From: f_gautjw@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Newsgroups: misc.legal,alt.activism
Subject: Re: U.S. Justice Dept. Statement on Inslaw Affair
Date: 15 Oct 92 14:58:23 GMT
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University

In article <1992Oct14.230342.15303@samba.oit.unc.edu>, Nigel.Allen@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Nigel Allen) writes:
> 
> Here is a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
> 
>  Justice Department Releases Statement
>  To: National Desk
>  Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, Public Affairs, 202-514-2007
> 
>    WASHINGTON, Oct. 13  -- The Department of Justice released today 
> the following statement:
> 
>    Attorney General William P. Barr today told the House Committee
> on the Judiciary that he will not seek the appointment of an
> Independent Counsel as requested in a Sept. 10 letter from a
> majority of the committee's Democratic members.  His reasons for
> this decision were set forth in a letter to the Committee.  Under
> the Independent Counsel statute, only the committee can make these
> materials public, and the attorney general has asked that it do so.
>    The Sept. 10 letter requested the appointment of an independent
> counsel to investigate allegations contained in a report adopted by
> the committee's Democratic majority members entitled, "The Inslaw
> Affair" (Report).
>    The independent counsel statute was designed to apply to certain
> exceptional cases.  Accordingly, the statute's specialized
> procedures are triggered in two specifically defined circumstances
> -- one mandatory and one discretionary.
>    The mandatory provision, 28 U.S.C. 591 (a), requires the
> attorney general to apply the procedures of the statute if and when
> he receives specific and credible information sufficient to warrant
> a criminal investigation of a "covered person."  Covered persons'
> are a small group of the most senior officials in the Executive
> Branch who are specifically listed in the statute.
>    The discretionary provision of the statute, 28 U.S.C. 591 (c),
> authorizes, but does not require, the Attorney General to proceed
> under the statute if: (1) he receives specific and credible
> information sufficient to warrant a criminal investigation of
> someone other than a "covered person"; and (2) he determines that
> an investigation or prosecution of that person by the Attorney
> General or other officer of the Department "may result in a
> personal, financial or political conflict of interest."
>    The department has concluded that the report contains no
> specific information that any "covered person" has committed a
> crime.

	This seems really strange considering that the ethics of key
Justice Department officials, including former Attorney General Edwin
Meese, have been called into question over the alledged multimillion
dollar theft of INSLAW's PROMIS software.


>    Regarding "non-covered" persons, long before the committee
> completed its report, Attorney General Barr appointed retired U.S.
> District Judge Nicholas J. Bua as special counsel to investigate
> all matters related to INSLAW.  Judge Bua has had an outstanding
> judicial career which has spanned almost thirty years.  He has
> served on the county, circuit and appellate courts in Illinois, and
> in 1977, President Carter appointed him to the U.S. District Court
> in Chicago.

	Does anyone have a straight story on Judge Bua's reputation
for judicial integrity?

Joe Gaut
Newsgroups: misc.legal