Former U.S. attorney defends Mo. charges

WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- Former interim U.S. Attorney Bradley J. Schlozman defended an indictment he sought despite criticism it affected a 2006 U.S. Senate race.

Schlozman told the Senate Judiciary Committee his decision to bring the indictment right before the 2006 mid-term election was not an attempt to influence the voting, The Washington Times said Wednesday.

"The Department of Justice does not time prosecutions to elections," the former U.S. attorney for Missouri's Western District said.

Schlozman, who now is the Civil Rights Division's assistant attorney general, alleged he was simply indicting four individuals who had committed voter fraud.

"I didn't think this was going to have any impact on any election," he told the committee Tuesday. "These were individuals that were filling out false voter-identification cards."

Yet some committee members were clearly troubled by Schlozman's apparent inability to recall certain pertinent facts.

The Times reported committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., was critical of Schlozman's bad memory, saying he apparently was "trying to break Attorney General (Alberto) Gonzales' record of saying: 'I don't recall' or 'I don't remember.'"