'wheels coming off' Bush defense of US attorney firings

Posted on Tue, Mar. 13, 2007


Emails detail plans for firing U.S. attorneys

By Ron Hutcheson, Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Deflecting calls to resign, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged Tuesday that he mishandled the firings of eight U.S. attorneys as new details emerged about the Bush administration's efforts to oust prosecutors who had fallen out of favor.

Internal memos between the Justice Department and the White House show that administration officials were determined to bypass Congress in selecting replacements for eight U.S. attorneys who were forced to resign. The memos include a five-step plan for executing the dismissals and dealing the anticipated political firestorm.

"We're a go for the US Atty plan," White House aide William Kelley notified the Justice Department on Dec. 4, three days before seven of the eight U.S. attorneys were told to step down. "WH leg, political, and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes."

"WH leg" refers to the White House legislative affairs office, which works closely with members of Congress.

Members of Congress have expressed outrage over the dismissals for a variety of reasons. Some suspect that the ousted prosecutors were fired as part of an effort to exert political influence over federal investigators. Others resent the administration's efforts to install new prosecutors without Senate confirmation hearings.

Still others accuse the Justice Department launching an unseemly smear campaign against the ousted prosecutors.

While U.S. attorneys are political appointees - all of the ousted prosecutors were appointed by Bush - they are supposed to carry out their duties without political interference. White House officials have acknowledged that Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, served as a conduit for complaints about U.S. attorneys across the country.

"The attorney general has a responsibility to put up a fire wall to keep politics out of the Department of Justice," said former U.S. Attorney H.E. "Bud" Cummins, who was forced out to make room for a Rove protege. "There are political people in politics who are an inherent part of the process. There is no place for them at the department of justice. When things like this happen it costs the department its credibility."

The internal administration documents, which were released by the House Judiciary Committee, show that Rove's office also arranged for two New Mexico Republicans to deliver their complaints about former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias directly to the Justice Department in June 2006

The two New Mexicans, Patrick Rogers and Mickey Barnett, have acknowledged that they were frustrated with Iglesias' handling of corruption allegations against Democrats.

"I have a person from New Mexico coming to town this week . . . He was heavily involved in the President's campaign's legal team," Scott Jennings, the Rove aide, said of Barnett in paving the way for his Justice Department meeting. In a follow-up e-mail, Jennings called the meeting a "sensitive" matter.

Meanwhile, the number of Democrats calling for Gonzales' resignation grew, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev; Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean; and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., piling on.

"This is the straw that has broken the camel's back," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Most Republicans stood by Gonzales publicly, but others said his support was eroding and that the scandal could be a turning point.

"I certainly don't have a lot of confidence in his leadership," said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said he was "not yet" calling for a resignation but added, "I think I share the feelings of many Republican senators that this is a profoundly disappointing event."

In a hastily called press conference, Gonzales acknowledged that "mistakes were made" in the firings. But he would only concede that prosecutors should have been told about the reasons for their firings. He did not back down from his stance that the ousters were legitimate.

"All political appointees can be removed by the president of the United States for any reason," he said. "I stand by the decision, and I think it was the right decision."

What's still not clear is why the prosecutors were targeted. The internal documents reveal extensive planning for the firings long before the White House and the Justice Department agreed on which prosecutors should go. Names seemed to be added and dropped from the target list for no obvious reason.

In 2005, then-White House counsel Harriet Miers proposed firing all 93 U.S. attorneys as part of a second-term house cleaning. Administration officials said Gonzales and Rove both rejected that idea.

At that point, Kyle Sampson, Gonzales' chief of staff, started working on a scaled-back plan. In an e-mail to Miers in early 2005, Sampson recommended retaining "strong" U.S. attorneys "who have produced, managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the President and Attorney General."

He called for ousting "weak" appointees "who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against administration initiatives, etc."

Sampson was forced to resign Monday after Justice Department officials blamed him for failing to keep Gonzales informed of the dismissal plan.

