Word: specially
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Jordan has denied all the Studio 54 charges, and the case is hardly the kind Congress had in mind when it drafted the Ethics in Government Act. The law began to take shape after President Nixon fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Congress set out to specify in detail the powers and tenure of a special prosecutor...
...only exception is for "a petty offense," punishable by less than six months in jail. Simple possession of cocaine can draw a one-year sentence. The Attorney General must -not may-ask a panel of three federal judges to appoint a special prosecutor within 90 days unless the preliminary investigation determines the charges to be so flimsy that they do not warrant a deeper probe...
Trouble is, say Justice Department officials, there is almost no way for a preliminary investigation to establish that. Under the department's interpretation, it cannot subpoena witnesses, for example, or enter into plea bargaining. Both powers are granted to the special prosecutor. In consequence, top Justice officials fear, they may be forced to appoint a special prosecutor in the Jordan case...
Critics charge that the law practically invites opponents to smear high officials by making charges that, although false, cannot be disproved during a preliminary investigation. Defenders of the law argue that in some cases only exoneration by a special prosecutor can free a Government leader of the suspicion that allegations against him were covered up. But Justice officials last week were admitting that the very appointment of a special prosecutor would convince many Americans that Jordan had done something wrong...
Another case involving Jordan last week showed why a special prosecutor is sometimes needed. The Justice Department has impaneled a grand jury to investigate charges by a Georgia businessman that fugitive Financier Robert Vesco attempted to get Jordan and Charles Kirbo, a Carter adviser, to block his extradition from the Bahamas to the U.S., where Vesco faces trial for fraud. Since the probe began before the Ethics Act was passed, the Justice Department decided that the law did not apply. Last week Ralph E. Ulmer submitted to Federal Judge William B. Bryant his resignation as foreman of the grand jury...