TheAgitator.com
Janet Reno Honored…Again
Friday, April 17th, 2009You’d think a group that advocates for criminal justice reform could find worthier people to honor than Janet Reno, the woman who sent an innocent man to prison for 11 years, gave us 76 charred bodies at Waco, wrongly tried to imprison a 14-year-old kid in a fit of anti-occult hysteria, presided over the Justice Department investigation and media leak that ruined Richard Jewell’s life, and built her career on a series of highly questionable child abuse convictions won on manufactured evidence.
You’d think. But Reno keeps raking in the honors, and from organizations for whom I otherwise have a lot of respect.
Disappointing.
There was a 2002 PBS Frontline Special “Did Daddy Do It”, that focused prominently on Janet Reno’s role in the 1980′s child abuse investigation hysteria, when she was a Dade County Prosecuting Attorney.
The really creepy part of the Frontline story was the description told by the former wife of Frank Fuster, who rolled over to become Reno’s State Witness, and testified against her husband.
The former Mrs. Fuster recounted periodic late, late nite visits to her jail cell by none other than: Janet Reno.
After the accused/recalcitrant witness had been doused with cold water, and left naked in her cell, Janet got to watch, and ask questions……..
Softening up the witness?
Any touching??
Reno is positively scarey.
Is it true what I hear, that she and Donna Shalala are expecting?
I’d like to honor her…with a jail cell.
Can anyone provide some links to the misconduct of Eric Holder and Bush’s attorney generals? I think it would be interesting to compare the wrong doings across party lines and administrations.
I don’t think the actual people responsible for the witch burnings the 16th and 17th century Europe and America ever suffered repercussions either. They were just unwittingly caught up in the hysteria like everyone else and there’s no sense in digging up the past.
For anyone who wants to find out just what people are capable of when inflamed by the war cry “save the children” should study the child sexual abuse cases of the 80s. Many of the cases are not even a little believable. There is no benefit of the doubt to grant them.
I hate it when people talk about witch burnings and lynchings as if we’re past that phase in history. We’re not. We’ve only changed the target and the method.
When all is said and done, no one will ever be held accountable for the mass destruction of people’s lives currently known as the drug war.
I would say that Janet Reno definitely exemplifies the U.S. Justice department.
Now come on, Radley. She was the first female attorney general! That trumps anything she ever did or any lives she ruined.
Our current Attorney General Eric Holder, while serving as a Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, was suckled on the breast milk of human kindness by none other than:
Former Attorney General Janet Reno.
A thin and unsatisfying sustenance by all accounts.
Let’s not forget Elian Gonzalez. His mother died to get him to wht was then a capitalist country, and thanks to Reno, the authorities raided the family home to steal him and send him back to Communism (which he would be living under today if he stayed here, but still)…
While Janet Napolitano was our Governor in AZ (good riddance), we used to call her Janet Napolireno because of the similiar appearance and demeanor. As much as AZ is glad to be rid of our ‘Janet’, I think she’s shaping up to be just as ‘stellar’ for the country as Reno was. :(
I’ve thought that Napolitano was Reno in shapeshifter mode. I hope they give Reno an award down here in S. Florida. I’d love to see what Miami folks would think about it.
Let’s not forget Elian Gonzalez. His mother died to get him to wht was then a capitalist country, and thanks to Reno, the authorities raided the family home to steal him and send him back to Communism (which he would be living under today if he stayed here, but still)…
Please. He was returned to his father, like he should have been. Only idiots think otherwise.
Reno might be terrible for other reasons, but Elian Gonzales (nor the mass murder of Waco residents by David Koresh) were not in any way improper. Give me a break.
Nothing improper, aside from the fact that Koresh could have been arrested peacefully on numerous occasions instead of turning it into a violent siege. Was that enough of a break for you, or do I need to polish the old clue bat?
Um…yeah, that’s true Mike T, but Reno wasn’t AG at the time of the initial raid, it’s a little hard to lay that off on her.
@ 10.
If we’re idiots for thinking that kidnapping at gun point and forcing a child to go back to a poor & oppressive country, it’s better than being an asshole like you.
According to Reno in a Nightline interview that night, the tear gas at Waco was aimed at the children, for whom gas masks were not available, in order to pressure their parents into surrendering.
That’s aggravated assault against the children, a felony, and Texas is a felony murder state. Since there’s no statute of limitations for murder, I don’t see why she couldnt be charged with felony murder even at this late date. Not that she will be, of course….
My pet theory is she has candid shots of Bill and a farm animal.
Wm. Jefferson Clinton has a life history of being dominated by strong, overbearing women:
His mother
Hillary
Betsy Wright
Janet Reno
Anyone else come to mind?
BHO?
Valerie Barrett
Michelle Obama
Hillary Clinton
Janet Napolitano
“If we’re idiots for thinking that kidnapping at gun point and forcing a child to go back to a poor & oppressive country, it’s better than being an asshole like you.”
Hey, good point. If a father has a political position we don’t like, and lives in a country we don’t like, he should lose all access to his child and anyone who disagrees is an asshole. Glad we have that straight.
