Justice delayed

Josh Marshall wants to know why Team Bush left Jim Tobin (who has been forced to step aside now that the news has gotten out) in charge of campaign oversight in an area where he had already been caught in a phone-jamming, election tampering, scam during the 2002 elections, and why no reporters are asking.

A lawyer from U.S. Department of Justice urged a judge yesterday to block efforts by Democrats to disclose evidence on the illegal phone jamming allegedly conducted by the New Hampshire Republican State Committee during the November 2002 state election.

Union Leader article

Well, it is legit after all.

On Thursday, the Republicans were to produce documents and a designated GOP official who would answer questions about who ordered and who paid for computer-generated calls that kept phone lines tied up at six get-out-the-vote phone banks.

But about 20 minutes before the deposition was to take place, Hinnen called both sides to say he would ask that the court to shut down discovery in the civil case for six months.

Hinnen told Judge Mangones yesterday that disclosures would harm the criminal investigation which he said was in a critical stage.

There's a criminal federal conspiracy trial over the 2002 phone-jamming election tampering, involving two other guys who have testified that Tobin was in on it. Isn't that handy? But the question remains - why did the Bush campaign keep this guy on? I think you know.