Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a series of interpretations and guidelines issued by the White House and the Justice Department, President Bush and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft have attempted to weaken the strong corporate reform law the president was forced to sign a week ago (see WIT?s for July 30, and July 26, 2002). Democrats and Republicans alike in both houses of Congress have expressed outrage at guidelines sent to government prosecutors suggesting that the protections given to whistle-blowers, and the prosecution of individuals who shred documents or commit securities fraud, should all be limited. While the Bush Administration has defended the guidelines as mere clarifications and any implied limitations of the new anti-corporate fraud laws as unintentional, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee dismissed the possibility that so much language so strongly undermining the new laws could be due to mistakes alone.