interactions with her and her team. my sister and obviously had a great time. but i met her, she was going out with the german guide. i did not want to comment on how that plays itself out -- it may have an impact on how she views germany right now. that may be a little too personal for press conference. even though the question was not directed at me, i do want to make this point about climate change. europe, in many ways, over the net -- last several years has moved more rapidly than the united states. i have been very blunt and frank with chancellor merkel that we're still working through

creating the framework where we can help lead the international effort. i think that this legislation that we're seeking in the past indicates the enormous progress from where we have been. but i think we all recognize that there is going to be more to do. and that the head is states is going to have to work with germany and other advanced economies to make sure that our obligations are clear. and we're going to have to work with emerging economies that have enormous potential for growth and have enormous potential for contributing to greenhouse gases and the first one to abolish the united states over the last several years --

we are not willing to get there in one fell swoop, but i am very proud of the progress that is being made. the energy bill in the house as an example of that progress. the united states can be an important partner in this process. >> you understand my refrain from commenting on the behavior of parliamentary decisions. i am gratified to know that the president feels committed to this issue which has become apparent in all of our talks. he wants to see that copenhagen becomes a success. we're both convinced that this question of climate change -- it

would take a commitment and shoulder responsibility for those countries that will be far more heavily affected. we also feel committed to ensuring security for our home countries. it is also something that can bring us into very unpleasant political dependencies. it is good to look at new technology. you want to deal with it responsibly and economically. it is something that i have come out very strongly in favor of. let me say something about the but "dreams for my father," she is telling us about our impressions. on the one hand, she describes as a country where each and

everyone needs to fend for his or herself. there is not a big sort of community, a sort of family network that protects you. as you go on throughout the book, it was also something good, maybe. it strengthens people's on awareness of their own self and their own responsibility. i think it is important to look at this. on the one hand, we accept the way that we live is very tough. on the other hand, we should perhaps address how certain things can be dealt with more efficiently. it was, for me, a very enriching experience reading the book. >> thank you very much, everybody. host[captioning performed by

national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> next, legal prosecutions by the bush administration opposed the justice department. after that, the house floor debate on the energy and climate change bill. we will also show your march by president obama and a german -- german president merkel. >> as this year poses supreme court term comes to an end, here chief justice roberts talk

about the core's work. and a panel of experienced court watchers review the decisions. live coverage on saturday morning at 9:00 eastern. now look at the conduct of the justice department during the george w. bush administration. participants alleged that prosecutions targeted defendants on the basis of political party. this event at the national press club is hosted by the group named for a long time white house reporter. >> welcome to this forum on judicial misconduct. i am the chairman of the newsgroup year at the national press club. there is a room upstairs named after the legendary white house correspondent. she served 12 presidents, reported on 12 presidents. i did not think that record will

ever be broken. she had a real instinct for stories that would bubble up later on. she died a few years ago. she was always working on a story that was -- it many times, she would call me and say, there is this piece of information that does not drive -- jive. i'm going to go after it. she would cancel appointments, and i would think, it seems a little bit periphery. it always turned out -- most of the time it turned out. it is kind of interesting, because sarah was also interested in culture, where she was from, heritage. in the long years i worked with her and the white house

correspondents on different projects that she had, i called upon her onetime. i said, we have a museum here in washington. it is a southern museum. would you like to be on our board. she said 0 yes, she would participate in our board meetings and so on. i was president of the operation, and she appointed me because i was set for news group here in washington. -- i was head of her news group here in washington. as far as the museum was concerned, we were being very respectful of everybody and trying to enhance everybody's understanding and relationships with other people. some years ago, we have people coming into the museum,

voluntary, and they were making derogatory remarks towards others. the seemed to be affiliated with groups we did not think were appropriate. we were aware of this, and after i decided that we were not going to go that way, we would try to be polite. we said it was nice of you to it arranged for different international and domestic for us -- the programs for us. we prefer that you seek another venue. but we told that to seek another venue, the lawsuit started. we were sued from all over the place. every member of the board was sued, and it went on and on. they kept going with the thing. when she became ill, they even

serve her in the veterans administration hospital. we show you that these people rather insensitive to a woman like that to do that to her. in any event, it kept going. recently, without getting too much into detail, i have this background that i would put out. i noticed two things very recently. as everyone noticed, the shooting which took the life of a guard at the holocaust museum -- as i was following that story, i notice that ivan braun was involved -- that james van braun was involved in some neo-

