Main Justice: The Men and Women Who Enforce the Nation's Criminal Laws and Guard Its Liberties - Hardcover

Mcgee, James; Duffy, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684811359 ISBN 13: 9780684811352

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1996

Synopsis

Award-winning investigative reporters journey inside the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice to see how the powerful law enforcement agency fights America's war on crime. 30,000 first printing.

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Reviews

Main Justice is the term used in the District of Columbia for the headquarters of the Department of Justice; Washington Post reporter McGee and U.S. News and World Report investigations editor Duffy here display a knowledge of its workings that is encyclopedic. Concentrating on the Criminal Division, the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, they show how the department's powers have expanded enormously in the past two decades, so that its prosecutors, building on groundwork laid by the FBI, the DEA, the ATF and local police, have overseen the federalization of criminal law. This trend has proved effective in bringing down drug cartels and violent street gangs, but the authors express concern about "the growing incidence of prosecutorial misconduct" and the reluctance of Main Justice to take action against it. The book gets off to a slow start as McGee and Duffy chart personnel changes, of little interest to the general reader, but when they discuss specific cases, they are riveting.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A lively and highly informative look at the modern Justice Department's criminal division, by two veteran Washington reporters. Most Americans see the Justice Department and its nationwide corps of lawyers and law-enforcement agents through the unflattering lens of highly public scandals like the Aldrich Ames affair. McGee (an investigative reporter at the Washington Post) and Duffy (investigations editor at U.S. News & World Report) are clearly out to reverse that perception by showing the dedicated people within the organization. Throughout, they offer larger-than-life profiles of officials, like longtime federal prosecutor David Margolis and the department's ethical watchdog Mary Lawton. The book sometimes threatens to get bogged down in these portraits of officials, to whom the authors are at times overly deferential, but they rescue themselves by chronicling several important anti-drug and -violence campaigns. These episodes, including the war against the Cali Drug Cartel, and the undercover operation against the Bottoms Boys, a ruthless gang based in Shreveport, La., read like real-life thrillers. Ultimately, the authors have a more important agenda: examining the ``price of power'' and demonstrating that the Justice Department, like any other large organization, ``is not immune to excessive zeal, personal ambition or political malice.'' To illustrate that point, later chapters describe the ill-fated battle against pornography distributors, waged for political purposes by the Reagan administration, and the case against Ames, nearly compromised by an FBI investigation that may have overstepped constitutional boundaries. One particularly complex tale recalls the bungled prosecution of Miami S&L lawyer Kenneth Treadwell; general readers may find the legal maneuvers here difficult to follow. Still, in the end the authors have skillfully portrayed a Justice Department that is intrinsically honest, but plagued by growing pains as it struggles to adapt to new threats and rules. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Journalists McGee (The Washington Post) and Duffy (U.S. News and World Report) focus on the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. They are interested primarily in illegal drugs, criminal gangs, prosecutorial misconduct, and the oversight of intelligence activities. Sometimes seemingly in awe of the accomplishments and career personalities of the department, the authors consider the division a "national treasure" generally headed in the right direction. While not meant for specialists, their book is well researched and knowledgeable. The emphasis on the department's bureaucratic processes is not the stuff of high drama?the Oklahoma City bombing and Waco, Texas, raid are mentioned only in passing?but it will appeal to readers with a keen interest in federal law enforcement. For academic and larger public library law enforcement collections.?Gregor A. Preston, formerly with Univ. of California Lib., Davis,
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684811359
• ISBN 13: 9780684811352
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400