Gonzales should be put on Trial

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is in hot water over the politically-motivated firing of federal prosecutors, but I don’t believe he should resign or be fired. Instead, he should be charged under U.S. law and put on trial.

That would not be without precedent. After all, President Nixon’s Attorney General, John Mitchell, served 19 months in a federal prison after being convicted of conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal.

Back in January of 2002, when Mr. Gonzales was chief White House counsel, he sent a legal memo to President Bush, advising him to declare that the Geneva Convention did not apply to the war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. He wrote that such a declaration by the President “would substantially reduce the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act…”

The War Crimes Act, (l8 U.S.C. 2441) which was passed by Congress in 1996, banned any Americans from committing war crimes—defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions.

It says, in part: “Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death."

Gonzales’ appalling memo gave the president legal justification for voiding the Geneva Conventions, and it paved the way to the criminal abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Those "grave breaches" of the Conventions violated the U.S. War Crimes Act.

Attorney General Gonzales deserves a scrupulously fair trial, the best legal counsel affordable, and the right to call witnesses from the Administration who will testify under oath and in public. No person is above the law.