Fired U.S. Attorneys Rebut Administration Claims They Were Pushed Out For Poor Performance

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/09/attorneys-justice-performance/

Fired U.S. Attorneys Rebut Administration Claims They Were Pushed Out For Poor Performance

The administration has recently forced at least seven U.S. attorneys to resign. Several of these prosecutors were working on high-profile corruption cases, such as Carol Lam, who successfully investigated the corruption of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. In their places, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has appointed partisan administration allies.

Earlier this week, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty admitted that the U.S. attorney in Arkansas, Bud Cummins, was pushed out to make way for a “37-year-old protege” of Karl Rove. Initially, the Justice Department tried to claim that Cummins left on his own. Cummins said the matter was “handled poorly” and he was given no explanation for his forced resignation.

According to McNulty’s Senate testimony, the other six were fired for “performance-related” issues. But of those six, two have now spoken out, rebutting McNulty’s empty excuses. They state that the Justice Department never cited poor performance — or gave any explanation at all — as a reason for being pushed out:

Daniel G. Bogden, former U.S. Attorney in Nevada:

“I was told I serve as a presidential appointee. Any further explanation than that, no, I was not giv any explanation or reason for the request to step down. … We’ve done more gun cases, drug cases, gang cases, child exploitation cases, identity theft cases than any office has done in any five year period of time.”

John McKay, former U.S. Attorney in Washington:

McKay said he was called Dec. 7 by Michael A. Battle, head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, who only months before had sent him a congratulatory letter for the laudatory report issued by the Justice Department audit team. He said Battle told him to resign by the end of January. “When I was composed enough to ask him why, he told me he couldn’t answer any of my questions. … He said nothing about performance issues or management or anything else.”

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee pushed back on the Bush administration’s attempts to install unqualified administration allies as U.S. attorneys. It passed legislation repealing a little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act that allows the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys for indefinite periods of time.

[havocmom]

1. Cronies and loyalists over competence...

one of the reasons the Kremlin fell, if I recall.

NSA wire taps: get the goods on EVERYBODY. Fire prosecutors who actually do their job and then blackmail the crooked legislators and any other person with influence who you may need to control. 'Hey, we have a file on you but we canned the SOB who was after your ass... you OWE us!' bushco marches on...

[5X]

2. K and R because this is so much more important than some

other things being discussed endlessly.

[gratuitous]

3. Thanks again, Sen. Specter!

Author of the "self-writing" legislation that enabled the administration to do as it pleases with regard to U.S. Attorneys without that pesky "advise and consent" from the Senate.

Naturally, Sen. Grandstand is all a-twitter about how that clause could have possibly snuck into the legislation. But as upset as he claims to be by it, he hasn't actually, you know, tried to do anything about it.

[KoKo]

4. Article says yesterday Senate passed legislation to Repeal that provision

of the Patriot Act. (I hope this is correct)

From the end of the article:

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee pushed back on the Bush administration’s attempts to install unqualified administration allies as U.S. attorneys. It passed legislation repealing a little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act that allows the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys for indefinite periods of time.

[gratuitous]

6. That's some good news

I hope the House acts with all due alacrity to follow suit and get this legislation on the president's desk.

[cascadiance]

5. I read that he's got an excuse that a staffer put it in instead of him!

He's trying to weasel out of it, because he knows it's probably a fatal issue for him seeking any kind of re-election. Sounds like he's going to try and blame it on some "impulsive" staffer and that he was more just guilty of not looking at the details of what was done that he delegated rather than a conscious effort by himself to help this sbomination by Gonzales "slip in".

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Gonzales_sacking_of_US_Attorneys_like_0209.html

To me, that's another sign that we should definitely start NOW to do impeachment proceedings on Gonzales. This has his and Rove's signatures all over it! Specter already knows that he's in big trouble if he's tied to this criminal action by Gonzales!