All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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Jack L. Goldsmith is no John McCain. So it will be fascinating to see whether and to what extent the tribunes of the White House try to savage Goldstein’s credentials and reputation now that he has decided to offer a withering critique of the inner-circle tactics used by the Bush administration to formulate our legal response to the war on terrorism.

Goldsmith is a rock-ribbed, old-fashioned, old-school conservative attorney—your father’s conservative attorney, you might say-- who for years shaped anti-terror policy at the Justice Department before he finally had enough with the rest of the president's (and the vice-president's) men. He is the embodiment of what the Justice Department used to stand for-- adherence to the rule of law, caution in extending executive branch power, respect for the other branches of government, respect for dissenting views-- and for that he became a pariah...

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The resignation of Alberto Gonzales marks another chapter in what seemed to be a great American success story -- a story that ends with a very public fall from grace.

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Robert Hendin is a CBS News producer in Washington who covers the Department of Justice.

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Alberto Gonzales had always said that only two people would decide his fate as attorney general. Since President Bush consistently stood by him, in the end, it was left to Gonzales himself to resign. He had no support from anyone except the President and, as Attorney General, running a department of some 100,000 people, he needed more support than just from his longtime friend.

Gonzales's undoing really began as the Bush Administration began the war on terror. As White House Counsel to President Bush, Gonzales was responsible for the so-called torture memo and many of the policies that led to enemy combatants, Guantanamo bay, and calling the Geneva convention protections quaint. Democrats and Civil Libertarians were outraged when he became attorney general, but it wasn't until the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006, did the unraveling of Gonzales's tenure really begin.

Once word spread that numerous US Attorneys were asked to resign, for what looked like political advantage in voting rights cases, Democrats put the heat on the AG. Through numerous hearings, statements, and thousands of pages of internal Justice Department documents, Gonzales's credibility began to unravel. He did not appear to be forthcoming to the Congress and made statements that appeared to be contradictory to the official record. Many in Congress simply said they did not trust the attorney general.

And when former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified to the Senate about a late night hospital room visit in 2004, that then-White House Counsel Gonzales made to the bed of an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft, the wheels finally began to come off. Gonzales's testimony about the secret NSA surveillance program that the Administration had started in secret, was contradicted by not only Comey, but also by FBI Director Robert Mueller -- saying that, in effect, what Gonzales told the congress simply was not true.

Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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I was going to write this morning about Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback Michael Vick and the Kobe-like arraignment he endured Thursday—news flash: his lawyer says he’s innocent—but when I trawled through the papers online this morning it became clear that the most profound legal story around still involves the drama surrounding the increasingly embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

It’s been a tough week for President George W. Bush’s old pal; a tough week that is part of his self-made annus horribilus. First, he dubiously declared that he was part of the solution, not the problem, at Justice, where morale has plummeted as a result of the U.S. Attorney scandal and its aftermath. Then, Gonzales once again appeared before Congress and once again offered a pathetic performance that actually would have been funny if it weren’t so sad.

Gonzales’ appearance “was devastating,” said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But so was the hearing before that, and so was the hearing before that”...

Bob Orr in Washington has today's First Look at the Evening News, with the latest on the call by Democrats to press perjury charges against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

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Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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Twenty-four-and-one-half pages into a 26-page speech he is prepared to give Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales finally found the time and space to briefly share with lawmakers his latest views on the U.S. Attorney scandal—the “politicization of hiring in the Department” he labels it with a false sense of detachment.

“I believe very strongly that there is no place for political considerations in the hiring of our career employees or in the administration of justice,” the Attorney General writes. “As such, the allegations of such activity have been troubling to hear. From my perspective, there are two options available in light of these allegations. I could walk away or I could devote my time, effort and energy to fix the problems. Since I have never been one to quit, I decided that the best course of action was to remain here and fix the problems. That is exactly what I am doing.”

No one is fooled any longer by Gonzales’ Captain Renaud imitation. Surely he is not really shocked—SHOCKED!—to find his Justice Department politicized. After all, he is one of the people who helped politicize it. It was Gonzales who failed to protect career professionals at Justice; it was Gonzales who encouraged or tolerated the hiring practices that brought partisan hacks into the Department at the expense of non-partisan veterans. And it was Gonzales who allowed his patrons at the White House to turn Justice into just another arm of Karl Rove’s political machinery...

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Stephanie Lambidakis is a CBS News producer based in Washington.

