For Immediate Release
For More Information: 703/777-9451 x 252
May 1, 1997
AT THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARINGS ON APRIL 30, 1997, the following statement, "Enough is Enough! Clean Out Department of Justice Corruption Now!," was entered into the official records of the hearings, which will be printed and circulated to all U.S. Senators. The statement is signed by 18 prominent current and former elected officials.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
CLEAN OUT DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CORRUPTION NOW!
Recent revelations that the FBI intentionally mishandled evidence and gave false testimony that resulted in the 1989 impeachment of U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings from the federal bench, when viewed along with the landmark decision by U.S. District Judge Falcon Hawkins, dismissing the notorious "Operation Lost Trust" frame-up cases in South Carolina because of evidence of massive corruption and misconduct within the U.S. Department of Justice, confirm what many of us have known for some time. The "permanent bureaucracy" inside the Department of Justice, working as a virtual political assassination bureau, has routinely engaged in a repertoire of practices that includes cover-up, corruption, fraud, judicial abuse, and prosecutorial misconduct.
This fact was indisputably documented by a series of Independent Hearings to Investigate Misconduct by the U.S. Department of Justice, conducted on August 31-September 1, 1995. At those hearings, a panel that consisted of prominent state legislators from across the nation, and co-chaired by former U.S. Congressman James Mann, and distinguished Alabama attorney J.L. Chestnut, reviewed evidence and testimony of racially and/or politically motivated targetting of victims by the DOJ, that the United State Congress refused to hear. They examined cases of the targetting of African American public and elected officials under the FBI's Operation Fruehmenschen, including the above- mentioned "Operation Lost Trust." They heard startling testimony of the misconduct of the DOJ's "Nazi-hunting" Office of Special Investigations, including the case that almost resulted in the execution of Ukrainian-born Cleveland auto-worker John Demjanjuk. And, they examined the judicial railroad of Lyndon LaRouche and his associates; a case that former U. S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark described as "represent(ing) a broader range of deliberate cunning and systematic misconduct, over a longer period of time, utilizing the power of the federal government, than any other prosecution by the U.S. government, in my time or to my knowledge."
Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh have not only refused to clean-out the "permanent bureaucrats," like Deputy Assistant Attorneys General Jack Keeney and Mark Richard, who are responsible for these abuses, but they have covered up for their past abuses, and allowed them to continue. And, thus far, the failure of both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to fully exercise their oversight responsibility and hear ALL the relevant evidence of this massive corruption, especially in the cases cited above, has perpetuated a persistent pattern of cover-up.
It is time to put aside partisan concerns, and act to restore the American people's faith in their government. Clearly, there could be few issues more deserving of full Congressional oversight than this long-standing pattern of massive corruption within the U.S. Department of Justice.
Some of us have been victims of this corruption. All of us have been witnesses to it. Now we say, enough is enough! A clean-out is long overdue. And, it is our position, that if the relevant committees of the Congress refuse to hear this crucial evidence once again, we will see to it, that the stench of political corruption and cover-up follows them to the end of what will be very short political careers. (Signed) *indicates former
Sen. Theo W. Mitchell, Greenville, South Carolina*
Rep. William Clark, Prichard, Alabama
Rep. Andrew M. Hayden, Uniontown, Alabama
Rep. Tommie Houston, Birmingham, Alabama
Rep. Thomas E. Jackson, Thomasville, Alabama
Rep. Bryant Melton, Jr., Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Rep. James L. Thomas, Selma, Alabama
Rep. Ben McGee, Marion, Arkansas
Rep. Ben Swan, Springfield, Massachusetts
Sen. William L. Clay, Jr., Jefferson City, Missouri
Rep. Charles Quincy Troupe, St. Louis, Missouri; 2nd Vice Pres., Transit (ATU) local 788
Rep. Milton Toby Fitch, Wilson, North Carolina; Deputy Minority Leader
Rep. Howard J. Hunter, Jr., Conway, North Carolina
Rep. Harold James, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chmn. Pa. Black Caucus
Sen. Robert Ford, Charleston, South Carolina
Sen. Maggie Glover, Florence South Carolina
Sen. John Ford, Nashville, Tennessee
Rep. Ira Murphy, Memphis, Tennessee*; General Sessions Judge*