"We never had a discussion about where things stood," Gonzales told reporters. "What I knew was that there was an ongoing effort that was led by Mr. Sampson . . . to ascertain where we could make improvements in U.S. attorney performances around the country."

At least two of the U.S. attorneys who were later forced to step down, Iglesias in New Mexico and Paul Charlton of Arizona, were on Sampson's "retain" list in February 2005.

But by September of 2006 - after it became clear that Charlton had launched an investigation of Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz, - Sampson included the Arizona prosecutor on another list of U.S. attorneys "we now should consider pushing out."

Other memos and e-mails suggest a variety of reasons that individual prosecutors might have fallen out of favor.

In an e-mail dated May 11, 2006, Sampson urged the White House counsel's office to call him regarding "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam," who then the U.S. attorney for southern California. Earlier that morning, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lam's corruption investigation of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., had expanded to include another California Republican, Rep Jerry Lewis.

Cunningham is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence in Arizona. Lewis has not been charged with any crime. Lam was forced to resign.

In a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he wants to know whether Lam was fired for the Cunningham case or because "she was about to investigate other people who were politically powerful." Lam declined to talk publicly about her dismissal.

Another e-mail suggests that Justice Department officials wanted Lam to be more aggressive on immigration enforcement.

Justice Department officials compiled complaints from a variety of sources. The head of a Justice Department anti-pornography task force complained that two prosecutors had failed to pursue obscenity cases.

White House officials say both Bush and Rove complained to Gonzales that the Justice Department hadn't been aggressively enough about pursuing voter fraud cases, but didn't mention any prosecutor by name.

Republican officials lodged similar complaints against Iglesias and U.S. attorney John McKay in Washington state, who was also forced out.

Iglesias said he still believed he was removed for resisting political pressure to go after Democrats before elections on voter fraud complaints and also on unrelated corruption charges. Some Republicans were unhappy that Iglesias didn't indict Democrats accused of corruption before the 2006 congressional elections. In 2004, he said he had heard rumblings that state Republicans were unhappy that he didn't pursue election fraud.

"Most of it was garbage, but we did look into more deeply into specific allegations and we could not find any evidence to indict," he said Tuesday.

Cummins, the ousted Arkansas prosecutor, also took issue with the voter fraud explanation.

"I would have serious doubts that anybody would fail to pursue voter fraud," Cummins said. "What they're responding to is party chairmen and activists, who from the beginning of time, go around paranoid that the other party is stealing the election."

Kevin Hall contributed to this story from Merida, Mexico. Les Blumethal contributed from Washington.

I strongly recommend that as a matter of Admin. policy, we utilize the new statutory provisions (of the Patriot Act) that authorize the AG to make USA appointments. We can continue to do selection in JSC, but then should have DOJ take over entirely the vet and appointment. By not going the PAS route, we give far less deference to home-state Senators and thereby (1) get our preferred person appointed and (2) do it faster and more efficiently, at less political cost to the White House.

"-First, wholesale removal of US Attorneys would cause significant disruption to the work of the DOJ.
-Second, individual USAttys were originally recommended for appointment by a home-state Senator who may be opposed to the Pres. determination
-Third, a suitable replacment must be found, in sonsultation with the home-state Senator, difficulty varying from state to state
-Fourth, a background investigation must be completed on the replacement, complicated if the outgoing US Attorney remains in office
-Fifth, the Senate must confirm the replacements

These USAs "chafed against Administration initiative" instead of "Exhibited loyalty to the President & Attorney General"

Recommends Lam, Cummins, Chiara and Kevin Ryan of No. Calif be dismissed.

Sampson says: "I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the tie necessary to select candidates and get them appointed." Then reiterates using the PAS route.

