Mr. Noel
Hillman
Chief, Public Integrity Section
Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20531-0001
10 February
2004
Dear Mr.
Hillman:
In
a recent complaint addressed to the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee,
Mr. Manuel Miranda, former Majority Counsel to the U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee and General Counsel to Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist, apprised Committee Chief Counsel Robert
Walker of the following revelation: "I have read documents
evidencing public corruption by elected officials and staff
of the United States Senate. ... This includes evidence of
the direct influencing of the Senate's
advice and consent role by the promise of campaign
funding and election support in the last mid-term
election. ... The proof of my Clause 9 [Code of Ethics for
Government Service] disclosure is currently held and preserved
by the Sergeant at Arms in a hard drive belonging to the young
Hatch staffer who discovered a glitch in the Judiciary Committee's
shared server that allowed these documents to be read. This
hard drive was seized over two months ago in the course of
the current Democrat memos investigation."
Miranda
has also made this statement in writing: "The ones [memos
already] made public are the least indicting of the documents
I came to see."
Upon
information and belief, we the undersigned tender the following
allegations in support of our request for an investigation.
The
Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate is in the sole
possession of credible and unambiguous evidence of crimes
that fall within the jurisdiction the Public Integrity Section
of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of
Justice.
These
documents are in no way, shape, or form privileged or otherwise
confidential. Even in the event such a dubious and hollow
claim for privacy is made [either by the custodian or the
likely targets of a prospective criminal investigation], a
wealth of case law holds that such a consideration must necessarily
be subordinated to and trumped by their probative value and
relevance to a criminal investigation.
We
humbly suggest that agents of the United States Department
of Justice should endeavor to take immediate possession of
the aforementioned memoranda so as to preclude the possibility
that [negligent or unscrupulous] employees of the Office of
the Sergeant at Arms inadvertently or intentionally destroy
evidence of a crime.
Lest
you fear duplication or concurrent jurisdiction between investigative
arms of the executive and legislative branches, please note
that the investigation of the Sergeant at Arms is exclusively
focused upon and limited to the mere propriety of the method
of partial disclosure of the memoranda, not their content.
In
short, these memoranda have not yet been examined or scrutinized
with an eye towards ascertaining the applicability of criminal
statutes to the conduct of their authors and recipients.
The
Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the United
States Department of Justice has both a statutory duty and
moral imperative to probe the relevant criminal misconduct
that is manifested by and memorialized through these memoranda.
Thank
you in advance for your immediate attention to this grave
matter of public concern.
Sincerely,
(Partial
List)
Kay
Daly, President, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
Paul Weyrich, Chairman and CEO, Free Congress Foundation
David Keene, Chairman, American Conservative Union
Mark R. Levin, President, Landmark Legal Foundation
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
Chuck Muth, President, Citizens Outreach
George Landrith, President, Frontiers of Freedom
Sandy Rios, President, Concerned Women for America
Grover G. Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
Ray Ruddy, Gerard Health Foundation
Jeffrey Mazzella, Executive Director, Center for Individual
Freedom
Niger Innis, National Spokesperson, Congress for Racial Equality
Kelley Shackleford, Chief Counsel, Liberty Legal Institute
James J. Fotis, Executive Director, Law Enforcement Alliance
of America
Nancie G. Marzulla, President, Defenders of Property Rights
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., VP & Legal Director, National
Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc.
Jim Backlin, Director of Legislative Affairs, Christian Coalition
Audrey Mullen, Independent Womens Action Project
Larry Cirignano, Esq.
Elizabeth Sheld, Chairman, Free Republic Network
Amy Ridenour, President, The National Center for Public Policy
Research
Mychal Massie, National Advisory Council, Project 21
David Almasi, American Criminal Justice Center
cc:
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The
Hon. John D. Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United
States
The Hon. James B. Comey, Deputy Attorney General of
the United States
The Hon. Christopher Wray, Assistant Attorney General
for the Criminal Division
The Hon. Roscoe Howard, U.S. Attorney for the District
of Columbia
The Hon. Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Virginia
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