Attorney General Says Breaking Laws Not Crime

"A little 'confessed' evil saves one from acknowledging a lot of hidden evil."
--Roland Barthes, "Operation Margarine," 1947

"I am well aware that some people have called on me and on the Department to take even more drastic steps than those I have described. For example, some commentators have suggested that we should criminally prosecute the people found in the reports to have committed misconduct. Where there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing, we vigorously investigate it. And where there is enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we vigorously prosecute. But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws.

That does not mean, as some people have suggested, that those officials who were found by the joint reports to have committed misconduct have suffered no consequences. Far from it. The officials most directly implicated in the misconduct left the Department to the accompaniment of substantial negative publicity."
--Prepared Remarks of U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey Before the American Bar Association, August 12, 2008

"Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime."
--George, next time I get pulled over for doing 80 mph

I am completely prepared for the substantial negative publicity. I say bring it on. Just try to catch me as I speed away, legally breaking the law.

(hat tip to the Generik Brand)