TBB spied this great article in Reader's Digest about Joseph Salvati (pictured on the left). If you've followed the story at all, one of Dan's final acts as Chairman of the House Government Reform committee was to help Salvati. Like some sort of sick Law and Order episode, the US Government allowed Salvati to be falsely imprisoned, with their full knowledge of his innocence.
But along with others, Congressman Dan Burton fought to clear his name.
Readers Digest covers Congressman Burton's lengthy battle with the Department of Justice over documents that would have helped Salvati get out of jail.
Burton, an Indiana Republican, was so outraged by the government's conduct that he battled the Bush Administration over Department of Justice documents, which White House lawyers initially tried to keep from Congress on claims of executive privilege. And Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, has introduced a bill imposing criminal sanctions on federal authorities who hide evidence the way they did in the Deegan case.
TBB notes one thing interesting about this from a recent event. When he was asked by a CR recently what he was most proud of in his years in Congress, he when straight to the Salvati case. He said that being a Congressman is not just about writing new legislation or killing bad laws. For him, it's also about the responsibility to fight injustice when you see it. "I have a moral obligation to use the influence of my position to set things right for people who I see are mistreated."
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