35-Year DOJ Employee Joseph Rich Says: Schlozman Responsible For Politicizing Civil Rights Division At DOJ

Joseph Rich, a 35-year employee of the Department of Justice, has nothing but harsh words for former U.S. Attorney Brad Schlozman. Schlozman was installed as U.S. Attorney by the Bush Administration without Senate confirmation.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Bush administration used the opportunity to push out the ethichally-challenged Todd Graves, only to replace him with a political tool that would do Karl Rove's bidding--with the full law enforcement authority of the United States government.

Here is Rich on Schlozman:

JOSEPH RICH: Well, another thing that happened in this
administration right from the outset was a great priority on voter
fraud. It continued to increase through 2004 and then, I think,
particularly after I left in 2006. The priority on voter fraud -- voter
fraud is done by the Criminal Division. The Civil Rights Division works
on voter intimidation based on race during elections. And the increase
in emphasis on voter fraud became more and more apparent, to the point
that last year Bradley Schlozman, who had been one of the ones
responsible for politicizing the Civil Rights Division -- he had been
there from 2003 to 2006. He was one of the first -- I think the
first -- interim US attorney appointed under the PATRIOT Act, that gave
the Attorney General the authority to appoint people without
confirmation indefinitely. He was appointed in Missouri, a battleground
state in 2006.

Five days before the election last fall in Missouri, he
brought five voter fraud cases against members of -- or I think
employees of ACORN for alleged voter fraud. This was contrary to
longstanding department policy not to bring or even investigate voter
fraud cases shortly before an election because of the sensitivity to
having any impact on elections. The longstanding policy was one in
which, if there was evidence of voter fraud, the investigation would
take place, unless there was a real emergency, after the election.

The fact that that happened in Missouri, the fact that the
United States attorneys in New Mexico and Washington, who were
following the priority of investigating vigorously voter fraud and yet
were removed because they did not indict, is extremely disturbing,
because they were doing their job, but in their professional judgment
they did not have evidence to bring the cases, and that appears to have
been a major factor in their removal.

Click here to watch the video.