What is the fired US Attorneys scandal about?
The core issue is the politicization of the Department of Justice (DOJ). o Targets of investigations were allegedly chosen by party affiliation instead of suspicion of crime o US Attorneys (USAs) removed to be replaced by political hacks who perhaps will conduct political investigations, especially Arkansas o This is a pattern under Bush: tobacco trial interfered with by political appointees to protect defendants, and appointees overruled staff on voting rights and redistricting o The biggest damage might be the loss of trust that federal criminal investigations are impartial There is no precedent for these firings The ability to fire USAs is not new. The Attorney General or the president can fire political appointees at will. The new part is being able to replace them without approval of the Senate, due a provision slipped into the Patriot Act renewal without the knowledge of anyone in Congress. It’s not true there are no possible violations of law o It’s possible fired attorneys were chosen to stop investigations of GOP officials. Carol Lam in San Diego had just indicted Brent Wilkes and Dusty Foggo, was about to indict Rep. Jerry Lewis. Arizona attorney appeared read to indict another GOP congressman. o DOJ officials including Alberto Gonzales testified under oath to Congress that firings were performance based, which contradicts e-mail. Lying to Congress is a felony, the legislative equivalent of perjury. o Congressmen and state party chairs who pressured USAs might have committed obstruction of justice. Just like the justification for illegal wiretapping or opening mail: if they have nothing to hide, why care if the government snoops? So if White House staff have nothing to hide, why refuse to testify publicly under oath? If White House staff are allowed private interview with no recording or transcript, future demands for public testimony will give credence to the “showtrial” charge. Staffs of prior administrations have testified under oath going back at least to FDR. The e-mail revealing that Gonzales was at the meeting where the final decision was made was released on a Friday night, indicating they were trying to hide it. The 3,000 document dump had a 18½ minute day gap in the White House tapes DOJ e-mails. USAs were pushed to investigate Democratic voter fraud, and brought no indictments. This is the first scandal touching Bush personally. He mentioned to Gonzales receiving complaints about USAs, though he denies being specific. If Bush is to be believed, the conversation went something like, “Alberto, I received
complaints about certain USAs from prominent Republicans. Now that we’ve exhausted that subject…” Released e-mail from DOJ Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson shows attorneys were rated according to loyalty to Bush. Released e-mail shows a hunt for an explanation of the firings should they become public. They hit upon immigration for some since they were in the Southwest. For others, they used the excuse of letting other Republicans build up their resumes.
Debunking GOP spin:
It’s half true that Clinton fired 93 USAs. All presidents replace political appointees. Clinton replaced USAs during the first year, which is typical. It’s been alleged Clinton fired USAs to obstruct investigations of himself in Arkansas and Dan Rostenkowski in Illinois. Investigations continued under Clinton appointees, and Rostenkowski was jailed in 1994, close to election o Are Republicans making the two wrongs make a right argument? If it was wrong for Clinton, wouldn’t be wrong for Bush? o False charges against Clinton are an attempt to counter argument that this is unprecedented, and attempt to distract from Bush. Performance problem claims have all been contradicted by the written record. All had good reviews and testified they had been told nothing about performance issues. Presidents and AGs have the right to fire political appointees. The ability to fire DOJ political appointees may not apply if done to obstruct justice, as appears possible at least for Carol Lam in San Diego and Paul Charlton in Arizona.
Who are these people?
There are three people who have been personally close to Bush since the early 90’s: Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and Alberto Gonzales. If anyone knows where the bodies are buried, it’s them. Since they have been using torture and secret prisons, that expression might be somewhat literal. They have been part of Bush’s campaigns and administrations.
Those involved so far:
Alberto Gonzales was White House Counsel when the plan was first discussed, shortly thereafter becoming AG. Harriet Miers was White House Counsel during the time the plan was developed, and appears to have been involved. Karl Rove is deputy chief of staff for Bush Chris Vance was Washington state party chair during the disputed 2004 gubernatorial election. He called John McKay, one of the fired attorneys, to
complain about McKay not trying to save the election for the GOP, and spoke with Rove. Allan Weh is state party chair of New Mexico. He complained to Rove about David Iglesias. Pete Domemici is a senator from New Mexico. He called Iglesias to pressure him to bring indictments against Democrats before the 2006 election. Heather Wilson is a representative from New Mexico who also called Iglesias to pressure him to bring indictments against Democrats before the 2006 election. Ed Cassidy, chief of staff for Representative Doc Hastings, called McKay to push for voter fraud indictments in 2004. Monica Goodling is DOJ liaison to the White House. She has announced she will take the Fifth when called to testify. Michael Battle, director of the Executive Office for US Attorneys, informed the fired attorneys and resigned right after the scandal broke. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ chief of staff, might have been the one who did most of the work to carry out the scheme, or may be the fall guy. He did a fake resignation, moved to a different job, and resigned again when he got caught. Scott Jennings is deputy to Karl Rove. It was one of his e-mails that revealed White House staff were using RNC owned domains for e-mail instead of the White House domain which is archived as public records. Timothy Griffin replaced H.E. "Bud" Cummins III in Arkansas. He worked for Rove, and during 2004 ran a “caging” scheme to disenfranchise minority voters in Florida. He mailed letters marked Do Not Forward to people likely to be away from their registration addresses, like soldiers, students, and homeless, and when the mail was returned, used it to challenge their right to vote and struck maybe 70,000 people off the voter rolls. He may have been placed in Arkansas to initiate investigations of the Clintons. David Leitch, White House Deputy counsel, appears to have been coordinating with Sampson. Rep. Darrell Issa wrote a letter complaining about how Carol Lam, the USA in San Diego, was too “lax” on immigration cases. 17 other GOP congressmen signed the letter, including Duke Cunningham, who was under investigation and convicted by Lam. Lam devoted half her staff to immigration. Rep. Jerry Lewis appeared to face imminent indictment until Lam was fired. Rep. Rick Renzi might have faced imminent indictment by fired attorney Paul Charlton of Arizona. Tasia Scolinos is the DOJ official who suggested using immigration as an excuse. William Moschella, Assistant Attorney General, appears to have been behind the move to remove the role of judges in filling USA vacancies. Brett Tolman, counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, added the provision to the Patriot Act eliminating the need to get new USAs approved by Congress – apparently without telling anyone including Sen. Arlen Spector who hired him. Paul McNulty, Deputy Attorney General, told the Senate the firings were performace related, and has since sought to alter his story.
Scandals growing out of the firings:
The use of RNC owned domains for official business has become the subject of an inquiry by Rep. Henry Waxman. It is possible other activities have been hidden from public record by using non-official e-mails. Rove is reported to use RNC domains for 95% of his e-mail. Tim Griffin and the GOP may have broken voting rights laws by targeting nonwhite voters for unreasonable challenges in 2004. A career DOJ employee who was lead attorney in the DOJ case against tobacco companies has charged that political appointees intervened to reduce the damages sought from over $100 billion to $10 billion, required her to use a closing argument written by the appointees, and told witnesses what to say. This decision to reduce the damages claim was reported at the time, but no investigation followed. Career employees in the civil rights division have charged that political appointees overruled unanimous staff decisions on voting right and redistricting, always leading to decisions favoring Republicans, such as staff opposition to the Texas redistricting and Georgia ID law. Bush did something unprecedented when he denied investigators with the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility security clearance to investigate abuse of warrantless wiretapping. Gonzales was informed he would be a target of the investigation before he asked Bush to deny security clearance, though the same clearance was given to investigators looking into the leak of the program, and to Bush’s privacy commission. A USA fired in 2005, Thomas M. DiBiagio, charged that his firing was to stop his investigation of former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.