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Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his deputy Paul McNulty held a party today to celebrate the accomplishments of the Corporate Fraud Task Force -- which in the five years since its creation, has racked up an impressive record: 1,236 fraud convictions including guilty verdicts and stiff prison terms for 214 CEOs. For several years, it seemed like one continuous perp walk. There was the parade of Enron execs in handcuffs, Martha Stewart with a $10,000 Hermes purse on her courthouse arm, and "telecom Cowboy" Bernie Ebbers, whose 11-Billion dollar fraud at WorldCom left pensioners penniless.

While there is no let-up in the corporate fraud crackdown, there was an unmistakable air of back-patting in the stately Great Hall today. Gonzales presented the head of the Corporate Fraud Task Force, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, with an actual medal. Then there was a reception, which by the brown-bag standards of the federal workforce, seemed downright lavish. This was a fully-catered affair with waiters in black tie and chafing dishes filled with giant shrimp, smoked salmon in puff pastry, and scallops wrapped in bacon. The staple of Justice Department functions, the pink punch was replaced by elegant glasses of iced tea and refreshing lemonade.

It was the kind of event that a Bernie Ebbers or Martha Stewart would instantly feel at home attending. McNulty's office spent several thousand dollars on the reception -- this in addition to the costs incurred with flying United States Attorneys to Washington to bask in the glow of the five year anniversary. This comes at a time when US Attorneys all across the country are begging for more resources and are being told money is too tight. Sure, this wasn't a $2-million dollar toga party thrown by now-imprisoned Tyco chief Dennis Kozlowski, but in a department that has cracked down on corporate excess, the sight of officials holding china piled high with hors d'oeuvres during the middle of a workday seemed excessive in its own way.

Stephanie Lambidakis is a CBS News producer based in Washington.

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Even though the controversy over the firings of the U.S. Attorneys has cooled, senior Justice Department officials are still bailing out.

Richard Hertling, the Acting chief of the Office of Legislative Affairs, has been responsible for communicating with lawmakers about the investigation and sending the thousands of pages of documents to the Hill. Hertling leaves the Department this Friday to work for Fred Thompson's as-yet unofficial presidential campaign. Hertling's an investigations' veteran going back to his days as deputy spokesman for Thompson during the probe of the Clinton administration's fundraising practices.

Just last week Rachel Brand, a senior policy advisor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, announced her departure. Brand's name surfaced in emails because Gonzales gauged her interest in being the US Attorney in Michigan where Margaret Chiara was getting the axe. No reason was given, but Brand will soon give birth to her first child.

The most-talked-about departure these days, however, involves someone whose name will never surface in a controversial email. Her name is Eloise Parker, and for 30 years until her retirement last week, Mrs. Parker, as she is called, ran the department's store, a kind of mini 7-11 that dispensed snacks and sundries and department memorabilia. During her going-out-of-business sale, the first items to go were the tee-shirts and sweatpants and golf towels bearing the US Attorney logo.

I have a habit of asking what I like to call not-so-stupid questions around here. So when I saw conflicting testimony from the Alberto Gonzales-U.S. Attorney firing hearings I wanted to know what the procedure is for bringing perjury charges against a person for bearing false witness to Congress. I asked my colleague CBS News legal consultant Andrew Cohen for help, and after several inquiries, we got an answer from a Democratic staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The staffer says there is no statutory process to bring perjury charges; a committee member or members can refer the issue to the Department of Justice, or the DOJ can start an inquiry on its own.

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Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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I’m not going to lie to you. I have absolutely no idea what former Justice Department official Monica Goodling is going to say this morning when she testifies about the U.S. Attorney scandal before the House Judiciary Committee. Some folks believe that she will cry. Others believe that she will accuse Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales of knowing more about the prosecutor purge than he has let on so far. Others believe that she will take one for the White House like “loyal Bushie” she is and protect her superiors. Bottom line? Your guess is as good as mine.

But what I can guarantee you is that she will not face perjury charges when her testimony is complete nor, in all likelihood, will any of the other unhappy folks who have come before her to Capitol Hill to tell their stories about the current chaos within the Justice Department. Goodling is in good shape because she has been given “use immunity” for her testimony and thus, presumably, will testify accurately and honestly about her role in the affair.

And that’s the key—she has to be honest. If the feds find out she wasn’t, they can go after her just like before. So when she is asked, for example, who drew up the list of prosecutors to be fired she should be able to offer an answer that so far has eluded all of us. Likewise, when she is asked to tell us what role Gonzales played in the run-up to the firings Goodling should be able to give us details that for whatever reason the Attorney General is unable or unwilling to give us. For these reasons alone, her testimony will be both interesting and important and certainly capable of advancing the story far beyond where it has stood for the past week or so.

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