A top law enforcement official under the George W. Bush administration was reportedly once involved in cocaine trafficking prior to government service, according to a frank public discussion today by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a veteran member of the committee and its former chair, said that Republicans insisted that the unnamed Justice Department nominee be confirmed by the Senate—despite the prior disqualification of judicial nominees based solely on their cannabis usage.
The remarks came amid a proposal by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)–to make consistent the committee’s views on when a potential judicial nominee’s drug use crosses a red line.
Durbin noted that Obama and Clinton nominees to the bench have been immediately ruled out by Republican Senators, in the wake of FBI background checks revealing drug use after admission to the bar.
“Now it’s my understanding that my Republican colleagues are seeking to change the standard,” Durbin noted, referring to the committee’s current handling of Trump nominees, without naming any names.
Shortly afterward, Leahy said that Republican Senate leaders decided to look the other way for “a couple of judges in the Bush administration” who had used cannabis.
“What bothered me the most was a key member of the Department of Justice in the Bush administration had been involved in cocaine use, in what appeared to be the felony distribution of cocaine,” Leahy added.
“Republicans on the committee said: ‘But we really need him in the Department of Justice,’” the senator continued. “He was confirmed.”
Though Leahy didn’t specifically mention the George W. Bush administration, Republicans didn’t control the US Senate at any point during the George H.W. Bush presidency.
The Sentinel sent Leahy’s staff an email requesting information about the identity of the former DOJ appointee, or whether his purported “felony distribution of cocaine” had ever been a matter of the public record before Thursday. This story will be updated if a response to our inquiry is received.
Toward the end of the hearing, Leahy did note: “We should have a quiet discussion of this,” recognizing “inconsistencies on the policy” from members of both parties.
“Those of you who have been prosecutors know about discretion,” he added, justifying some of the mixed messages from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The lawmaker also noted that one Supreme Court nominee under President Reagan, Judge Douglas Ginsburg, was heavily pressured by Republicans to withdraw his nomination after admitting to smoking marijuana with his law students.
Leahy did not mention Douglas by name, though he noted that the judge in question still serves on the all-important DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
At one point, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) admitted to Durbin that Republicans deserve some charges of hypocrisy, on the issue of federal judicial appointees’ past drug use.
“I hope it isn’t related to who’s president, but I don’t blame you for drawing that conclusion,” the Judiciary Committee chair said.
Grassley did, however, defend Republicans’ record.
“Some examples that we stopped that went way beyond marijuana,” he said. “Some of them were pretty darn felonious as far as I’m concerned.”
Leahy could then be heard on his microphone laughing, referencing his statement about the Bush DOJ official. Grassley ignored the interruption.
“Over time, there has been an evolving attitude towards marijuana,” Grassley had noted, in an effort to explain his own inconsistencies.
The chair also said he was worried that too stringent of an approach to past drug use would make it tough “to find people to fill those positions.” Grassley additionally remarked that a draconian test leading to nominees lying about their past “has kinda worried me a lot.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee since January, said she had been under the impression that a “reasonable standard is one-to-two uses” of marijuana after admission to the bar, given different states’ laws.
“This is not an unreasonable standard,” Feinstein said, referencing the legalization movement—which she opposed in her home state last year, as she reminded the committee on Thursday.
Though federal law still prohibits cannabis, Congress has stripped the Department of Justice from the funds to prosecute people who legally use the substance under state law.
In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions urged Congress to repeal that appropriations law—the so-called Rohrabacher-Farr amendment.
