Worst Attorney Generals
We've had a lot of bad attorney Generals. From the very beginning of the Country there have been rotten eggs in the white-house. Not usually the President himself but none of our Presidents have been saints and some of them were real sinners.
- John Mitchell
- Barr
- Edwin Meese
- Gonzales
- Taney
- Alexander Mitchell Palmer
- Harry M. Daugherty
- McReynolds
- The Hapless and the good ones:
- Kleindienst
I created this post a while ago and it's been draft too long. So I'm putting this out. It is still in draft form and I may add and remove names, and definitely will add references and pictures.
John N. Mitchell
67th Attorney General of the United States (1969–1972) under President Richard Nixon. Went to prison in 1977 and served for 19 months. Helped President Nixon obstruct justice among other dirty deeds. Was a “law and order” Politician until he was arrested and tried for breaking laws.
William Barr
AG from 1991 to 1993 under George H. W. Bush. He began his current term on February 14, 2019 – present
Alexander Mitchell Palmer
Palmer was United States Attorney General from 1919 to 1921. He is best known for overseeing the Palmer Raids during the Red Scare of 1919–20. In reaction to domestic unrest, Palmer created the General Intelligence Unit and recruited J. Edgar Hoover to head the new organization. The GIU would become the FBI. Palmer wasn't as bad as Daugherty
Harry Micajah Daugherty
Daugherty was AG from 1921 to March 1924. He 21. Daugherty served under Presidents Harding and Coolidge until March 28, 1924, when he resigned. He was acquitted of charges to defraud the United States Government in the Teapot Dome Scandal but not really cleared of conversion.
The man was infamous for Poker in the Whitehouse, accused of involvement in Teapot Dome, cleared of that only to be accused of a host of other charges of corruption related to the Office of the Alien Property Custodian & the Veterans' Bureau. Eventually he was tried for corrupt involvement in the conversion of funds in the sale of American Metal Company assets seized during World War I. The Jury Hung.
Edwin Meese
Edwin Meese became Attorney General in February 1985 after a career that already had included instigating Reagan to bring in the National Guard to shut down the "people's Park" protest in 1969, in Berkley, which involved Reagan proclaiming a state of emergency and killing one protester and injuring hundreds. As Presidential adviser and later as AG, Meese was in up to his neck, into the Iran Contra Scandal. He also served as liason to the evangelical community. His major scandals were the Bechtel, Wedtech and his general attitude. He believed the Supreme Court should hold 18th century attitudes and that the Miranda Decision was badly decided.
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales was an awful Whitehouse Counsel and a worse AG, representing the worst instincts of the Republican party both as Whitehouse Counsel from 2001-2005 to when he was promoted for his vileness to AG in 2005. He started his tenure as white House Counsel by assisting in the writing of the so-called "Torture memos" using the Office of Legal Counsel to justify torture. He also tried to get AG John Ashcroft to approve warrentless wiretaps, which the administration pursued without the approval of it's own AG. He now blames Ashcroft for those decisions. But it was Gonzales who:
“argued that the War on Terror required a “new paradigm” that “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners.”
2005-2007
John Ashcroft was not happy as AG and left after Bush was re-elected. Bush chose to promote Gonzales despite the buzz of word about his performance as White House Counsel. But Bush and Gonzales couldn't resist abusing their positions further. Gonzales was exposed as approving;
“warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens”
And worse, being behind the scandal that started with photos from Abu Gharaib:
His “legal authorization of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques”
But that was not all;
“Gonzales had also presided over the firings of several U.S. Attorneys who had refused back-channel White House directives to prosecute political enemies”
His “alleged politicization” (obvious not alleged) of the office of AG led to him resigning in August 2007:
“in the best interests of the department,”
In my opinion he should have been impeached and not allowed to resign. But we Democrats have been allergic to loud arguments. We let him, John Yoo and other folks who were advocating a dictatorial Executive to slip out the White House and DOJ to cushy University Jobs. He also claimed that the executive could deny people habeas corpus if they so desired, arbitrarily.
I read an interview on him recently in "Law" and he is still lying about his role in the Bush Admin.
- Are we ready to forgive Alberto Gonzales
- Answer: I'm not Rereading his record brings back painful memories.
Taney
Taney was a bad AG and a worse Supreme Court Chief Justice.
McReynolds
The Hapless and the Good Ones
Harry Stanbery
Stanbery was appointed the AG by President Johnson, who took over as President when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Being a Southerner, a Slave-owner, and a Democrat, his Presidency was not quite as bad as appointing Robert E Lee, but it was tumultuous. Poor Stanbery was more hapless than corrupt. He served a corrupt President.
“President Johnson appointed Stanbery Attorney General of the United States on July 23, 1866. He resigned on March 12, 1868, to defend President Johnson during his impeachment trial. At the conclusion of the trial, Johnson renominated him Attorney General and also to the Supreme Court, but the Senate did not confirm him.”
By Contrast some of them were good people who stood up for the law and constitution. That includes:
Richard Kleindienst
Kleindeinst followed John Mitchel as AG so Mitchel could get into trouble with Watergate. Later Kleindienst resigned rather than fire the special prosecutor, so he was one of the good ones.
- Sources and Further Reading
- For Ease I took some info from Wikipedia. But it also comes from:
- https://www.justice.gov/ag/historical-bios
- And for all the AG's since 1972, from memory.
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