FULL STALL JUSTICE: Rep. Jerry Lewis Probe Rolls Backwards "prosecutor ... forced into retirement"

[L. Coyote]

TPM: Stalled Lewis Probe Rolls Backwards
By Paul Kiel - September 7, 2007, 10:05 AM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004093.php

The U.S. attorney office in Los Angeles just can't seem to muster the manpower needed to investigate senior Republican appropriator Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). In fact, it seems that the Justice Department is handicapping itself.

The veteran prosecutor who'd been heading up the Lewis case has been forced into retirement.....

The Wall Street Journal reported last week (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004051.php) that budget shortages and the departure of top prosecutors from the office had caused the investigation to slow down since last fall.......

Robert Iafolla reports in the Daily Journal:

Because of civil-service rules, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. attorney's office who just recently took over the probe of Rep. Jerry Lewis must exit the office for good by the end of September, marking the third significant departure from the office's corruption unit since Lewis first came under suspicion last year...

....

Interim U.S. Attorney George S. Cardona said internal policy is designed to limit extensions. The Justice Department "extended it for important cases, but it finally got to the point that it was no longer willing to extend the temporary appointments," he said.

It's not clear from Cardona's remark why the Lewis case, which centers on whether Lewis abused his position atop the House appropriations committee, wouldn't qualify as an "important" case............