nazi parties. he claimed he was more southern that robert e. lee. i began to see that he did not have the characteristics of a gentleman. i will put that right up front. in any event, he befriended an elderly member of the board. a severely elderly member of the board. and then later on, he booted to her upscale apartment up on connecticut avenue and set up a public relations firm. he took over her financial affairs. as a set, i do not think she was at an age where she could have very precise judgment. they took over the financial affairs. later on, he ended up setting up as i am reconstructing this,

he set up this public relations firm that became allied with the neo-nazis and white supremacists. i found as by investigating. he turns out to be a paid informer for the fbi. according to some reports and interviews from other newspapermen, he says that he was paid $8,000 a month to survey all -- to surveil white supremacist organizations. we get into the periphery of behavior and comments that would be an attractive for other races and other people's heritage. he was the one recommending all of this. we find he is actually a paid

informant of the fbi. i go back and i looked at my list i have different lists of members. there are other fbi people here. they decided to be a sustaining member. [laughter] i see all these people connected with it we get up and have a member -- president obama was asked to send something to the national set -- cemetery because of the connection to these people. president obama decided to balance it by sending it to a black unit in washington i noted that, and these people are all involved with the arlington cemetery funding.

that action taken 400,000 out of an account and laundered it back and forth of accounts that we were working on. we finally end up closing the museum. then we come to even more contemporary things where we had a hearing by the senate judiciary committee a few days ago and we had an fbi agents that was testifying. he was anonymously testifying with a screen to make sure we did not know we was he had people with him who were experts. of the three people, one of them was jeffrey, the director of the center for terrorism law. but because of my investigative pageant, i noticed that he was on the corporate papers for one of these groups that were suing me. he was one of the board members

suing me and sarah mclendon. when you listen to his testimony, he knows about the museum. he knows about the hidden agendas. he thinks it is enhanced interrogation, and it is fine with him. it appeared to me that the enhanced to judicial proceedings were also okay with him this is something that i think should concern all of us. when asked me to host this panel, i was so delighted. i am letting the holy ghost do the heavy lifting here to get me to host to this panel. this is exactly what we're talking about, this business about a hidden agenda by

different agents of the government that nobody knows anything about. this is what this is about. the man really put this together is my friend who is a journalist, a premier investigative reporter, and he has really got on this issue and is responsible for it. i want you to meet him, so please come up here and introduced the guest, andy. >> thank you, john. your passion for history, fair proceedings, and journalism has really enabled this group to continue through the years, and for us to be in a position to host this very important forum. i think it is interesting that john talked about confederate memorabilia in a museum that he

lovingly enabled. i think it is a great starting point for this form and all of the differences that bring us together. even the passions may be very strong. take the confederate flag and confederate insignia which as john indicated, was a custodian of the part of history, but not trying to be racist about it, just it being part of history. another one of our speakers who below the later is going to talk about his father, charles walker senior coup in georgia was probably the state's leading opponents of the use of

confederate insignia in the state flag. the insignia was put in not in 1856, but in 1956, specifically to indicate resistance to integration orders that had come before. charles walker senior was very well-known in georgia, a very divisive figure on the confederate flag issue. that may have played a factor in his prosecution, particularly when an activist judge in his judicial wisdom thought that we should expand the jury pool outside of the normal bounds of agusta and poland some of these rural areas. i am not saying that that

specifically proves guilt or innocence. a trial, as you all know, it has many different factors. it is those kinds of factors that we are going to examine today in depth. i also think it is good to try to think of our forces that pull us apart, these passions, and look at what can pull us together. as a look around the room, i see a good crowd for this early in the morning at the press building. i also see some folks who have come from -- who are here from alaska. they're very concerned that the republican senator ted stevens got a raw deal from prosecutors. i also see a couple of people that have driven all night from alabama to be here bright and early, because they think that

democratic governor got a raw deal by the same prosecution in the public integrity section of the u.s. justice department. if we think about it, there is a somewhat small group back here is a lot about justice issues. a lot of people probably wouldn't be hanging out with one another if they weren't here on some abstract level trying to think about how this can work, how this can be fair. each person is going to be a little divisive when you get into specifics. in a larger context, we happen to be here in this 100 year-old institution, the national press club.

