Democrat Memogate: In the Eye of the Scandal

After months of frustration that neither the press nor the government are doing their respective jobs with regard to the smoldering U.S. Senate scandal that has come to be called Memogate, the Center for Individual Freedom provided some missing journalism.

On April 6, in a news story researched and written by the staff of the Center for Individual Freedom, we published the first tangible new information since 14 Democrat Senate Judiciary Committee memos were disclosed by the Wall Street Journal in November 2003.

We revealed the identities of two former aides to Senator Ted Kennedy who were responsible for a memo recommending that Senator Kennedy act to affect the outcome of a major legal case by delaying the confirmation of judges to the court hearing that case.

We revealed that one of those aides had previously been a lawyer in the very same case that she was attempting to manipulate at the behest of her former boss, also an attorney in that case.

We put the Kennedy memo and the case in context.

If you have not read that story, you should and you may by clicking here.

We shook the tree that the mainstream press was not shaking, and fruit started dropping.

On April 7, Senator Kennedy was holding a press conference on an unrelated subject at which Robert Bluey, a reporter for CNSNews.com, and Charles Hurt of The Washington Times showed up.

No sooner had Bluey asked Senator Kennedy about our revelations than the Senator started muttering, heading for the door as his staff shut down the press conference. (Bluey’s story can be read by clicking here.)

Charles Hurt then struck off chasing Senator Kennedy down the hall, asking questions along the way. He got the Kennedy "stolen memo" mantra and a door slammed in his face for his efforts.

On April 8, Charles Hurt published a follow-up story in The Washington Times (Memo urged delay of judicial nominee). He published an unredacted copy of the memo, with names in place, providing documentary evidence of our revelation. He further revealed that Mary Beth Cahill, Chief of Staff to Senator Kennedy at the time the memo was written and currently campaign manager to Senator John Kerry’s presidential election campaign, had been copied on the memo.

Later that evening, Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume showed a video clip of Bluey’s press conference question and Kennedy’s hasty retreat. Although incorrectly attributing the initial revelations to The Washington Times, Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson laid out the overall issue in an understandable way. (An Internet version of that report can be accessed here.)

On April 12, the Center for Individual Freedom filed an ethics complaint against Olatunde C.A. Johnson with the Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the First Department in the State of New York, where Johnson is licensed to practice law. (Ms. Johnson, the author of the memo to Senator Kennedy, used the shortened, familiar form of her name, "Olati," in addressing the memo).

The full 11-page complaint can be read by clicking here. While it addresses a litany of substantive ethical issues, one specification is particularly pertinent.

One rule in New York’s ethics code states, fairly directly for lawyer language: "[a] lawyer serving as a public officer or employee shall not…[p]articipate in a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially while in private practice or non-governmental employment."

From reading ethics rules until our eyes glaze over and our brains want to exit the program, we can fairly authoritatively assure readers that shall not is the strongest command to lawyers out there. It means don’t do that, just as it would for the rest of us. Olati Johnson did the that that the rule says don’t do.

As any scandal builds, the people who refuse to discuss it are far more informative than those who do. With regard to the Kennedy memo, here’s a partial list of those clamming up so far:

Elaine Jones, who made the request to Senator Kennedy’s office, won’t talk.

Olati Johnson, who wrote the memo to Senator Kennedy, won’t talk.

Melody Barnes, who was Chief Counsel to Senator Kennedy and joined in Johnson’s recommendation, won’t talk.

Mary Beth Cahill, who was copied on the memo, won’t talk.

Senator John Kerry, who currently employs Ms. Cahill on his presidential campaign of which Senator Kennedy is a co-chair, won’t talk.

Senator Kennedy won’t talk.

No one at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which had employed Ms. Johnson, still does employ Ms. Jones, and in whose name Ms. Jones’ request was made, will talk.

The ACLU, Olati Johnson’s current employer, and yet another participant in the same case, won’t talk.

Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where all this mess started, won’t talk.

Senator George Voinovich, Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, which should be exercising jurisdiction, won’t talk.

Perhaps our judgment is premature, but there seems to be a pattern emerging here.

Memogate is an ethics scandal, on its face. It goes far beyond the Kennedy memo. It goes far beyond those who have already been named. It goes far beyond activities that are publicly known. Its origins represent an abuse of power, and the stonewalling by participants represents the arrogance of that power. The abuse of power now extends to all who have the authority and the responsibility to investigate…but won’t.

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