Dare I Call it a "Prosecutorial Mafia?"

Like TPM and others, Mark Kleiman is all over the story of the dismissed prosecutors. On the main issue, I'm happy to let him speak on his own ground, but I do want to focus this fascinating aside on the inner workings of the shadowy world of top law enforcement types (dare I call them a "prosecutorial Mafia?"). Kleiman is discussing a charge about Thomas M. DiBiagio, formerly U.S. Attorney from Maryland. Kleiman says he thinks it is "a crock." Why? Because David Margolis, "a senior career guy in the Deputy AG's office," thinks it's a crock. Kleiman explains:

I knew Margolis way back when. He was running the Organized Crime Section of the Criminal Division, one of the most successful programs ever put together. Margolis and I were never buddies; he tolerated my presence because Phil Heymann, then running the Division, thought well of me, but Margolis wasn't especially dazzled either by my charm or by my brilliant insights into matters on which he was an expert and I was an amateur, and he never bothered to pretend otherwise.

But there are four basic facts about Margolis: he has a near-genius IQ, a fanatical devotion to doing the prosecutor's job right, complete honesty (mostly because he can't be bothered to bullshit), and brass balls. He must have been in the loop for all these decisions, since he's the top career guy in the Deputy's office and McNulty is smart enough to know that (1) Margolis's judgment of prosecutorial horseflesh is impeccable and (2) Margolis (and Jack Keeney, the senior career Deputy in the Criminal Division) are opinion leaders among the career prosecutors whose respect the politicos need to keep. To cut Margolis out of the action would amount to admitting that something fishy was going on.

But Margolis hasn't been heard from in public on the purge: until now. I'd take his word on the DiBiagio firing at full face value. But that makes his silence on all the other cases that much more pointed.

If Margolis had been willing to say about the other eight (or nine, counting Fred Black) purge victims what he said about DiBiagio, then his superiors surely would have asked him to say so publicly. They haven't, or alternatively he wouldn't.

Margolis has never been a leaker, either to the press or to the Hill; he fights his battles inside the Department. But he's never been an equivocator, either. If he's asked to testify, he'll tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, no matter who gets hurt along the way.