Earlier revelations included Senator Domenici admitting he had personally browbeaten David Iglesias about an ongoing investigation of New Mexico state Democrats in the lead-up to a hotly contested race in NM-01 last November. He wanted indictments and he wanted them before the election.
In Eastern Arkansas US Attorney Bud Cummins was pushed out to make room for a close protege of the man behind the curtain himself, Karl Rove. Thanks to a sneaky provision in the Orwellian-named PATRIOT Act, the President can replace US Attorneys without Senate confirmation.
We also know that one of the sacked Attorneys, Carol Lam in San Diego, was leading the public corruption investigation into (former) Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, which lead to several high-profile arrests.
Who Got Canned?
- Daniel Bogden - Nevada
- Paul Charlton - Arizona
- Margaret Chiara - Western Michigan
- Bud Cummins - Eastern Arkansas
- David Iglesias - New Mexico
- Carol Lam - San Diego, CA
- John McKay - Western Washington
- Kevin Ryan - San Francisco, CA
The names in bold earned marks of "well regarded," "capable," and "very competent" in their official reviews in recent months. The performance reviews for the other two have not been publicly released.
As Senator Feinstein (D-CA) noted
These reports only serve to fuel my concerns that the Department of Justice based its decisions to fire competent and successful U.S. Attorneys because of a desire to put young politically-connected lawyers from the outside into these offices.
Their Job
The United States and its territories are divided into 93 judicial districts. Each is served by a US Attorney. They are charged with prosecuting federal crimes within their district as well as defending the US government in civil cases.
Although they serve at the pleasure of the President, barring disciplinary or performance problems they have historically stayed put for the duration of the presidency.
As noted above, the PATRIOT Act gives the President authority to name an 'interim' replacement indefinitely, without Senate approval.
The Bush Story
The White House claims that the unprecedented forced resignation of these high-performing Attorneys was because "senior Justice Department officials identified the prosecutors they believed were not doing enough to carry out President Bush's policies on immigration, firearms and other issues."
As Josh Marshall notes over at TPM, this is bullshit. Of all of the potential reasons to fire a presidential appointee, willfully disregarding (legal) policy would seem like one of the best.
Then why, when confronted with the issue, did Attorney General Gonzalez and the Justice Department say otherwise?
Since the mass firings were carried out three months ago, Justice Department officials have consistently portrayed them as personnel decisions based on the prosecutors' "performance-related" problems
Not only have they changed their tune, the personnel reviews completely contradict the idea that it was a performance-related problem!
Par for the Bush course: obfuscation, changing stories, and plum jobs for political supporters. Yay.
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