@#16 — Janet Reno had neither the temperment nor the intelligence to dominate Bill Clinton. On the contrary, slavish subservience to him was one of the things that made her such a hellish AG.
On the Waco thing I’m willing to call it a draw between Reno and Koresh on the stupid/evil question. But when it comes to Elian Gonzales, holy smokes – anybody who thinks (#7, #13) that Janet Reno issued a diktat that the kid should be kidnapped from his family in order to be returned to Communism…well, there aren’t really words sufficient to describe just how batshit crazy, wrong on the facts, and (ironically given the forum) actually authoritarian that viewpoint is.
Wow, it’s hard to know where to begin with this lot of misinformed, misogynistic nonsense.
“Whim” – did you make similar cracks about George W. Bush’s history of being dominated by strong women, or do you just reserve that criticism for Democrats? Seriously: do you really think that President Obama is a wimp because he listens to women (e.g., Hillary Clinton, who clearly has a very strong following in the Democratic Party)?
Linda – which Janet Reno are you talking about, who suffered from “slavish subservience” to Bill Clinton? For most of the 1996-2000 term, Reno was barely on speaking terms with Clinton because of one of her biggest mistakes: caving in to Ken Starr’s requests to expand and continue his wild goose chase of an investigation. What exactly did Reno do for Clinton to demonstrate her “slavish subservience?” I bet Bill would be hard-pressed to identify any favors she did for him.
I’m not going to defend everything Janet Reno did, but there are a few things here that deserve some response:
- As for Miami-Dade’s child abuse prosecutions, I think the Frontline special cited above needs to be viewed with a very big grain of salt. I am reasonably skeptical of the government, but the Fuster allegations don’t seem credible to me. It might well be that Reno was inadequately skeptical of child abuse allegations, but I doubt that a lot of what was alleged in that broadcast in fact occurred.
- Waco – Reno herself acknowledged that her decisions were wrong, but it’s got to be kept in mind that she was very, very new to the job (she was sworn in about mid-way of the two month period between the initial raid in February, and the disastrous assault in April, 1993). It’s not surprising that a state prosecutor coming into that role in the middle of those events would defer to ATF and FBI advice on how to proceed. I think it’s fair to say that she learned from that experience, and was skeptical of federal agents thereafter (just ask Louis Freeh, who spent much of his career thereafter stabbing her in the back).
- Elian Gonzalez – the only reason this issue ever had any traction in public opinion is because the Cuban American community in Miami either a) collectively lost their minds because of their hatred of Fidel Castro, or b) chose to put their political interests above those of the child’s. Reno handled it correctly, at great personal political cost.
I worked at DOJ for most of Reno’s tenure. Although she wasn’t the most innovative AG in history, she was a very dedicated public servant who, in my experience, never allowed politics to influence her decisions.
What matters with government is not that things go wrong, because things always will go wrong sometimes with human endeavors; what matters is how governments react afterwards.
The Clinton administration inherited the Ruby Ridge and Waco situations to a large degree, since Rudy Ridge happened in August 1992, and the February 1993 ATF raid on Waco was in the pipeline before inauguration. But how did the Clintonites react afterwards?
The April 12, 1993 trial of Randy Weaver, where the DOJ wanted the death penalty, and the April 19, 1993 burndown of Waco is all at the hands of Clinton and his cronies. (I can’t help but suspect the HRT aggressiveness at Waco was a reaction to how bad that same HRT was looking during the trial of Randy Weaver.)
But wait it gets even better!
Our current attorney general Eric Holder was deputy attorney general beginning in 1997. So it was under his direction we saw not only the Elian Gonzalez fiasco, but a littler known and much more dangerous fiasco.
It was during Holders reign when the Feds employed the Nuremberg defense in the 1997 trial of HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Horiuchi
The Feds claimed Horiuchi was immune from Idaho law because Houriuchi was a Federal agent just following orders. Therefore the charge of involuntary manslaughter for shooting Vicki Weaver to death in 1992 should be dismissed.
Ultimately the Feds failed in setting a precedent, though barely! But did succeed in protecting Horiuchi by stalling the trial. The case was eventually withdrawn and Horiuchi returned to duty. Today he is retired on a nice FBI pension.
And today Eric Holder, having failed upward, sits as U.S. Attorney General. God help us all.
Brad, Ruby Ridge was undeniably a tragedy and the result of serious mistakes in judgment. That really doesn’t excuse your misrepresentation of the government’s position, though. The US did not claim “Horiuchi was immune from Idaho law because Horiuchi was a Federal agent just following orders.”
The government’s motion to dismiss (ultimately denied by an en banc 9th Circuit Court of Appeals) was based on a fair reading of the Supremacy Clause and the government’s conclusion that Horiuchi shot at Harris (wounding him and killing Randy Weaver’s wife, Vicki) out of a fear that Harris was armed and about to gain a safe position in the cabin from which to fire on an FBI helicopter. The government claimed that the faulty rules of engagement (basically a free-fire rule on any armed male) made Horiuchi “sensitized” to danger on the scene, but it never argued that he was just following orders. Quite the contrary. You can disagree with the government’s decision to adopt Horiuchi’s version, and you can disagree with their decision to argue that the Supremacy Clause protected him, but there’s no basis for stating that they rested their defense on his following government orders.
