Senator warns DOJ is politicizing election law prosecutions
 A Democratic Senator warned Thursday that revisions to a Justice Department manual for federal prosecutors would politicize election law-related prosecutions.
"Taken together, the changes suggest that the Department has revised the manual to allow prosecutions that it knows will be used for partisan political advantage during the election process," Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) warned in a statement released to RAW STORY. "That would be a grave departure from the Department’s traditional mission of securing justice for all Americans."
Feinstein had asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in a July 24 Judiciary Committee hearing about changes found in the seventh edition of the manual on Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses. Her concerns focused on careful parsing of the language in the sixth and seventh editions of the so-called 'Red Book.'
For instance, Feinstein points to the removal of introductory language exhorting prosecutors that they "'must refrain' from anything that might affect the election, and that investigations 'must await' the end of the election."
Additionally, the prior edition of the manual states that "[A]ny criminal investigation by the Department must be conducted in a way that eliminates, or at least minimizes, the possibility that the investigation itself will become a factor in the election. In contrast, she noted, the seventh edition only states that Departmental investigations 'minimize' the possibility, without including the verb 'eliminates.'
Feinstein was dissatisfied with the Justice Department's response that, "There has been no substantive change, however, to Department's policies
regarding noninterference with elections," in a July 27 letter signed by Brian A. Benczkowski, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
Benczkowski had highlighted a passage that reads, "Accordingly it is
the general policy of the Department not to conduct overt investigations,
including interviews with voters, until after the outcome of the election
allegedly affected by the fraud is certified."
"Like the Sixth Edition before it, the Seventh Edition clearly warns federal prosecutors to take care to conduct election fraud investigations in such a way as to avoid affecting the election itself," the Justice Department official wrote to the Senator.
Feinstein requested further clarification from the Justice Department as follow-up.
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