Prosecutors brush off D.C. sway
Some U.S. attorneys allege political pressure, but locals see none of it
Post-Tribune (IN)
March 18, 2007
If allegations by ousted prosecutors and Democratic congressional leaders are true, and White House officials fired U.S. attorneys for not pursuing corruption cases against Democratic politicians, Joseph Van Bokkelen is a popular man in Washington.
Conventional wisdom in local political circles is that public corruption largely remains constant from year to year, but that indictments for public corruption vary depending on whether the top federal prosecutor in the Northern District was appointed by a Republican or a Democrat.
That suspicion seems to be borne out in recent congressional hearings, in which former U.S. attorneys have said they were pressured by Republican leaders to lay off prosecuting GOP officials, and to time the indictments of Democrats to coincide with elections.
The probe has led to the White House itself, as Bush adviser Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been implicated in the scandal.
Van Bokkelen's wide-ranging corruption probe, Operation Restore Public Integrity, has nabbed more than 50 public officials since he was appointed by Bush in 2001, according to Justice Department statistics. Nearly all were against officials in Democratic strongholds in Lake County, where Republican officeholders are few and far between.
Through a spokeswoman, Van Bokkelen declined to comment on the Washington scandal. And the conventional wisdom may not bear out, at least in the Northern District.
Jon DeGuilio, a Clinton appointee who preceded Van Bokkelen as head of the Northern District, convicted 64 defendants in corruption cases from 1992 to 1999. That figure is fewer than the 100-plus corruption cases that resulted in conviction under his Republican predecessor, Reagan appointee James Richmond.
Both DeGuilio and Richmond this week denied any partisan reasons for pursuing corruption investigations.
Four of the seven U.S. attorneys fired after President Bush began his second term in 2005 were pursuing prosecutions of Republican officials in their districts, and several have said GOP officials urged them to file charges against Democrats near election time.
Such pressure was never the case under the Clinton or first Bush administrations, the former U.S. attorneys attest.
"There was never any political influence or personal influence placed upon me," said DeGuilio, now an officer at Peoples Bank.
"You don't start calling up the U.S. Attorney's Office and ask to leave someone alone, or wait until after an election. The Department of Justice and individuals in the U.S. Attorney's Office are very, very free of politics."
Richmond, who presumably would have been safer politically chasing down Democratic pols under Reagan and George H.W. Bush, said public corruption was a focus of his five years because federal investigators had far less jurisdiction to become involved in violent crime and drug and firearm offenses, factors that would change with federal laws instituted in the 1990s.
The Justice Department also had no Internet, and therefore no cybercrime to deal with, nor was the prosecution of terrorists among U.S. attorneys' top priorities.
"I had authority to decide what the priorities were in my district. I think the world has changed since 9/11, and Justice wants more involvement in what the U.S. attorneys are doing," said Richmond, now an attorney at a Chicago law firm.
Political pressure, such as the allegation by a New Mexico U.S. attorney fired by the Bush administration that a senator urged him to indict a Democratic rival before an election, was unheard of, Richmond said.
"In my time as U.S. attorney, (Republicans) Dick Lugar and (Dan) Quayle were senators, and I had one conversation with each of them. All I ever heard was, 'Do the right thing,' " he said.
DeGuilio said prosecution of drug dealers and violent offenders was the top priority of the Clinton Justice Department, and initiatives like the Gary Response Investigative Team to target drug trafficking and gangs were the premier accomplishments of his administration.
"We were doing violent crime (indictments) in unprecedented numbers," DeGuilio said. "We may not have had as many public corruption prosecutions as Joe Van Bokkelen, but there were a number of public corruption prosecutions that we initiated."
DeGuilio won conviction of Lake County Recorder Robert Freeland for shaking down title companies that dealt with his office. He also won less favorable headlines after two Gary City Council members indicted on bribery charges were acquitted.
Both Richmond and Van Bokkelen, who once were partners in a Highland law firm, also have proved more media savvy in promoting their anti-corruption campaigns.
Richmond chose a more catchy name for his corruption probe than Van Bokkelen, dubbing his initiative Operation Lights Out.
"It was as in 'Would the last indicted politician out of Lake County please turn out the lights?' " Richmond said. "One of the FBI guys came up with the name, and it just took on a life of its own."
Van Bokkelen's probe also got off to a fast, highly publicized start and has struck at some of the most powerful Democratic organizations in the region.
While Sept. 11, 2001, steered Justice officials almost exclusively to anti-terrorist investigations shortly after his appointment, in 2002, he indicted Gary City Clerk Katie Hall and her daughter, Junifer, for extorting campaign contributions from her staff.
His indictment of the "Sidewalk Six" East Chicago officials in 2003 undoubtedly helped topple the three-decade-old political machine led by Robert A. Pastrick in 2004.
Pastrick , who lost a special mayoral election -- prompted by a state-level vote fraud lawsuit -- claimed the indictments of the Sidewalk Six, as well as his son, Kevin , for a crooked real estate deal, were timed to depress Democratic turnout in the 2004 elections. Van Bokkelen has adamantly denied any political consideration.
As to why Republican appointees have brought charges against so many Democrats, Richmond offers a hypothesis.
"We prosecuted Republicans, too," he notes. "It just so happens statistically in Lake County, Indiana, you don't have a lot of Republican public corruption because you don't have many Republicans."
