Politicized Fed Prosecution in Pittsburgh?

Thornburgh to tell Congress Wecht case is political, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct. 19, 20076:

Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh will testify before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday about why he feels the prosecution of former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht is politically motivated.

Mr. Thornburgh, who is on Dr. Wecht's defense team, will be given an allotment of time to make a statement, and then it is likely the subcommittee, which is investigating the firings of nine U.S. attorneys across the country last year, will ask questions.

Twenty years ago Dick Thornburgh was the attorney general under Pres. George H.W. Bush.

Others scheduled to testify Tuesday include former Alabama U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, who was an early defense attorney in the bid-rigging case against former Gov. Don Siegelman, as well as Donald C. Shields, a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri, who co-wrote a study looking at the number of Democratic vs. Republican officeholders who have been investigated by the Department of Justice during the Bush administration.

For a summary of the study (with links to the underlying data), see Donald C. Shields & John F. Cragan, The Political Profiling of Elected Democratic Officials: When Rhetorical Vision Participation Runs Amok, ePluribus Media, Feb. 18, 2007.