To characterize this as a “Nuremberg defense” is unwarranted. Not even the Idaho prosecutor who brought the original charge believed that Horiuchi acted out of malice, instead charging him with manslaughter for negligently discharging his rifle. Horiuchi may have been negligent, but to compare him to a Nazi war criminal is really over the top.
Ben (too): Linda – which Janet Reno are you talking about
How about the Janet Reno who refused, even against the advice of her own task force, to establish independent counsel for investigating the Clinton administration’s fundraising innovations, like coming up with ways to obtain political contributions from the Chicoms? Her department’s deflecting and squelching of those scandals more than made up for her inability to keep the lid clamped entirely down on Bill’s philandering and perjury.
I bet Bill would be hard-pressed to identify any favors she did for him.
Well, if he’s forgotten about her keeping the facts about foreign campaign contributions safe from prying eyes, he might recall how she taught the DOJ a few new dance steps in those FALN pardons he was so hot for. With Reno around, there was no problem sidestepping those staid old requirements for prisoners to file for their own clemency or even to express remorse. Being one of the few people on earth who really sensed the urgency of springing those bomb-makers from the joint, surely Bill remembers the favor of her department’s kind assistance in that matter. Not just any old AG would have thrown the rules out the window like that, particularly for so unpopular and mind-boggling a reason.
[Reno] was a very dedicated public servant who, in my experience, never allowed politics to influence her decisions.
SSPLECCGH! You owe me a new monitor, Ben.
Gosh, if the Fed assertion of the supremacy clause was a “fair reading” then why did they get slapped down by the court? What the Feds wanted and the court denied them was a license to kill; that’s what was at stake and the court understood that’s what was at stake.
And fair minded observers don’t put much credence into the after the fact excuses Horiuchi made for the multiple shots he fired. And if the Feds themselves had any real confidence in Horiuchi’s excuses they wouldn’t have tried the immunity gambit.
Linda (#23): You get an “A” for effort, I guess, but you’re forgetting two things: First, Janet Reno’s DOJ investigated, prosecuted, and convicted most of the individuals who made illegal contributions to the DNC and to Clinton’s legal defense fund. Second, the pardon power is vested exclusively in the president. I actually think there’s a good argument that having DOJ play a gatekeeper role violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution. In any event, I don’t recall DOJ actually endorsing the FALN pardons (unlike, say, many prominent people like Jimmy Carter and several religious leaders). But really, is that all you’ve got against Reno?
Brad (#24): First of all, the DOJ’s Supremacy Clause argument was upheld by both the District Court and the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit that first heard the case. I think that substantiates that it was a fair reading of the clause. More importantly, I’m surprised at the vehemence with which you want to lay the blame for Ruby Ridge (which occurred under Bush I) at Janet Reno’s feet, and I think your conclusion is still unwarranted. The fact is that DOJ didn’t defend Horiuchi, as you say, by arguing that he was just following orders. I don’t think that even Horiuchi defended himself on that ground. So it’s a bit of a straw man to try to pin blame for that position on Reno.
Wow, just wow.
So now you are claiming I blamed Janet Reno for Ruby Ridge? Even though I specifically said that I didn’t? Allrighty then.
You will have to pardon me then if I don’t find your rationalization of the Horiuchi trial very convincing either.
About as convincing as when Eric Holder during his confirmation hearing for AG said that “no one is above the law”. Unless of course you are an FBI sniper shooting someone in the back without warning or legal justification. Then you are above the law, or at least State law.
Ben: But really, is that all you’ve got against Reno?
By no means, but I wasn’t trying – and won’t try — to lay out all her many missteps and misdeeds in her service to Clinton. That record speaks amply for itself. I merely highlighted a couple of areas of DOJ activity, 1996-2000, to counter your suggestion that Reno did Clinton no political favors, particularly during the second term.
If there are reasons other than undisguised protection of her boss (in keeping the finance scandals investigations to herself) and the delivery to him of unquestioning and unprecedented DOJ compliance and assistance and cover (in the handling of the FALN clemencies), I truly can’t imagine what they are.
But given your contention that she was some sort of wide-eyed naïf at Waco who deserves kudos for having “learned from that experience,” it’s not surprising that you’re unimpressed with her less flamboyant failures as a public servant.
((((Is it true what I hear, that she and Donna Shalala are expecting?)))
Sigh.
Just wanted to see some Janet Reno info. Funny ….Obama says now that they will prosecute Bush admin officials for torture…. but Janet Reno stays free after being responsible for the Waco tragedy. ATF busted into Waco ….causing the deaths. What? 76? But the liberals want to prosecute for pushing the envelope in Guantanamo Bay on non-Americans. Why are Americans buying guns in huge quantities? Because the Dems do not honor the sanctity of the American home and advocate illegal search & seizure (Elian Gonzalez) & allow murder of American citizens. …Heaven forbid we beat the crap out of some terrorists.