the getaway car.
Impeach the bastard.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
If the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Well, if it wasn’t a crime, it was awfully crime-esque.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Mukasey also says that there’s no way the illegal hirings are ongoing–mind you, this is the guy who upholding the old illegal hirings.
The reason that the illegal hirings is bad is that in 10 years, the bureaucracy will be all Republicans. Without firing everybody and replacing them fairly, the bad thing will still happen.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I feel assured that those now in place to do the hiring at justice know that this sort of activity will be frowned upon. If there’s anything a jaded political hack hates, it’s a severe frowning.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Mukasey appeals to a true principle, and a good one. A free society wants to set a demanding standard for what counts as a crime, how crimes are proven, and when crimes are to be prosecuted.
It may even be that in these instances the principle does apply and that it’s true that no prosecutable crime has been committed. If you think otherwise, cite a statute and show how the requirements for prosecution have been met.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Every case decided by these hired justices should be challenged since they obviously hold a prejudicial Conservative view. This has been acknowledged by the AG. All cases would have to be retried with a non prejudicial judge. lets see how long the AG will refrain from firing and rehiring justices based on merit.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Yet another reminder that post-Bush, there’s going to be a lot of rewriting of law to make things criminally punishable where that hadn’t been necessary before because everyone less corrupt than the Bushies understood that you just don’t do those things. Hell, there will be an entire category filed under “Cheney” of government operations that no one ever even thought of politicizing, at least not since the McKinley administration.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:27 am
“not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.”
Gee, I shoulda tried that when the cops grabbed me for robbing that bank…
I should have said, “Hey, it wasn’t a crime – it was a revolutionary expropriation.”
August 13th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Freeman, with all due respect, you are going to tell me that my possession of a dime bag of weed is a crime but the total politicalization of the justice department, which affects potentially millions of people, is not?
This is like Clinton parsing what the word “is” is!
However, I didn’t really expect anything different for Mukasey and frankly blame the Democrats in congress for not going further to block his nomination
August 13th, 2008 at 9:26 am
How bout we call it sabotage? Or treason?
August 13th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Redshift is correct, of course. The civil service laws basically assumed it would be enough that certain personnel actions were illegal and you could get disciplined (e.g., fired) for engaging in them. They were not set up to deal with a situation in which all your superiors (right up through the Attorney General and to the President) would support your brazenly illegal behavior. They were also not set up to deal with the likes of Monica Goodling, people who ended up in positions of high authority and yet who had no vested interest in their careers or reputation, and who were borderline cultists in any event.
So, maybe the civil service laws will be changed to incorporate criminal punishments in order to deal with these problems. But Mukasey remains correct that the existing laws did not anticipate a need for criminal sanctions, which is more or less because the people writing those laws never imagined a group as lawless as Goodling, Gonzales, and Bush would be in their respective positions.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:36 am
The pernicious thing about this quote is that Mukasey is the ultimate arbiter in this country of when breaking a law does constitute a crime. He is exercising his judgement and allowing his law breaking friends to go free in order to avoid embarrassing the administration, but he adds this rhetorical flourish in order to distract people from the fact that this is his decision.
The actions of Monica Goodling and the others are criminal and *should* be prosecuted. The Attorney General, both then and now, is part of the conspiracy to fill the Department of Justice with ideological foot soldiers who will do not the will of the American people, but the will of the Republican party.
This is a revision of the idea that when there is no policeman there is no crime. According to Mukasey, when there is no prosecution there is no crime. The facts of the matter and the precedent created by more honorable holders of the office be damned.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:21 am
fletc3her:
point to a criminal statute that was violated. put up or shut up.
Mukasey was perfectly correct. “crime” is a legal word with a legal meaning. this is one of those cases where non-lawyers should shut the fuck up. seriously.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:32 am
AnotherLawyer:
Hatch Act anyone? Care to explain how ‘breaking’ this ‘law’ is not a crime?
I don’t give a damn if it’s a ‘criminal’ statute or a ‘civil’ statute – the law was broken.
Just because these people aren’t in the government anymore doesn’t mean that the so-called Justice Department should not file a civil case against them and collect whatever penalty is assessed for violation of it. Period.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I think this really comes under Bush’s law….
Bush said if this country was a dictatorship it would be easy to run,, as long as I am the dictator…
Well I believe our elected officials must has agreed with Bush , because they have made Bush “THE ONE”,,, And “WE ARE NO LONGER A DEMOCRACY”..
A democracy can not survive without a free election and laws to follow and we now have neither…
December 10th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
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