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Prosecutors fired over unwillingness to prosecute pornography
The head of a Justice Department task force targeting obscenity, Brent Ward, complained last year that U.S. attorneys in Arizona and Nevada were resisting filing charges in obscenity cases forwarded by the task force. Both U.S. attorneys were eventually fired by the Justice Department, part of a purge of eight federal prosecutors that now has Congressional Democrats demanding accountability from the department. "We have two U.S. attorneys who are unwilling to take good cases we have presented to them," Brent Ward, the former U.S. attorney for Utah and head of the obscenity task force, wrote to Kyle Sampson, then-chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "In light of the A.G.'s comments . . . to 'kick butt and take names,' what do you suggest I do?" The Arizona Republic has more on Charlton's firing. An administration official told a House subcommittee last week that Charlton was asked to resign because of policy clashes with Washington officials over when to seek the death penalty and whether to tape all FBI interviews with suspected criminals. But the only complaints about Charlton in the dozens of e-mails between top Justice officials and White House lawyers focus on his being "unwilling" to prosecute an obscenity case and his decision not to prosecute most marijuana-smuggling cases near the border unless loads of more than 500 pounds were seized. This excellent bit of investigative reporting by Adult Video News looks at one obscenity case filed by Charlton (which may or may not be the case discussed in those dozens of emails) against a local porn shop. The document in question was a Motion to Dismiss filed by Richard Hertzberg, attorney for Five Star and others, on Aug. 31, 2006. Note the date, because it's significant. The Five Star defendants have been under indictment since last May 23rd for selling four sexually-explicit DVDs, all manufactured or distributed by JM Productions, to FBI agents perpetrating a sting operation based in Virginia. Five Star has one retail outlet and an Internet sales division, both located in Tempe. But Five Star isn't the biggest or best-known adult retailer in Arizona. That honor goes to the Castle Boutique, part of the Castle Megastore chain, which currently consists of 19 adult stores in several states. A few years ago, the Castle Megastores had financial problems, and eventually declared bankruptcy, along with another adult distribution company called Dexter Distributing. While undergoing reorganization under the U.S. bankruptcy laws, Castle has been and continues to be, according to Hertzberg's motion, "under the supervision of the U.S. Trustee's Office of the Department of Justice, and the United States Bankruptcy Court of the District of Arizona." "During its tenure in bankruptcy," the Motion continues, "it purchased from wholesalers, and sold and rented, multiple copies of the four indicted titles in this case. Evidence adduced at the hearing will reveal that Castle ordered and sold: "29 copies of the herein-indicted item Filthy Things 6 in 2005 and 2006; "It is believed that Castle also rented out the indicted items. Although the shelf-life of the four indicted items had expired by the time these indictments came down, Castle was, after the indictment in this case, still selling one of the indicted items — Filthy Things 6. An investigator working for Defendants' lawyer was able to purchase one from Castle's store at 8802 N. Black Canyon, Phoenix, Arizona on May 28, 2006 and one from Castle's store at 21815 N. 26th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona on June 1, 2006." In other words, while U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was busy indicting Five Star and JM and their employees for interstate transportation of obscene materials – "obscene" under the community standards of the District of Arizona – trustees employed by the U.S. Department of Justice were selling and had sold those exact same titles ... and not just in Arizona, but had also shipped those titles to other Castle stores in Oregon and Washington state. Sounds like a reasonable argument to dismiss the case, no? But more than six months later, the indictment against Five Star still stands. No word on whether the Justice Department has indicted itself for selling the same four DVDs. Link snagged from Reason Hit & Run, where my fave political blogger, Radley Balko, writes, "It shouldn't be surprising that the White House would expect its prosecutors to share its priorities. The real scandal here is what those priorities are. This Justice Department seems particularly interested in investing lots of federal resources on nonviolent, victimless crime. Think drugs, medical marijuana, 'Operation Pipe Dreams,' and Internet gambling. Oh yes, and porn." Balko earlier criticized these screwed-up priorities in his Fox News (yes really) column.
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The federal prosecutor firings affair, which initially struck me as the most boring political "scandal" in recent memory, has taken a salacious turn. Two of the prosecutors, Paul Charlton and Dan Bogden, fell out of White House favor partly