Think it doesn't happen here?

As the Department of Justice and Alberto Gonzales continue to be exposed as one of the most corrupt institutions under the Bush Administration, those of us back home would hardly think that it affected Mississippi. The reality, of course, is very different.

After months of inherently inflated accusations, and huge wastes of taxpayer dollars, Scott Horton of Harpers Weekly and Adam Lynch from the Jackson Free Press are examining the unjust prosecution of Justice Oliver Diaz and Mississippi attorney Paul Minor. The obvious links of corruption start not here in Mississippi, but in D.C. with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Supreme Court Justice Scalia and the U.S Attorney General's office.

Below are a few shocking experts from their articles and research. If there was ever in time a Mississippi to be appalled at our justice system and the Republican administration that has politicized it, today is the day.

Scott Horton piece:

Suddenly the Mississippi trial lawyers and their judicial allies found themselves facing an even hungrier and more powerful foe: the Bush White House Department of Justice. The absurdities of the Justice Department’s conduct were not lost on many observers. “I am still not sure what they did was illegal under the weak laws governing such activities, nor am I sure the government really proved its case,” observed Clarion-Ledger Editorial Director David Hampton. “It did to the jury, so that’s that, but I have my doubts as an observer. Didn’t convince me.”

“It is my opinion that there was too much of a political smell to this case. The extent the Republican Justice Department went to in going after a wealthy influential Democratic trial lawyer just seemed over the top. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was extraordinary,” Hampton added...

As the investigation began, a survey of local newspapers—particularly The Clarion-Ledger—shows that Minor and his fellow targets were under heavy assault. The local press began to print articles laden with innuendo and smear, and articles appeared accusing Minor of “corruption” based on information consistently linked to anonymous “sources close to the investigation.”

As a practical matter, the information could only have come from the prosecution team. And the timing of the leaks—for instance in 2003, when Haley Barbour returned to Mississippi ready to run for governor for the GOP—seemed to coincide with Republican campaign strategy. The leaks served a double purpose: They “poisoned the well” by predisposing the newspaper-reading citizenry to think that Minor and his colleagues were guilty; and they furnished fodder for the GOP election effort in which high-profile and prominent Democrats were constantly labeled “corrupt...”

The actual charges are almost incomprehensible. Several public integrity prosecutors told me they were unfamiliar of any similar case raising charges quite like these, calling them “strange” and “perhaps unique.” Most public corruption cases revolve on a quid pro quo: a public official is asked to do something for some form of compensation or reward. But in these cases there is no quid pro quo, and none is alleged. As The New York Times’ Adam Liptak observed: “The central charge against the two men is so convoluted that setting it out requires a diagram, if not a family tree: Trying to influence a libel case against Mr. Minor’s father, Mr. Minor guaranteed a loan to Justice Diaz’s former wife.”

Here’s my take in short: “Honest service mail fraud” is an effort to conjure a crime that does not exist. The “crime” here is purely political...

Minor went to court twice. The first trial resulted in a deadlocked jury. When time came for the second trial, Minor found that the judge had decided to change the rules. In the first trial, Minor had offered a great deal of exculpatory evidence. He showed that he had an established practice of making small loans and guaranteeing loans to his friends and colleagues in the legal community who couldn’t get them elsewhere. This included a series of loans and loan guarantees he made over a long period of time to black lawyers who had a notoriously difficult time securing credit from Mississippi’s racially biased banks.

The evidence showed that Minor’s guarantees made for the three judges allowing them to fund their reelection campaigns, were not out of character. It directly offset claims that his intent was corrupt. But as the second trial got under way, the presiding judge announced he had changed his mind about this evidence, and he was going to exclude it. This was a clear and conscious changing of the goalposts in mid-game, designed to help the prosecution get a conviction. And the second go-round produced that result.

From Adam Lynch...

Diaz pointed out that Lampton admitted to the press in 2005 that his first indictment against Diaz had little strength—because Diaz did not vote on any of Minor’s cases—but Lampton pressed the case, nonetheless.

“I did say that that case was the weakest,” Lampton conceded last week. “There are other things that I’m aware of regarding Diaz that caused me to refrain from commenting further on that, but it will come out later, and you’ll see. The Justice Department and I strongly disagreed on how to prosecute that case. The Justice Department got their way, and I believe there was sufficient evidence to convict him, but maybe not for what he was charged...”

The report recorded the U.S. attorneys’ federal investigation and/or indictment of 375 elected officials between January 2001 and December 2006. Shields’ data indicates that the offices of the U.S. attorneys across the nation investigated seven times as many Democratic officials as Republicans...