washingtonpost.com: Leaks Probe Is Gathering Momentum. The good news is that the professional prosecutors are getting heavily involved in the Plame Affair. The bad news is that Ashcroft isn't recusing himself. It sounds as if there is enough momentum here that if the professionals decided to prosecute there's no way Ashcroft could stop them. Worst case, he warns folks in the admnistration about what's coming down, most likely allowing damage control operations. (Very worst case, he sabotages the prosecutors by spilling beans, but I think that Justice has done all the obstruction it can get away with already, by giving the administration 24 hours to shred stuff before moving in to seal records.)
Recent Bluessky Posts- Judicial recusal (in FL and I presume elsewhere) is required for "a person within the third degree of relationship to either of them [judge or spouse], or the spouse of such a person". Parent- and siblings-in-law thus are covered. July 31, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Jotwell Int'l: Jaclyn Neo, Responsiveness as a Constitutional Value, JOTWELL (July 31, 2026) (reviewing Rosalind Dixon, The New Responsive Constitutionalism, 87 Mod. L. Rev. 799 (2024)), intl.jotwell.com/responsivene.... July 31, 2026 Jotwell
- And to think I used to feel a bit guilty for teaching at a private university. (It's expensive, although there are lots of scholarships.) July 31, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Sure but it's a vivid and handy example of what he could reasonably have feared. AGs in FL and TX are headline-chasing MAGA-pandering zealots and one ignores their existence at one's peril. July 30, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- That's not what you'd advise your client, is it? Surely the safe course is to be silent? And certainly his legal right. July 30, 2026 Michael Froomkin
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I agree. I wrote almost three months ago that the career prosecutors at DoJ were really our best hope for justice on this.
After all, remember who would appoint a special prosecutor, if there was to be one. In fact, as I implied in the post linked above, if the career prosecutors look to have the goods on someone like Rove, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ashcroft use the naming of a “loyal” special prosecutor to take the investigation out of their hands.
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