Americans for Limited Government
Rolling Back Government on Every Front
June 4th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended Obama appointee Donald Berwick to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services after he praised the British national health care system. Americans for Limited Government recently published this Nominee Alert regarding Berwick.
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June 3rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today called upon Attorney General Eric Holder to either appoint a special counsel to investigate the widening Sestak-Romanoff White House job offers scandal, or to resign.
“When Richard Nixon instructed then-Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, he resigned rather than take part in an overt cover-up of the Watergate scandal,” Wilson said. “Will Attorney General Eric Holder have the honor and integrity to do the same?”
Wilson said that Attorney General Eric Holder “has the duty to appoint a special counsel to immediately launch an independent investigation of the widening Sestak-Romanoff job offers scandal. If he is receiving pressure from the White House not to do so, he has to make a choice to appoint the counsel, or to resign with honor.”
Last week, according to the Daily Caller, the Justice Department refused Congressman Darrell Issa’s request that the Attorney General appoint an special counsel to investigate offers that were made to Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff in exchange for dropping out of primary battles against incumbent Democrat Senators Arlen Specter and Michael Bennet.
As reported by the Daily Caller, “In a letter to California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich attempts to tip-toe around the congressman’s request for an independent counsel to investigate a bribery claim made by Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak.”
“You have asked that a special counsel be appointed to handle the investigation of this matter,” Weich wrote in his letter. “The Department of Justice, however, has a long history of handling investigations of high level officials professionally and independently, without the need to appoint a special counsel.”
Wilson said, “That’s not good enough. This stonewalling by the White House is reaching Watergate-era proportions. There are two instances where Obama has clearly violated the law. Eric Holder has the sole authority to appoint a special counsel in this instance to get to the bottom of this widening scandal.”
Under 28 U.S.C. § 510, the Attorney General has the power to delegate his authority to another member of the Justice Department: “The Attorney General may from time to time make such provisions as he considers appropriate authorizing the performance by any other officer, employee, or agency of the Department of Justice of any function of the Attorney General.”
And under 28 U.S.C. § 515, the Attorney General has the power to direct a U.S. attorney to launch an investigation: “The Attorney General or any other officer of the Department of Justice, or any attorney specially appointed by the Attorney General under law, may, when specifically directed by the Attorney General, conduct any kind of legal proceeding, civil or criminal, including grand jury proceedings and proceedings before committing magistrate judges, which United States attorneys are authorized by law to conduct…”
“Though the White House claims that nothing illegal or improper was done does not mean they are innocent,” says Wilson. “An independent investigation is therefore needed, and if any case ever screamed for a special prosecutor, this is it. The trouble is that only Attorney General Eric Holder can appoint one.”
Wilson said a special prosecutor needs to be appointed to investigate the jobs offered to Sestak and Romanoff, to call witnesses to testify under oath, and to get to the bottom of whether Obama himself authorized the job offers.
“Holder has a choice to do the right thing by launching an independent investigation, or to resign,” Wilson concluded.
Wilson will be available to comment on the potential violation of the law by the Obama Administration when offering Sestak and Romanoff jobs in exchange for dropping out of their respective Senate races.
Interview Availability: To schedule Bill Wilson for a radio or television interview, please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org, for print interviews, please contact Richard Manning at (703) 383-0880 or at rmanning@getliberty.org.
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June 2nd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) to pursue a House of Representatives investigation of a job offered by the White House to Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) in return for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate race.
In his letter to Issa, Wilson wrote, “Representative Sestak has a duty to be fully forthcoming regarding this clear violation of law, lest he be deemed an accomplice in its concealment. An official investigation is the proper venue for an initial finding of facts, under oath, which will advise further action by the House.”
“It is time for Representative Sestak to fully come clean,” the letter continued.
The scandal could result in an ethics investigation of Sestak. Issa had previously warned that if Sestak did not disclose what job he was offered, and who offered it, that he would lodge an official complaint with the House ethics committee.
Wilson in a statement said that “Although Representative Sestak has revealed new information, it contradicts his previous statements, only raising more questions and warranting an official investigation.”
Wilson noted in his letter that the White House’s admission that an “uncompensated” position had been offered contradicted Sestak’s initial confirmation that he had been offered a “high-ranking” job. Wilson wrote that it also contradicts what Sestak has now said that former President Bill Clinton, acting as an intermediary for the White House, spoke with him “about my being on a Presidential Board while remaining in the House of Representatives.”
“This surprising change in Sestak’s original story casts a high degree of suspicion on the Representative,” Wilson wrote. “Even though he declined the offer of an appointment in both versions of events, the revision of his original story could make him complicit in the cover-up of the commission of a crime.”
Wilson urged Issa to investigate: “This warrants an immediate investigation by the House of Representatives in some capacity to ascertain the facts, and to determine whether or not Sestak is involved with a cover-up of a violation of the law.”
Initially, the White House had denied that any appointment had been offered, but later acknowledged that conversations had taken place with Representative Sestak, but that they were not “problematic.”
Finally, the White House Legal Counsel Robert Bauer admitted that the Obama Administration engaged in “discussions of alternatives to the Senate campaign” and at least promised an appointment in exchange for Sestak pulling out of the race.
In a statement, Wilson concluded, “Representative Issa, for pursuing this issue, deserves the thanks of the American people, who have a right to know if Barack Obama was responsible for illegally offering a Presidential appointment to Representative Sestak in exchange for dropping out of a Senate race.”
Attachments:
ALG Letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, June 2nd, 2010.
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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June 2nd, 2010, Fairfax, VA – Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s May 3rd request to the Obama Administration to build barriers off the Louisiana shoreline to stop oil from reaching pristine areas has been met with an additional delay as Obama Administration National Incident Commander, Admiral Thad Allen issued a request for public comments over the Internet today.
Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson reacted to the delays saying, “It is outrageous that fully one month after this request was filed, Obama’s man on the ground, is busy soliciting Internet comments rather than taking action.”
Governor Jindal was joined by local Louisiana officials in submitting the barrier island containment plan and discussing it directly with the President on May 2, gaining what seemed like Presidential approval for an expedited approval process to contain the oil. One month later, President’s man on the ground is taking an Internet survey.
Wilson concluded saying, “Crisis management by Internet comments is no way to operate, and goes to the heart of the question whether this Administration is simply grossly incompetent or willfully negligent. Every ounce of oil that hits the beaches and marshlands is on Obama’s hands.”
Americans for Limited Government published a commentary today questioning the Obama Administration’s commitment to containing the oil spill given their seeming obstructionism and disengagement over the past month and a half.
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