Some Things Are Still Troubling At Main Justice

An insurance executive files a lawsuit against the GOP Governor of Alabama, the former Lieutenant Governor, the Insurance Commissioner, and other state officials. The plaintiff subpoenas a political consultant, who served as a strategist or advisor to several of the defendants. The political consultant’s wife is the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. After the lawsuit is filed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office begins a grand jury investigation of the plaintiff.

Okay, class. That would never happen in the U.S. Department of Justice, right? No U.S. Attorney would allow such an investigation to go forward without first recusing herself and probably her entire office, correct? And if the U.S. Attorney in question was colossally stupid and imprudent enough to initiate such an investigation, without recusing herself, the professionals at Main Justice would not tolerate it for one moment, would they? The U.S. Attorney would immediately be ordered to recuse herself and would probably be fired. Then someone from outside the U.S. Attorney’s Office, someone with an impeccable reputation for non-partisanship, would be brought in to review the investigation and determine whether it should go forward.

That’s how it would have happened in the old days, but, amazingly, not anymore. The insurance executive in question is John W. Goff. The Republican Governor is Bob Riley. The political consultant is William Canary, and the U.S. Attorney is Leura Canary. When Goff complained to the Department of Justice, his concerns were downplayed by Associate Deputy A.G.David Margolis, a DOJ careerist who has served through several administrations in a non-political slot. Margolis denied that a conflict existed, but stated that Leura Canary had decided to voluntarily recuse herself from involvement in the investigation. Of course, Ms. Canary did not recuse her assistants.

This remarkable, and very troubling, story is the subject of Scott Horton’s No Comment column in Harper’s. Here is Horton’s excellent post, which is highly critical of Margolis. Full disclosure: I had some very unfriendly interaction with Margolis when I served as Deputy Independent Counsel for Ken Starr during the Whitewater-Lewinsky investigation.