The ballad of Ramos and Compean

Several of the main players in Dobbs' many segments about Ramos and Compean have either testified before Congress or met with members of Congress or both. Both Bonner and Ramirez have testified in congressional hearings. Ramirez accompanied Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., to speak with a top Department of Justice official about the case, and he participated in a press conference on Capitol Hill that also featured such House members as Jones, Ted Poe, R-Texas; Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.; Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.; and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. Ramirez says he's been a key source for Congress about the case, passing along things he learned by virtue of his relationship with the agents' families.

Some members of Congress freely acknowledge that their information on the case comes from Dobbs and the others. Jones told Salon that his involvement began because he "happened to be watching Lou Dobbs." Jones sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Aug. 11, 2006, two days after Dobbs' initial segment on the controversy, in which he called the case "outrageous" and "strongly urge[d]" Gonzales to "halt this prosecution." Jones also identified T.J. Bonner as one of his sources of information on the case. Rohrabacher posted Bonner's rebuttal to Sutton, the one alleging the existence of a sealed indictment against Aldrete-Davila, on his official congressional Web site.

Members of Congress have often taken their received misinformation about the case and injected it into the debate, repeating talking points to the media, Congress and the Department of Justice.

For example, in a Sept. 21, 2006, letter to Gonzales, Rep. Rohrabacher echoes Carter's assertion that Compean had been vulnerable. According to Rohrabacher, Ramos saw "his partner laying bloodied on the ground." Rohrabacher called successfully for a congressional hearing into the possibility that the Mexican government had become involved in the prosecution.

Rohrabacher has also praised the records of Compean and Ramos, often discussing Ramos' nomination as Border Patrol Agent of the Year and repeating the by-now widespread claim that both Compean and Ramos have, in Rohrabacher's words, "unblemished records." Compean does, in fact, have a clean record. But Ramos was once suspended from the Border Patrol for not reporting the second of three separate assault arrests. All assault charges were dropped, but his wife did obtain an emergency protection order against him.

Salon contacted some of the members of Congress who have been the most vocal about Ramos and Compean to see if they could square their various assertions with the facts of the case. Rohrabacher, for one, was happy to admit to engaging in unsupported speculation. Asked why, considering the government's traditional reluctance to prosecute cops, he thought the U.S. Attorney would be so dogged in pursuing the agents, Rohrabacher blamed Mexico -- without offering evidence.

"That's a fine question, and we have not really delved into that. It could be just a very bad judgment call at the moment ... Or there could be something much more sinister at play here ... The president could well have made an agreement with the Mexican government at the Mexican border, something like, "Unless our guys are shot at, they're not going to be able to shoot someone" ... So that could be an explanation. I have no evidence that that is the case. If I had to speculate that, it's possible, but we have yet to prove it."

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, meanwhile, described himself to Salon as "not as knowledgeable on [the case] as some of the other members of Congress, but I suppose I'm in the second tier of knowledge." King says he's had his staff write memos for him based on media reports, trial transcripts and information from the staffs of other members of Congress. "Obviously, I can't take the time to read 3,000 pages of [trial] transcript."

However, if King, who is agitating for a new trial for the agents, is getting his knowledge about the case from staff memos, those memos have not been properly vetted. In describing the case, King said that "the supervisory officers who were on the scene, according to the reports I'm getting," knew not just about the shooting but also about the disposal of the casings and were given immunity to testify. Those allegations appear to be entirely new, and they are contradicted by the earlier sworn testimony of multiple witnesses. King admitted that he could not cite a source for the allegations.

But it's not just Republicans who've been pulled into the controversy and who find themselves making questionable statements. Of late, one of the agents' more prominent allies in Congress has been Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. She was calling for hearings on the case back in August 2006, but more recently she chaired a hearing -- at which she was the only Democrat -- of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the purpose of discussing the case.

At the hearing, Feinstein seemed to have some difficulty understanding when law enforcement officers may legally use deadly force against a suspect, apparently unaware that, per the Supreme Court, the suspect must pose a plausible "significant threat." More than once, she expressed shock that it's illegal to shoot a fleeing suspect. "Any drug dealer on the border who doesn't obey a command and runs cannot be shot?" she asked one witness. "No wonder so much drugs are coming across the border. That's amazing to me."

There are now several measures under consideration to redress what has come to be seen as the wrong done to Ramos and Compean. After Congress returns from its August recess, King plans to introduce a bill that would grant Compean and Ramos a new trial, with a change of venue from Sutton's jurisdiction to the Northern District of Texas.

Failing that, there is the possibility of presidential intervention. Before the agents reported to prison in January, Rohrabacher held a rally with Compean to call for a presidential pardon. Two pardon bills are pending in Congress, one of them with more than 100 cosponsors, including five Democrats. To date, President Bush has been reluctant to sign on. But if he won't go for a full pardon, there is always the measure that saved Lewis Libby from jail: Feinstein has asked the president to commute the agents' sentences. Should that happen, the rewriting of the ballad of Ramos and Compean will be complete.

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