Ashcroft sure took his sweet time before recusal

why should we expect ANYTHING resembling ethical behavior from ANYONE either now or previously associated with the bush administration...? there is absolutely no basis for such an expectation...

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft continued to oversee the Valerie Plame-CIA leak probe for more than two months in late 2003 after he learned in extensive briefings that FBI agents suspected White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of trying to mislead the FBI to conceal their roles in the leak, according to government records and interviews. Despite these briefings, which took place between October and December 2003, and despite the fact that senior White House aides might become central to the leak case, Ashcroft did not recuse himself from the matter until December 30, when he allowed the appointment of a special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, to take over the investigation.

[...]

Current and former Justice officials not directly involved in the case said in interviews for this article, almost without exception, that once senior aides to both the president and vice president came under suspicion, Ashcroft should have recused himself entirely from the case.

i hope murray waas gets a major journalism award for his yeoman's work on the fitzgerald/libby/plame/rove case, because, god knows, he deserves it...

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