Justice for All

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 14, 2000 | by Timothy W. Maier

In contrast, once the Watergate hearings began, Sirica enjoyed tremendous coverage. What the press missed, convicted Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy says in his book Will, is that Sirica had the "intellect of half a glass of water." Farnham says, "Sirica was a political hack of the first order -- not a very smart judge. But the media made him out to be a hero."

Certainly Sirica was not blind to the criticism. "Naturally, I was quite sensitive at the time to all this second-guessing," Sirica recalled. "Not many people outside of Washington had ever heard of John Sirica before all this. Now everybody was reading that I was too tough, or too careless, or too conservative. In the end, a trial judge has only himself to rely on."

Lamberth certainly is relying on himself. Although stung by some of the criticism, according to sources close to the judge, he has done what he believes is right. For instance, there was Lamberth's decision to hand down a 27-month prison term to former agriculture secretary Mike Espy's chief of staff, Ronald Blackley, who was convicted in 1997 of lying in a conspiracy to conceal $22,000 he received from private businesses regulated by the Agriculture Department. Espy was acquitted of similar charges but resigned in the midst of the probe. At Blackley's sentencing, Lamberth declared, "A democracy like ours demands that the public be able to place its trust in public officials. Providing a false statement under oath is a serious offense.... This should be a deterrent to other government officials."

Will Lamberth be just as tough in dealing with those responsible for withholding and delaying delivery of the subpoenaed White House e-mails? Klayman told Lamberth that the Clinton administration may think there is no one left to lie to with the authority to punish the lie. "But there is," Klayman says. "They can lie to you, Judge Lamberth."

Will Lamberth let it go and second-guess himself as Sirica did? "Nixon should have stood trial," Sirica would later say before his death in 1992. "No matter how great his personal loss, Nixon did manage to keep himself above the law. He was forced to give up his office, but he was not treated the same way as the other defendants.... If he had been convicted in my court, I would have sent him to jail."

Klayman believes Lamberth soon will say enough is enough and start handing out heavy jail sentences. "I think he will rise to the level of John Sirica and he will even surpass Sirica to become one of the greatest judges of our time."