Former Mo. U.S. Attorney Latest Name in News
A new name is emerging in the ongoing controversy over the suspected influence of Republican party politics in the appointment of federal prosecutors: Bradley Schlozman.
A 1996 graduate of George Washington University Law School, he has moved quickly into the upper ranks of the Justice Department administration – and, more recently, into the spotlight of an ongoing Congressional investigation of possible politically-based hirings and firings of U.S. attorneys and career prosecutors, reports the Boston Globe in a lengthy Sunday article on Schlozman.
Before being appointed U.S. attorney for western Missouri in 2006, although he reportedly had no prosecutorial experience whatsoever (and without Senate confirmation), Schlozman supervised the voting rights section of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Eventually, he became acting chief of the entire division. Although he has not been accused of wrongdoing, Schlozman and his team were criticized by Justice Department veterans for politicizing their work, the Globe reports.
“Schlozman was reshaping the civil rights division,” says Joe Rich, a former chief of the voting rights section. “Schlozman didn’t know anything about voting law… . All he knew is he wanted to be sure that the Republicans were going to win.”
A separate ABAJournal.com post discusses whether the U.S. attorney that Schlozman replaced should be added to a list of eight U.S. attorneys allegedly fired as part of a political purge.
