California’s own Congressman Dana Rohrabacher will investigate claims of abusive prosecutorial misconduct by Johnny Sutton, the US Attorney for the Western District of Texas. Specifically, he wants to know to what extent the Mexican government pressured Sutton to prosecute the two border patrol officers, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campean.
Rohrabacher (pictured), who chaired the Oversight Committee, when Republicans were in charge, will serve as ranking member. Unfortunately, Sutton has refused to testify at the July 31 hearing of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sutton has a lot of explaining to do.
Conservatives have long feared the Federal Government propensity for prosecutorial misconduct. There is hardly anything more frightening than the unlimited resources of a belligerent US Attorney.
Sutton, a friend of President Bush, and ambitious US Attorney, is charged with protecting the border along west Texas. Instead he jailed and prosecuted two border patrol agents and got them over 10 years of federal jail each for shooting a drug runner in the butt. Moreover, Sutton accepted the invitation from a Mexican attorney to make a deal to give immunity to the drug runner, in exchange to testify against the two border guards. Orwellian and backward.
There are many questions Sutton needs to answer. Even Sutton seems queasy about the heavy sentences given to the family men who were protecting our border.
Last week, in a public forum, President Bush was asked point blank if he would pardon the border guards. Bush said he would not make that promise, just days after he commuted the sentence for Lewis "Scooter" Libby, VP Cheney’s former Chief of Staff.
Literally millions of Americans question daily the wisdom of the Federal government to severely punish our guards by making deals with serial criminals.
Dana Rohrabacher represents the reason why conservatives work hard to elect champions to Congress.