The election of a new
president means the appointment of a new Attorney General. It
also means that for most of the nation a new U.S. Attorney will
be taking over in each of the federal judicial districts. Andrea
Weigl and Matthew Eisley decided that with this probable switch
in party control about to take place, that the time had come to
examine the performance of office in their region during the Clinton
years. With the help of TRAC data, Weigl and Eisley discovered
that while the office had focused a good deal of energy on drug
enforcement, it had done little when it came to polluters, corrupt
government officials or white collar criminals. During the last
13 years, for one example, the office had chosen not to posecute
a single environmental case although 20 such matters had been
referred to it by federal investigators. The front-page article
included thoughtful comments from a number of prominent lawyers
and investigators, including the former head of the local FBI
office.
