The New York Times’ Latest Swipe at the Justice Department

Conn Carroll / April 10, 2008

Despite Eliot Spitzer’s recent fall and the partial exposure of his hypocrisy in strong-arming businesses and business leaders under investigation, one of Spitzer’s chief enablers – the New York Times – apparently still has never seen a corporate prosecution it hasn’t liked. On its front page today, the NYT takes the Justice Department to task for supposedly letting corporations “off easy.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The NYT alleges that instead of prosecuting corporations like it did in the good old days, Justice has been giving corporations sweetheart deals called deferred prosecution agreements. This is just another NYT dog-bites-man story impugning the integrity and effectiveness of the Bush Justice Department (and everything else about this administration). The story also has the analysis exactly wrong.

By almost any measure, this Justice Department has been more aggressive than any of its predecessors in pursuing allegations of corporate crime. As Department officials regularly point out, they have obtained over 1,200 convictions and guilty pleas of white-collar employees. This is a huge number given the enormous resources consumed by any large white-collar investigation and prosecution. (more…)