Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) raised the issue at the confirmation hearing for James Cole, who as deputy attorney general would be the No. 2 official in the Justice Department. A partner in the Washington office of Bryan Cave, Cole specializes in white-collar defense and has spoken on several occasions about the federal prosecution of corporations.
In an October 2006 speech cited by Sessions, Cole spoke specifically about the now infamous case of Arthur Andersen. The indictment of the nearly century-old accounting firm as part of the Enron scandal led to its collapse, and thousands of people lost their jobs.
