Word: bells
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Senate, but there appears to be little doubt about that. Scarcely a negative word was uttered about Webster after his nomination, and the only possible problem might be his membership in St. Louis' Veiled Prophet Society and the Noonday Club, two exclusive groups that have no black members. Bell noted that he had studied Webster's court decisions and found him to be a "moderate person" who "reasons well...
...past five years, moreover, it has been disclosed that a number of the FBI's 8,400 agents have been involved in illegal entries and mail opening. One agent, John Kearney, was indicted last April in New York for illegal surveillance of the radical underground Weatherman group, and Bell has yet to decide whether there will be further indictments pending a report from a ten-man Justice Department team on past FBI malpractices...
When Griffin Bell announced William Webster's appointment to the FBI post, he noted proudly that it had been made "without regard to political party." One motivation for the remark: both he and President Carter had become embroiled in a controversy over their desire to sack a Republican, David Marston, as U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia...
Marston, who has convicted some top Democratic officials, including Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Herbert Fineman, was summoned to Bell's office the day after Webster's nomination. When he emerged, Marston said the Attorney General had told him that "the decision to fire me was final, and would not be reconsidered." Carter admitted the previous week that he had asked Bell to "expedite" the ouster of Marston after receiving a phone call from Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman Joshua Eilberg. Carter presumably did not know that Eilberg was under investigation by Marston's office for financial irregularities...
...Bell offered the outgoing prosecutor a three-month extension, but Marston declined. Said he: "I've been crippled by the events of the past few weeks. I don't want to be a lame duck...