This excerpt from the Arkansas Times 8/24/06 was provided to Kyle Sampson from Monica Goodling. Listed as FYI- ... Tim Griffin, an Arkansas native who has worked in top jobs at both the Republican National Committee and the White House on hard-charging political opposition research. ... He'd likely endure some questioning about his role in massive Republican projects in Florida and elsewhere by which Republicans challenged tens of thousands of absentee votes. Coincidentally, many of those challenged votes were concentrated in black precincts.

(from http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/are/usa.html
In December 2006, Tim Griffin was named U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. The Eastern District includes 41 Arkansas counties.

In today's Seattle Times: Former Washington state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance acknowledged Tuesday that he contacted then-U.S. Attorney John McKay to inquire about the status of federal investigations into the 2004 governor's race while the outcome was still in dispute.

Vance also spoke regularly with presidential adviser Karl Rove's aides about the election, which Democrat Christine Gregoire ultimately won by 129 votes over Republican Dino Rossi. But Vance said he doesn't recall discussing with the White House McKay's performance or Republicans' desires for a formal federal investigation.

Vance's revelations come as Congress continues investigating whether the firings of McKay and seven other U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration were politically motivated.

Vance is one of at least two Republican officials who called McKay to inquire about a possible investigation by his office into the governor's race.

In testimony before Congress last week, McKay said that he received a call in late 2004 or early 2005 from Ed Cassidy, then chief of staff for Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, inquiring about the status of ongoing investigations into possible voter fraud. McKay said he cut off Cassidy before he could ask inappropriate questions.

McKay has never publicly mentioned being contacted by Vance. "I vaguely remember getting a call from Chris Vance" about the election, he said Tuesday, "but I don't remember anything significant about the call."

Vance could not recall when his conversation with McKay took place.

"I said 'You know, John, we're getting a lot of complaints from activists about this,' " Vance said.

"[McKay] said, 'Stop right there, I can't talk about this. If we are doing any kind of investigation or not, I can't comment,' " Vance recalled, "so I dropped it."

"Republican activists were furious because they felt that you had a Republican secretary of state [Sam Reed], a Republican county prosecutor in Norm Maleng and a Republican U.S. attorney, but still they saw the governorship slipping away, and they were just angry," Vance said.

McKay was not on the original lists.

That changed Sept. 13.

In an e-mail to White House counsel Harriet Miers, Sampson put McKay's name in a group titled: "[U.S. Attorneys] We Now Should Consider Pushing Out."

The Sampson e-mail is among 112 pages of messages that the White House provided to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. While the documents show there was extensive coordination between the Justice Department and the White House on the firings, they do not clarify how or why McKay was targeted.

On Aug. 22, three weeks before Sampson recommended that Miers oust McKay, Miers and White House deputy counsel William Kelley met with McKay in Washington, D.C. McKay had requested the meeting after he discovered that a merit-selection panel had not named him one of three finalists to become a federal judge in Western Washington.

McKay said Miers and Kelley quickly asked him about Republican unhappiness in Washington state about his handling of the 2004 election.

McKay's office and the FBI conducted a preliminary investigation of voter-fraud allegations, but filed no charges and did not convene a grand jury because McKay and the Justice Department felt there was not sufficient evidence of federal crimes.



The Justice Department said senior senators in relevant states were notified of the firings, but Sen. Patty Murray said she was not informed by the administration, or asked for nominee suggestions. (According to Step 1 in the "Plan" WH OPA Calles the home-state "Bush political lead" when there are not Republican Home state senators.....)



Seven U.S. attorneys, including McKay, were fired Dec. 7, and another was let go months earlier, with little explanation from Justice Department officials. Several former prosecutors have since alleged intimidation, including improper calls from GOP lawmakers or their aides, and have alleged threats of retaliation by a Justice Department official.

In defending themselves Tuesday, Gonzales and the White House implicitly laid much of the blame for miscommunication with Congress on Kyle Sampson, who resigned Monday as Gonzales' chief of staff after acknowledging he had not told other Justice officials about his extensive communications with the White House about the dismissals.