Ms. de la Vega retired from federal employment in 2004, but she did not stop working on behalf of the people of the United States. She simply moved from the courtroom to the computer, using her expertise and passion for justice to write about the most significant political and legal issues of the 21st century: presidential fraud, torture, civil liberties violations and peace activism. Her incisive and inspiring pieces on these topics have appeared in a variety of print and online publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Nation magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, Mother Jones, Common Dreams, TomDispatch, Truthout and Alternet.
The author of the New York Times best-selling book United States v. George W. Bush et. al., Ms. de la Vega is a frequent guest on national talk shows like The Colbert Report!, Randi Rhodes, The Thom Hartmann Program, Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now and The Tavis Smiley Show. Her wit, expertise and dynamic discussion of civic engagement, public integrity and justice-related issues make her popular with college and law students, peace and justice groups and other political organizations.
Praise for United States v. George W. Bush et al.:
“Any American patriot who would like to see a grand jury challenge this Administration’s blitzkrieg against our constitution will relish Elizabeth de la Vega’s book United States v. George W. Bush et al. Machiavelli believed fraud was laudable and glorious in matters of war. In her book, Ms. de la Vega invites us into the courtroom to consider the indictment of our modern day Machiavellis and the fraud they’ve perpetrated.” —Edward Asner
“De la Vega has accomplished an amazing feat with this singularly triumphant presentation of the intersection between political fantasy and legal reality. Reading the delightfully logical and clearheaded United States v. George W. Bush et al. is both incredibly sobering, and yet strangely hopeful. Real American patriots can only wish the United States godspeed in this case, and this brief is destined to be well studied by principals in all three branches of American government, as well as by those who serve as the Fourth Estate.” —Karen Kwiatkowski, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel
“This book makes the case. It shines a brilliant beam of light into the fog of mainstream news and politics. If you’re tired of partisan rhetoric and media evasions, read United States v. George W. Bush et al.” —Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
“…Much more powerful than the 9/11 report. A tour de force.” —Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire
“With her imaginative Grand Jury approach, Elizabeth de la Vega gives us a front-row seat for the evidence of violent crimes by high officials of the Bush administration. Her lively style and sense of humor pierce the all-too-familiar melancholy and make for a fascinating read. Give this book to friends who cannot get their head around the notion that our president lied us into an unnecessary war. But alert them to the possibility that they may be moved to act more responsibly than the frightened Germans of the 1930s and the apathetic neighbors of Kitty Genovese. For it will be clear that we are all in this together.”—Ray McGovern, retired CIA analyst
“On the basis of the evidence presented by former prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, I’m convinced that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their fellow ‘indictees’ are fully entitled to a fair and honest trial—indeed, several fair and honest trials—by juries of their peers.” —Daniel Ellsberg, former State and Defense Department official who revealed the Pentagon Papers
ELIZABETH DE LA VEGA, a veteran Justice Department attorney who served under Presidents Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, knows a little bit about public service and about the law. Winner of numerous Attorney General’s and community awards, including the prestigious Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, she spent twenty-one years prosecuting violent gangsters and sophisticated white collar criminals in both Minneapolis and San Jose, where she was Branch Chief and a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force. She has also lectured frequently in Continuing Legal Education programs and taught law school courses in legal writing, trial skills, appellate advocacy and white collar crime.
