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Obama Not Implicated In California Medical Marijuana Crackdown, U.S. Attorney Claims
Huffington Post
First Posted: 10/26/11 05:04 PM ET Updated: 10/26/11 05:04 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- U.S. attorneys have a message for California's medical marijuana advocates: Don't blame Barack Obama. After it was announced that the crackdown on medical pot establishments in the Golden State was a collective decision by the four U.S. attorneys in California and not the result of any directive from Washington, spokeswoman Lauren Horwood emphasized that the administration never even green-lighted the ramped-up enforcement actions.
The only D.C.-based official with whom California U.S. attorneys coordinated, Horwood said, was Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who was chosen by Attorney General Eric Holder, an Obama appointee.
"He's the one who provided the quote for our press release, and he's chosen by Eric Holder," Horwood told HuffPost in an interview. "But we didn't have direct talks with Eric Holder -- not that we wouldn't, he's been out and visited -- but just the way the Department of Justice works, he's not that hands-on on these kinds of details."
An article by Phoenix Times reporter Ray Stern claimed Horwood acknowledged that California's U.S. attorneys received "Obama's blessing" in implementing the crackdown. But in an interview with The Huffington Post, Horwood, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner in California's Eastern District, distanced herself from that language.
"What I said, or at least meant to say, was that the U.S. Attorneys in California saw the need for coordinated enforcement actions and spoke with folks in Main Justice in D.C. (not the Obama Administration)," she told HuffPost in an email.
Cole declined to attend any California press conferences on the issue not, Horwood insisted, because he was distancing himself from the crackdown, but because California is a long way to travel.
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...marijuana-crackdown-california_n_1033482.html
Huffington Post
First Posted: 10/26/11 05:04 PM ET Updated: 10/26/11 05:04 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- U.S. attorneys have a message for California's medical marijuana advocates: Don't blame Barack Obama. After it was announced that the crackdown on medical pot establishments in the Golden State was a collective decision by the four U.S. attorneys in California and not the result of any directive from Washington, spokeswoman Lauren Horwood emphasized that the administration never even green-lighted the ramped-up enforcement actions.
The only D.C.-based official with whom California U.S. attorneys coordinated, Horwood said, was Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who was chosen by Attorney General Eric Holder, an Obama appointee.
"He's the one who provided the quote for our press release, and he's chosen by Eric Holder," Horwood told HuffPost in an interview. "But we didn't have direct talks with Eric Holder -- not that we wouldn't, he's been out and visited -- but just the way the Department of Justice works, he's not that hands-on on these kinds of details."
An article by Phoenix Times reporter Ray Stern claimed Horwood acknowledged that California's U.S. attorneys received "Obama's blessing" in implementing the crackdown. But in an interview with The Huffington Post, Horwood, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner in California's Eastern District, distanced herself from that language.
"What I said, or at least meant to say, was that the U.S. Attorneys in California saw the need for coordinated enforcement actions and spoke with folks in Main Justice in D.C. (not the Obama Administration)," she told HuffPost in an email.
Cole declined to attend any California press conferences on the issue not, Horwood insisted, because he was distancing himself from the crackdown, but because California is a long way to travel.
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...marijuana-crackdown-california_n_1033482.html
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