DLR'sCock
10-09-2005, 03:48 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/07/politics/07lobby.html
Outside Inquiry Sought on Prosecutor's Demotion
By Philip Shenon
The New York Times
Friday 07 October 2005
Washington - The ranking Democrats on three House committees called Thursday for an outside investigator to determine why a prosecutor in Guam was demoted in 2002 after opening a criminal investigation of Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist now at the center of a federal corruption investigation.
The Democrats said in a letter to the Justice Department that an outside investigator was needed to determine if the prosecutor, Frederick A. Black, the acting United States attorney on Guam, was demoted as a result of "political manipulation of Justice Department officials" by Mr. Abramoff, a major Republican fund-raiser.
Colleagues said Mr. Black's reassignment in November 2002 resulted in the collapse of the investigation in Guam, where Mr. Abramoff had a lucrative lobbying practice. Law-enforcement officials have confirmed that the Justice Department's inspector general, the department's independent watchdog, opened an investigation in recent weeks into the circumstances of Mr. Black's demotion.
Mr. Abramoff has been indicted on federal fraud charges in Florida in an unrelated investigation and is under scrutiny by a separate grand jury in Washington.
A department spokesman had no immediate comment on the letter sent to the department from five Democrats, John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee; Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia, senior Democrat on the Resources Committee; George Miller of California, senior Democrat on the Education Committee; Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts; and Madeleine Z. Bordallo, who represents Guam.
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Outside Inquiry Sought on Prosecutor's Demotion
By Philip Shenon
The New York Times
Friday 07 October 2005
Washington - The ranking Democrats on three House committees called Thursday for an outside investigator to determine why a prosecutor in Guam was demoted in 2002 after opening a criminal investigation of Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist now at the center of a federal corruption investigation.
The Democrats said in a letter to the Justice Department that an outside investigator was needed to determine if the prosecutor, Frederick A. Black, the acting United States attorney on Guam, was demoted as a result of "political manipulation of Justice Department officials" by Mr. Abramoff, a major Republican fund-raiser.
Colleagues said Mr. Black's reassignment in November 2002 resulted in the collapse of the investigation in Guam, where Mr. Abramoff had a lucrative lobbying practice. Law-enforcement officials have confirmed that the Justice Department's inspector general, the department's independent watchdog, opened an investigation in recent weeks into the circumstances of Mr. Black's demotion.
Mr. Abramoff has been indicted on federal fraud charges in Florida in an unrelated investigation and is under scrutiny by a separate grand jury in Washington.
A department spokesman had no immediate comment on the letter sent to the department from five Democrats, John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee; Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia, senior Democrat on the Resources Committee; George Miller of California, senior Democrat on the Education Committee; Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts; and Madeleine Z. Bordallo, who represents Guam.
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