| 50-5293 | KF5107 | 2011-50638 CIP | | Social & Behavioral Sciences Political Science U.S. Politics | | Yalof, David Alistair. Prosecution among friends: presidents, attorneys general, and executive branch wrongdoing. Texas A&M, 2012. 196p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781603447447, $50.00; ISBN 9781603447454 pbk, $27.95. Reviewed in 2013may CHOICE. | | This new volume addresses a persistent problem for US government. If an attorney general investigates allegations of misconduct by the president or his appointees, the investigation often fails to satisfy the public because the attorney general is a member of the administration under scrutiny. An independent prosecutor has a mandate to investigate one target and is not bound by any of the normal rules of accountability that restrain prosecutors. However, such prosecutors are often seen as being “out of control” and disruptively wasting resources. Congressional investigations are inevitably seen as partisan. None of these approaches has worked very well. The troubled history of the Ethics in Government Act, enacted in 1978 and allowed to expire in 1999, reflects the intractable nature of the problem. The author examines 26 cases in which serious allegations of corruption arose, from the Nixon years through the George W. Bush administration. Yalof’s analysis identifies the conditions in which traditional Department of Justice investigations are ineffective or likely to undermine public trust. Although it provides no definitive solution, this book does an excellent job of explaining why investigation of executive branch misconduct is inescapably difficult in the US system of government. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections. — M. E. Ethridge, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee |
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