Going After the Con-man-der in Chief

Interview:

Forget impeachment. What if the president were indicted for scamming the nation?

Elizabeth de la Vega
By Dave Gilson
November 30, 2006

What do George W. Bush, Jeffrey Skilling, and the guy who sold some Florida swampland to your grandma have in common? According to Elizabeth de la Vega, they’re all scam artists who deserve to have the book thrown at them. For de la Vega, who spent more than 20 years as a federal prosecutor, that’s not just a cheap shot at Bush, it’s her considered legal opinion. In her new book, United States v. George W. Bush et al., she argues that in snookering us into an unnecessary war in Iraq, the president wasn’t simply guilty of dishonesty or incompetence, but guilty of fraud.

This isn’t another pro-impeachment tome, but rather a novel take on how Bush pulled off perhaps the greatest political bait-and-switch in our history. De la Vega lays out her case as the transcript of a hypothetical federal grand jury proceeding, where a prosecutor introduces an indictment against Bush (and co-conspirators Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell) for defrauding the United States through “deceit, craft, trickery, dishonest means, and fraudulent representations, including lies, half-truths, material omissions, and statements made with reckless indifference to their truth or falsity.” Though not exactly Law and Order, it’s a remarkably snappy read, punctuated by banter with jurors and presented with a "just the facts" tone that makes it clear that de la Vega sees this as a serious matter of law, not a Bush-basher’s daydream.

The particulars of the case will be familiar to anyone who’s followed the unraveling of the White House’s pitch for invading Iraq (no WMDs, no Saddam-Al Qaeda link, etc.). But the legal lens through which de la Vega asks us to view these facts is unique. As her fictional prosecutor tells the jurors, “We may be increasingly accustomed to public officials deceiving us, but it is still the law of the United States that once politicians become Executive Branch officials, they are legally required to be honest and forthright about public matters.” This simple idea may seem unfamiliar at first—It’s a crime for our public servants to lie to us?—but once its implications sink in, the impunity still enjoyed by the administration is all the more perplexing.

De la Vega emphasizes that her book is about accountability, a principle rooted in her career as an assistant U.S. attorney. “It’s not about vengeance,” she explains. “I really hate the idea of people who are powerful taking advantage of people who are powerless. But I also think it is possible to get redress. I still have this faith that there is a way to get information out there in a rational format that will make a difference.”

Excerpts from United States v. George W. Bush, including its hypothetical indictment, have appeared at TomDispatch.com. De la Vega spoke with MotherJones.com by telephone from her home in Northern California. >>>cont

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