From the Tribune:
Gonzales: Prosecutors Firings Mishandled
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
Published March 13, 2007, 2:30 PM CDT
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales accepted responsibility Tuesday
for mistakes in the way the Justice Department handled the dismissal of eight
federal prosecutors but he rejected calls for his resignation.
At a Justice Department news conference, Gonzales said he would find out why
Congress was not told sooner that the White House was involved in discussions
of who would be fired and when. He did not, however, back away his stance that
the dismissals that did take place were appropriate.
"I stand by the decision and I think it was the right decision," Gonzales
said.
Democrats in Congress have charged that the eight dismissals announced last
December were politically motivated and that some of those ousted have said
they felt pressured by powerful Republicans in their home states to rush investigations
of potential voter fraud involving Democrats.
Justice Department officials, led by Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, told
lawmakers under oath that the decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys in December
was made solely by the Justice Department and said the decision was based on
performance, not politics.
E-mails released Tuesday, however, revealed that the firings were considered
and discussed for two years by Justice Department and White House officials.
"Obviously I am concerned about the fact that information -- incomplete
information was communicated or may have been communicated to the Congress,"
Gonzales said. "I believe very strongly in our obligation to ensure that
when we provide information to the Congress, it is accurate and it is complete.
And I very dismayed that that may not have occurred here."
Gonzales earlier accepted the resignation of his top aide, Kyle Sampson. Authorities
said that Sampson failed to brief other senior Justice Department officials
of his discussions about the firings with then-White House counsel Harriet Miers.
E-mail correspondence between Sampson and Miers indicate they began two years
ago to consider individual U.S. attorneys for possible dismissal. As the list
took shape, their correspondence indicated possible political backlash from
the attorneys and their congressional allies.
In a Sept 13, 2006, e-mail to Miers, Sampson listed one prosecutor, Bud Cummins
in Little Rock,Ark., "in the process of being pushed out." Five other
prosecutors -- in Arizona, Nevada, Grand Rapids, Mich., San Diego and Seattle
-- were listed as U.S attorneys "we should now consider pushing out."
Four days later, Miers responded: "Kyle, thanks for this. I have not forgotten
I need to follow up on the info but things have been crazy."
But nearly three months later, the Justice Department was still waiting for
White House approval for the firings. "Still waiting for green light from
White House," Sampson wrote in a Dec. 2, 2006, e-mail to Michael Elston,
the top aide to McNulty.
The White House responded shortly thereafter.
"We're a go for the US Atty plan," deputy White House counsel William
K. Kelley wrote in a Dec. 4, 2006, e-mail to Sampson and Miers. "WH leg,
political, communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be
committed to following through once the pressure comes."
The term "WH leg" refers to the White House office of legislative
affairs, which deals with Congress. Copies of dozens of Sampson's e-mails to
various White House and Justice Department aides were released Tuesday by congressional
judiciary oversight panels.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said that President Bush never directed the
Justice Department to fire a U.S. attorney. He said the contacts between the
White House and DOJ about the concerns about the performance of various U.S.
attorneys was appropriate.
"If somebody had passed on a concern about vote fraud allegations and we
had not passed it on, can you imagine the kind of second-guessing we would have?"
Snow said, adding, "You're not making recommendations, you're not issuing
pressure you're not saying `Fire somebody!' "
Testifying before Democratic-controlled congressional committees, several of
the ousted prosecutors described what they said was improper pressure by Republicans
on pending cases.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who is leading a Senate investigation
of the firings, called for the second time in three days for Gonzales to step
down. He said Sampson's resignation didn't take the heat off Gonzales.
"In fact, it raises the temperature," Schumer said. Alluding to the
recent conviction of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
in the CIA leak case, Schumer said: "Kyle Sampson will not become the next
Scooter Libby, the next fall guy."
Even Republicans were angry. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Gonzales mishandled
the dismissal of the U.S. attorney in Las Vegas .
"I was either intentionally misled or someone was misinformed," Ensign
said.
The government's 93 U.S. attorneys are presidential appointees who can be hired
and fired at will. But critics say the fate of the eight who were dismissed
last year appeared to have been politically motivated. And Democratic and Republican
lawmakers alike said they were outraged that Justice Department officials weren't
forthcoming on how the firings unfolded.
A Justice Department official said Tuesday that Miers, in a February 2005 discussion
with Sampson, suggested firing all of the U.S. attorneys. Snow described the
idea as a move to get fresh faces in the 4-year term jobs, and said that it
was not a firm recommendation by Miers.
The e-mails show that Sampson rejected the idea to fire all of the prosecutors
but spent the next year drawing up a list of potential dismissals. On Jan. 9,
2006, Sampson sent Miers a memo listing what the official described as roughly
10 names of prosecutors who were viewed as underperforming in their jobs.
By September, Sampson began moving forward with the firings, the Justice official
said. The White House did not ask for names to be added or removed from that
list, the official said. Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty signed
off on the list around that time, the official said.
Gonzales was aware of the discussions with the White House, but McNulty and
other senior department officials were not, the official said.
___
Associated Press Writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report. Riechmann
contributed from Merida, Mexico.
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