The slow-mo scandal that everyone forgot

By Libby

The wheel of Justice does indeed grind slowly. Jack Abramoff has long dropped out of the media narrative but the indictments related to that scandal continue to trickle in.

Prosecutors filed court papers Monday against Robert E. Coughlin II, the former deputy chief of staff of the department's criminal division, signaling that Coughlin has agreed to plead guilty.

In the court papers, Coughlin is accused of accepting gifts from an unnamed lobbyist between March 2001 and October 2003 while providing assistance to the lobbyist's firm and negotiating prospective employment with the firm. [...]

A spokeswoman with the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore, which made the allegations, wouldn't comment. Coughlin is at least the second Justice Department official to come under scrutiny in the wide-ranging Abramoff probe, which has implicated at least five congressmen, a deputy Cabinet secretary, a White House aide and eight others.

Those include Sue Ellen Wooldridge, former lead Justice prosecutor who resigned last year and Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, who announced his retirement, both of whom are yet to be indicted. It will be decades before we discover the full extent of the criminality of the Bush administration and none of the perps are likely to receive the punishment they deserve. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans languish in jails for smoking a plant.

Hard to understand why we call it a system of justice.

Comments

[JD]

Libby, they really do not like you over at the AmericanWarmonger, er, I mean AmericanPower blog.

Peace...

[Libby]

LOL JD. The donald has been stalking me since the day he stumbled onto my personal blog some many months ago. He seems to hold personally responsible for the downfall of western civilization.

I don't read him myself. I won't engage with someone who routinely showed in my comments and calls me babycakes. He's just a troll with his own blog.