Whose side is the Justice Department on: America’s — or the terrorists’?
It’s just insane that a lawyer who defended Osama bin Laden’s driver and bodyguard — and who sought constitutional rights for terrorists — could be one of the Obama administration’s top legal officials.
But there’s Neal Katyal, occupying a top perch at the Justice Department as the principal deputy solicitor general.
Then there’s Jennifer Daskal — who just months ago was an anti-Guantanamo activist. Now she’s in Justice’s National Security Division — working on detainee issues.
Talk about conflicts of interest.
All kinds of rules prohibit government employees from influencing policy to the benefit of their previous employers. If Katyal, Daskal and other conflicted Justice lawyers had worked for corporations, they’d almost certainly be subject to these regulations.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hopping mad about the situation — and rightly so. Months ago, Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Grassley asked Attorney General Eric Holder to disclose who in the administration had previously represented or agitated for alleged terrorists.
The AG’s reply?
“I will consider that request.”
Holder must be thinking long and hard — because committee members have yet to receive a response.
Meanwhile, they’ve started asking other questions of Justice — like who came up with the brilliant idea to Mirandize undie-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, limiting the amount of intelligence he might provide about al Qaeda and future attacks.
With high-profile terror cases coming up — like Abdulmutallab’s, and the outrageous Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial in New York — Americans need to know: Is our government putting in a good-faith effort when it comes to punishing the men who want to blow up our people?
The call to treat terrorists like civilians in court has been all Team Obama.
Which means the president and his administration also owe the American people an answer: Is the government’s prosecutorial deck stacked in favor of the terrorists?
A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, tells The Post that the department will be responding to Sen. Grassley’s request “very soon.”
Will it be soon enough?
It’s time for Holder and Justice to come clean.
Now.