When Justice Got Bonged: Mary Beth Buchanan Vs. Tommy Chong

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

Josh Gilbert's movie about the 2003 prosecution of Tommy Chong for the interstate sale of drug paraphernalia, a/k/a Tommy Chong, points out the ridiculous nature of the witch hunt against the taller half of Cheech and Chong. It all comes down to an ideological culture war waged by the dogmatically conservative Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft.

More than Ashcroft, though, it was the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mary Beth Buchanan, that waged this particular battle. Originally appointed to that position just a week before the 9/11 attacks in 2001, she also held a concurrent position between 2004 and 2005 as director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, putting her in charge of all 94 of her colleagues around the nation.

The prosecution of Chong will be forever wedded to Buchanan's career for several reasons. Chong's case was controversial before it came to pressing charges or sentencing.  The methodology used by Buchanan in the drug paraphernalia sting called Operation Pipe Dreams goes beyond the use of unnecessary force and brushes closely with entrapment.

It is against the law to ship drug paraphernalia across state lines in two states, and luckily for Buchanan, Pennsylvania is one of them. 

According to a manager at Chong's Glass/Nice Dreams, a man from Beaver Falls, PA called at least 20 times, trying to get them to send him a large order of their handmade glassware. Staff at the company refused every time, citing the law against selling paraphernalia in that state.

The Beaver Falls man became so frustrated that he finally traveled to their headquarters in California and put together an order on site. By the time the company had amassed and packaged everything the man wanted, he told them he was back in Pennsylvania; could they just ship it to him?  At first they said no, but as the boxes held up production for other orders, they finally caved and sent the stuff out.

Then, the feds had what they needed. They "storm trooped" the place, as one employee of the shop put it.  Dozens of agents overtook the place in the early hours of the morning, all decked out in riot gear.

Paris Chong, Tommy's eldest son and the CEO of the glass-making company, said that from the very beginning it was obvious why they were there, and it had little to do with him or his company.

"It was about my father and his celebrity," he said. Buchanan convinced Tommy Chong to take the fall, even though he was clearly only a financier for the company and had very little to do with the illegal shipment or any day-to-day operations, so that Paris Chong and his mother could avoid charges.

In fact, it seems the whole of Operation Pipe Dreams was about Chong.  Despite the eerie similarity to the name of his glass-blowing business (and one of the more famous Cheech and Chong movies), he was also the only defendant with no priors to serve time.  Of the 55 charged in the entire operation, he served the most time: nine months in federal prison.

There are indications that the Justice Department wanted to punish Chong for the counter-culture movies about drug use made with fellow comedian Cheech Marin. It also seems that the long sentence was a way to punish Chong for speaking to the media about his case. 

The fact that the Justice Department spent $12 million to put Chong in jail didn't go unnoticed.  In fact, it seems to be the consensus that the case only served to increase the celebrity of Chong and animosity against the authorities. Chong says going to jail made him into "an activist" when he saw all of the harm caused by what he sees as an unfair criminal justice system. He‘s also concerned about the absurdity of the War on Drugs when we have a much more pressing -- and wholly unrelated -- war on terrorism to worry about.

One may be tempted to let out a sigh of relief at the idea of a new Justice Department this January. However, just because her stint as a U.S. attorney may be over soon doesn't mean Buchanan will be out of the limelight.  As early as 2004, a writer for the Pittsburgh City Paper ruminated upon Buchanan's future in politics:

There's speculation that Buchanan may rise even higher, possibly by heading to Washington or running for office herself some day... A Buchanan campaign could boast high-profile prosecutions and non-profit admirers, and political-gossip Web sites have even mentioned her as a potential Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Besides that, it's not a foregone conclusion that she'll even leave her current post. It's common practice for U.S. attorneys of any party to automatically offer their resignations when a new president assumes office. But Buchanan has other ideas. She told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette she wants to stay on.

The logical reasoning for this affront of traditional politics would generally be finishing an ongoing investigation.  But when you consider Buchanan's involvement in the U.S. attorney firing scandal, it's imaginable that she has different reasons behind her "commitment" to her current job.

After being implicated in politically motivated hirings and firings of U.S. attorneys, it seems that she is trying to get fired for political reasons herself. 

It's not likely Obama would let such a polarizing figure stay on in his administration. It's important to note that the Chong prosecution isn't the only case in which she's been overzealous. She's been accused by former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, a Republican, of politicizing prosecutions. She also hired Monica Goodling, the liaison with an interesting hiring technique herself, before Goodling went to work at the White House.

An active member of the Federalist Society and a staunch public supporter of the USA PATRIOT Act, Buchanan is not known as a friend of civil liberties. And to her, the drug trade is inextricably linked with terrorism.  So much so, that in 2003, she used provisions in the PATRIOT Act allowing for searches and surveillance before notifying the property owner to bust up a drug ring in her district. She's also used similar tactics to those employed in Operation Pipe Dreams to take down the porn industry in districts outside of her own.

Now with her latest political stunt to punish those who questioned her political tolerance, she's shooting for the stars. James Joyner helpfully aggregates some of the reaction to her announcement last week for Off The Beltway.  Perhaps the most insightful is writer Radley Balko, suggesting she'll turn this protest into a play for higher office:

Buchanan isn't delusional.  She's calculating.  My guess is that this is a stunt to force Obama to fire her, at which point she'll make a public stink, play the martyr, then attempt to parlay the resulting controversy into a run for the Senate, or perhaps for governor of Pennsylvania.

Ugh, that thought is enough to elicit a deep shudder. Maybe Obama would be better off calling her bluff and keeping her as a U.S. attorney? 

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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