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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico's top federal prosecutor confirmed Friday that no charges will be brought against Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson and his former top aides after a probe of an alleged pay-to-play scheme prompted him to withdraw his nomination as U.S. commerce secretary.


But U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt said the decision not to bring charges "is not to be interpreted as an exoneration of any party's conduct."


At a news conference in Havana, where he was wrapping up a weeklong trade mission, Richardson refused to comment on the Justice Department investigation, saying only "I'm not talking about that."

***

The decision not to seek indictments was made by Justice Department officials in Washington, according to two people familiar with the case who spoke to the AP before defense lawyers received Fouratt's letter late Thursday. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about the case.


Justice Department officials in Washington have refused to comment on the case. Fouratt didn't return telephone messages seeking further comment.


After 11 years as a federal prosecutor, Fouratt was elevated to U.S. attorney in January 2008 when a panel of New Mexico federal judges, addressing a vacancy, determined a presidential appointment wasn't imminent and exercised its authority to seat the position.


Joseph diGenova, a Republican and former U.S. Attorney during the Reagan administration, called Fouratt's letter "stupid" because it makes allegations of corruption after the case is over.


"That letter is an outrage and the U.S. Attorney who wrote it should be fired. The case is closed. If he had charges, bring them. Otherwise, he should shut up. He's being a politician now, not a prosecutor," diGenova said. 

http://www.collarchat.com/forumid_63/p_1/tmode_1/smode_1/tt.htm

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ORIGINAL: Sanity


This reminds me of the time when Bush pardoned Scooter Libby.

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The Times reported that “Fouratt took the unusual steps of bringing in a new prosecutor to present evidence last fall and then empaneling a new grand jury in January, after it became clear that the first grand jury was not ready to indict, lawyers for several of the witnesses before the grand jury said.”
The paper reported that top Justice Department officials concurred with Fouratt’s decision to drop the inquiry.