The following editorial appeared in the Washington Post. Excerpts: For most of the past eight years, the Justice Department has been roiled by controversy largely of its own making: Secret torture memos. Political litmus tests for nonpolitical posts. The questionable firing of US attorneys. There are several changes that Barack Obama’s administration must make, but first a few things it should build on.
Incoming leaders can thank Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey for beginning to fix many of the department’s ethical lapses. During his brief tenure, Mukasey issued guideposts limiting contacts between the Justice Department and the White House concerning ongoing investigations. He has been outspoken about the absolute necessity of keeping political considerations out of the hiring process for career and nonpolitical employees. The next attorney general should be just as clear and just as adamant.
The administration should also recognize that the FBI has done a good job of reining in former excesses. No less a critic than the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General credited FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III this year with making significant headway in the agency’s handling of national security and exigent letters. The inspector general earlier had revealed the agency’s lax controls in the use of these powerful and intrusive tools. The incoming leaders at Justice should keep in place new guidelines that give FBI agents involved in intelligence or terrorism probes the discretion to use techniques already available to agents working on routine matters. Vigilance and congressional oversight will continue to be important checks.
Most important, the new administration should maintain counterterrorism and counterintelligence as top priorities. There have been rumblings in some Democratic circles about these areas absorbing too much of the agency’s money and personnel. Some fiscal rearranging may be in order. But new leaders must not let the absence of a recent attack on domestic soil lull them into thinking that significant law enforcement resources are not needed. Where the new Justice Department must part ways with the old is in the area of terror policy and executive power.
