01 Jan 2004 Call for Justice Department Investigation of Alleged Judiciary Committee Improprieties

Mr. Noel Hillman
Chief, Public Integrity Section
Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20531-0001

Dear Mr. Hillman:

In a recent complaint addressed to the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee, Mr. Manuel Miranda, former Majority Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and General Counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, apprised Committee Chief Counsel Robert Walker of the following revelation: “I have read documents evidencing public corruption by elected officials and staff of the United States Senate… This includes evidence of the direct influencing of the Senate’s advice and consent role by the promise of campaign funding and election support in the last mid-term election… The proof of my Clause 9 [Code of Ethics for Government Service] disclosure is currently held and preserved by the Sergeant at Arms in a hard drive belonging to the young Hatch staffer who discovered a glitch in the Judiciary Committee’s shared server that allowed these documents to be read. This hard drive was seized over two months ago in the course of the current Democrat memos investigation.”

Miranda has also made this statement in writing: “The ones [memos already] made public are the least indicting of the documents I came to see.”

Upon information and belief, we the undersigned tender the following allegations in support of our request for an investigation.

The Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate is in the sole possession of credible and unambiguous evidence of crimes that fall within the jurisdiction the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice.

These documents are in no way, shape, or form privileged or otherwise confidential. Even in the event such a dubious and hollow claim for privacy is made [either by the custodian or the likely targets of a prospective criminal investigation], a wealth of case law holds that such a consideration must necessarily be subordinated to and trumped by their probative value and relevance to a criminal investigation.

We humbly suggest that agents of the United States Department of Justice should endeavor to take immediate possession of the aforementioned memoranda so as to preclude the possibility that [negligent or unscrupulous] employees of the Office of the Sergeant at Arms inadvertently or intentionally destroy evidence of a crime.

Lest you fear duplication or concurrent jurisdiction between investigative arms of the executive and legislative branches, please note that the investigation of the Sergeant at Arms is exclusively focused upon and limited to the mere propriety of the method of partial disclosure of the memoranda, not their content.

In short, these memoranda have not yet been examined or scrutinized with an eye towards ascertaining the applicability of criminal statutes to the conduct of their authors and recipients.

The Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice has both a statutory duty and moral imperative to probe the relevant criminal misconduct that is manifested by and memorialized through these memoranda.

Thank you in advance for your immediate attention to this grave matter of public concern.

Sincerely,

Kay Daly, President, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
Paul Weyrich, Chairman and CEO, Free Congress Foundation
David Keene, Chairman, American Conservative Union
Mark R. Levin, President, Landmark Legal Foundation
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
Chuck Muth, President, Citizens Outreach
George Landrith, President, Frontiers of Freedom
Sandy Rios, President, Concerned Women for America
Grover G. Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
Ray Ruddy, Gerard Health Foundation
Jeffrey Mazzella, Executive Director, Center for Individual Freedom
Niger Innis, National Spokesperson, Congress for Racial Equality
Kelley Shackleford, Chief Counsel, Liberty Legal Institute
James J. Fotis, Executive Director, Law Enforcement Alliance of America
Nancie G. Marzulla, President, Defenders of Property Rights
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., VP & Legal Director, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc.
Jim Backlin, Director of Legislative Affairs, Christian Coalition
Audrey Mullen, Independent Women’s Action Project
Larry Cirignano, Esq.
Elizabeth Sheld, Chairman, Free Republic Network
Amy Ridenour, President, The National Center for Public Policy Research
Mychal Massie, National Advisory Council, Project 21
David Almasi, Director, American Criminal Justice Center
Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director, Traditional Values Coalition

(partial listing – other signatories pending)