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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Mississippi Justice
We’ve written a lot about whether the Justice Department wrongly fired nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 for failing to prosecute Democrats just before the congressional elections that year and for aggressively pursuing Republican lawmakers on corruption charges.
Now comes another story about alleged corruption and more alleged politicization at the Justice Department.
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., gave RAW Story an exclusive interview about what he believes was a political prosecution by a federal prosecutor appointed by Bush.
Diaz Jr. was indicted in 2003 on charges relating to his receipt of a loan guarantee from prominent Mississippi trial lawyer Paul Minor, a major Democratic donor.
U.S. Attorney Dunnica Lampton brought charges of bribery against Diaz, Minor and two other Mississippi judges.
Diaz was acquitted of all those charges. But within days of his acquittal, Diaz was indicted a second time. He was again acquitted. Now he is speaking out.
“Normally, a criminal investigation begins after a crime is committed,” Diaz told RAW story. “Investigators are sent out to gather evidence and a list of suspects is drawn up. Sometimes an investigation is begun after a complaint is made about suspicious activity. In our case neither of these things occurred.”
“In other words, an individual was singled out for examination from the federal government and prosecutors then attempted to make his conduct fit into some criminal statute,” Diaz told RAW story. “This is not how our system of justice is supposed to operate.”
We are waiting for a response from Lampton’s office to explain the rash of indictments against trial lawyers and Democratic donors.
