Editorial: Political prosecutions?

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

The Justice Department scandal involving the firing of nine U.S. attorneys has landed in court as defendants are accusing prosecutors of playing politics with their cases.

The congressional investigation has shown that Justice Department officials were under pressure from the administration and Republicans to go after Democrats and stay away from Republicans in political corruption cases. Prosecutors, such as fired U.S. attorney for Nevada Daniel Bogden, were pushed on White House mandates, such as increasing prosecutions of obscenity and immigration offenses.

Now prosecutors are having to answer for the administration's actions. A story in Monday's Los Angeles Times detailed some of the charges.

Although prosecutors vigorously deny there is a political influence in their work, B. Todd Jones, a former U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, told the Times that such arguments are now "given credence in the public eye because they are seeing that maybe there were political decisions made. Any defense lawyer worth their salt is going to say this is a political prosecution that shouldn't have been brought."

Prosecutors should be insulated from politics to ensure fairness, but the Justice Department has been infused with politics under the Bush administration. It will be some time before the department's credibility is restored.