MONDAY: Whitehouse to speak with RWU Law students on Dept. of Justice investigation
From the Whitehouse team:
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will join Roger Williams University law students and faculty on Constitution Day, Monday, September 17, for a conversation on the need to restore the independence and credibility of the U.S. Department of Justice in the wake of the controversial tenure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s former United States Attorney and Attorney General, has played an active role in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into what went wrong at the Justice Department under the Bush administration.
Senator Whitehouse is also the author of legislation aimed at restoring a critical safeguard against political interference at Justice. During the Clinton administration, a total of only seven people at the White House and the Justice Department were permitted to initiate discussions of ongoing cases or investigations. Bush administration officials changed that policy, eventually authorizing more than 40 people at the Department and more than 900 in the White House to initiate such conversations. Whitehouse’s bill, now before the Judiciary Committee, would require the Department of Justice and the White House to notify Congress if officials beyond those named in the Clinton-era rule were authorized to discuss pending investigations.