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Re:Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal by rhizome on Tuesday January 15, 2013 @03:44PM (#5062873)
I'm pretty sure she can only be fired by Obama, but unfortunately I'm not confident "prosecutorial abuse" is a strong enough reason for him to do so.
Re:Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal by FireBeyond on Tuesday January 15, 2013 @04:14PM (#5063033)
There's also the issue that classifying Ortiz's handling of this case as "prosecutorial abuse" is a subjective opinion that there is a notable segment of the population that will see it as anything but.
Re:Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal by mcantelon on Tuesday January 15, 2013 @03:53PM (#5062928)
Obama could ask her to resign then there would be no need for public justification. I doubt it'll happen though. Doing so wouldn't score enough political points, given it's not a sufficiently mainstream issue, to make it worth Obama's while.
Re:Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal by gbhn on Tuesday January 15, 2013 @07:21PM (#5064122)
It's way worse than that. Obama's track record on abusing DoJ power against citizens is well established. Indefinite detention. Whistleblower prosecutions. Bradley Manning. The list is not short.

It'd be great to see the president forced to disown Ortiz; perhaps it'd make the rest of the DoJ afraid he wouldn't back them up on their similar adventures. Realistically, though, this is not (yet) a large political threat to Obama.

Re:Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal by mcantelon on Wednesday January 16, 2013 @12:18AM (#5065441)
Yeah, Obama's shiny happy image has enabled the Democrats to get through legislation that would have created an uproar had it been pushed through during the Bush admin. Sad.