I would also ensure that all applicable laws are being enforced by demanding briefings from the U.S. Treasury, U.S. Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who are tasked with regulating and prosecuting financial institutions who violate the law -- as so many of them have repeatedly done when it comes to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
If a nation's official policy is that it will not (or, as Holder confessed, it will "hesitate" to) prosecute certain institutions and people because they are too wealthy and powerful, we are lost.
"I was stunned when our country's top law enforcement official recently suggested it might be difficult to prosecute financial institutions that commit crimes because it may destabilize the financial system of our country and the world," Sanders wrote.
So I was stunned when our country's top law enforcement official recently suggested it might be difficult to prosecute financial institutions that commit crimes because it may destabilize the financial system of our country and the world.
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the senators asked whether the Justice Department ever failed to prosecute any institutions due to concern about the stability of the financial markets or imposed a penalty that reflected such concerns.
At the most extreme end, such a verdict could cause the Crown Prosecution Service to go back and revisit a decision not to prosecute the institution or individuals involved, or form the basis for criminal negligence litigation.
(I should note that the Justice Department claims that it "will not hesitate" to prosecute any "institution where there is evidence of a crime").
The Justice Department has tried for months to backtrack from a comment that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. made in March, when he said it can "become difficult" to prosecute large financial institutions because of the potential impact on the economy.
Nearly 8 in 10 say that not enough bankers and employees of financial institutions were prosecuted for their roles in the last one.
As attorney general he is the country's top law enforcement officer, and in that capacity he should prosecute criminals and criminal institutions.