as i look out the screen, which you can do, we have a lot of old buildings and institutions around here. across the street is the hotel where lobbyists come from. in the 1800's, the fat cats would sit in the hotel lobby right there. they would wait for people to come in with feet -- from the white house and try to get things done. if you look out through that rear window, you have a great view overlooking the white house. people come to the city for experience of hope. we have these conflicting kind of vision is right in front of us as we try to work through some of these very important

issues of the justice system. and i think what brings us all together, and certainly the inspiration for this conference is a fear that the justice session -- the justice system began to malfunction, particularly in public and official corruption cases. let's just define what we mean. that means somebody in public office working with people in the private sector, maybe even over there. and then a way that is illegal. -- and in a way that is illegal. and of course, we all hate official illegal corruption. it can be challenging, especially for lawyers because it is always implicit. anybody in public office is always seeming to want to be

nice to the people that are nice to them. where to draw the line? it is a line if there is money changing hands and of a cop -- under the counter. a lot of the stuff is not exactly that. what started me on this briefly, i was covering the federal courts for five years. i got to learn a lot about a before becoming a lawyer and going into business. one very memorable thing that i will quickly share with you -- my very first day on the job, i was introduced to the prosecutors and the judges of my predecessor. i spoke to one of the top young prosecutors, he said with a smile, it was a joke, remember in your reporting here, the government is always right.

and it was a little bit of a joke, but he was a hard-charging strike force prosecutor who was about to win his first trial and began a very illustrious career that ultimately helped to break the back of the mafia in the united states. i stayed in touch with him for years. he rendered an enormous public service. not just ridding us of the mafia, but a lot of other bad people. after i met some of the judges and prosecutors, my predecessor, just as we leave, touches me on the elbow and says, don't ever forget that for some of the people that come to this court house, your last chance they've got. and what he meant -- sure, there are appeals courts, public

defenders, but sometimes it just takes someone from the outside like many of you and many in the audience to say, what is going on here? when i started getting into this, there were whistle-blowers who stepped then who had nothing to gain an were pointing to some of these stories. they had nothing to do with the cases. they were ordinary citizens that stepped forward. i got involved. i saw there were huge problems and some of these cases. there was one case in alabama -- we had a couple of changes on the schedule. let me quickly run through that as kind of a guide. and we will get to our next speaker. one is gonna siegelman, former governor of alabama who came to washington.

he was -- he called back and was very apologetic. he said that today's the day for one of his -- that they have new evidence, and he has to be back in alabama to meet with his attorneys. as a great many of you know, he is now free on bond under a seven year prison sentence under highly disputed corruption charges. the gist of it is that he asked a wealthy person in alabama to contribute $500,000 to an educational foundation, which politicians do all the time. he is now facing seven years in prison. he asked me to tell the audience a very important thing. he is sorry that he can't be here with you. he has this big deadline today. the important thing is that it

is not about him. it is about people all around the country in similar situations. that is the message from him. let me just wrap up here by talking a little bit about the rest of the programs so that you are oriented on that. one of the keys here is, what is the role of an honest judge? an honest judge is supposed to make sure that the contending sides are fairly dispose, even when a lot of defendants have done something bad. in fact, i will offer a controversial thought. in my experience, almost everybody has done something that has been made to do -- has

done something bad, or has done something that can be made to look like they have done something bad. the judges are supposed to watch of for us, and they have enormous power. we're really privileged later to have one of the historic figures in our lifetime on the judiciary in the lower courts. that is a judge clemen, former chief judge of the northern district of alabama that served from 1981 until this year. he served with great distinction. i am not going to steal his thunder, except by way of introductions. he was the first african american judge from the deep south. he graduated from columbia university in 1960. it is very rare, but it is not

that rare now for a federal judge to suggest to the u.s. justice department that they are doing things wrong. in fact, and number of chief federal judges wrote eric colder that they had serious concerns -- eric holder that they had serious concerns about the with the prosecutions were going. it is not him alone, it is other challenges. there are also views from congress that will be here shortly. we have use of independent legal experts. we have views of victims who are distinguished public officials who spoke on a video created by the very noted film maker, john mctiernen