Politics Trumps Everything?

This story, coming from World Net Daily, is appalling. In fact, it's mostly interesting at this point because of this report appearing where it does: one of the most knee-jerk of "conservative" publications.

"The U.S. attorney's office in Texas actually prepared indictments in this case," Angle told WND. "But when the word came from Washington, that's when Baumann wrote his letter declining prosecution. Sutton's office dropped the matter on the desk of the local district attorney, but nobody from Sutton's office said 'if you can�t go on this case, we'll help you out.'"

WND asked Angle to explain how politics drove the decisions not to prosecute.

"If you read the letters from Sutton's office or from DOJ, it's really amazing what abuse they describe and then downplay as not being serious," Angle explained. "They describe systematic and widespread abuse of juveniles who were held in these facilities by the people who were administering these facilities, and they acknowledge this fully, yet they determine that the evidence is not sufficient to warrant federal prosecution."

Angle explained to WND that he found both letters shocking.

"The letters justify not pursuing these cases because, number one, there is no evidence that any of these juveniles felt physical pain while they were being assaulted, and the letters use the word 'assaulted,'" he said. "And then also, they rejected prosecution because none of these juveniles stated in the investigations that they resisted and objected, which of course the facts of the report show to be the case. This case developed right in the middle of Governor Perry's 2006 re-election campaign. While Texas is a Republican state, and the Republicans expected to win, still at that time, Governor Perry was facing an election challenge from Carole Strayhorn, a third party candidate who was also a former Republican comptroller in Texas."

He continued: "I would speculate that the political powers in Texas and Washington in the Republican Party were not interested in this sex scandal coming to light. Sutton and Gonzales let their political responsibilities outstrip their legal responsibilities, and as a result you had children who were in danger of sexual abuse and were left in that danger."

It's the kind of thing you read and say "They're making it up." Unfortunately, it seems to fit everything I've read about this situation elsewhere. I suspect, however, that there's a strong element of federal versus state law. The federal age of consent is not going to apply to youth offenders incarcerated in Texas, but the whole "hands off" attitude, and the terms in which it is couched, is pretty amazing.

I don't know about the "political" aspect of this, although that kind of scandal wouldn't have helped Perry at all. I'm not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV) so, while the content of Baumann's letter makes some sense, I still don't quite buy it. Something important is missing there.

The most clear-cut offense, of course, is probably going to be "age of consent." That's a state matter. (Funny the times state's rights comes into play, isn't it?) We're talking statutory rape, on some of these incidents, at least. I'm reminded, though, of the times that the feds were right in the thick of investigations of this kind of corruption.

But then, priorities change.

I guess the wolves are circling.