By Kenneth J. Theisen, 3/13/07
The
recent firing of at least seven U.S. Attorneys by the Justice Department
continues to cause problems for the Bush regime as previous lies continue to
unravel. Last week, both the House and
Senate held hearings on the firings. What
has become clear is that the White House was involved in the firings at the
highest levels. The Judiciary Committees
of both houses have asked to review emails and other White House documents
which are expected to be provided sometime today.
In February 2005, the Bush regime
apparently suggested the firing of all 93 U.S. Attorneys across the country. The suggestion originated with former White House counsel Harriet
Miers. She is one of Bush’s closest
friends and was nominated to the Supreme Court by him. Miers
sent her suggestion to Kyle Sampson, a top aide to Gonzales. Sampson suggested
replacing a smaller group, according to e-mail messages and other memorandums. Miers also allegedly talked to Karl Rove who also
told her he did not think it was a good idea to fire them all. But this plan
eventually led to the firings of some of those attorneys for suspected
political reasons.
According
to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, the President informed Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales in 2006 that he had heard complaints U.S.
prosecutors were not adequately investigating voter-fraud allegations. “He
[Bush] believes informally he may have mentioned it to the AG during the meeting
discussing other matters. White House officials including the president did not
direct DOJ to take any specific action with regards to any specific U.S.
attorney.” (We are supposed to
believe the President who stole two presidential elections cares about voter
fraud???)
After
becoming Attorney General, Gonzales approved the firing of several of the
attorneys. He directed Kyle Sampson to
work out the details, according to the Washington Post. Sampson claimed he did not fully inform
Justice Department officials who testified to Congress about the full extent of
his communications with the White House. Those who testified so far include: Attorney
General Gonzales, Deputy Attorney General Paul
McNulty, and
Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella. Their testimony before
Congress was therefore not true.
Today
at a news conference, Gonzales admitted this.
He expressed surprise and claimed he
would investigate as to why Congress was not informed about White House
involvement in the firings. He stated, “Obviously I am concerned about the
fact that information – incomplete information was communicated or may have
been communicated to the Congress. 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”
top aide, Sampson, was forced to resign yesterday. Can anyone spell fall guy? I
am sure Mr. Sampson can.
E-mails from
Sampson are quite revealing. One showed Karl Rove’s interest in getting his
former aide, Tim Griffin, appointed to be the U.S. Attorney for Arkansas. Sampson wrote
that “getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.” Griffin got the job after the firing of the U.S. Attorney
in Little Rock. In a March 2005 e-mail from Sampson to Miers,
he ranked all 93 U.S.
prosecutors. Those who ranked at the top of the list were described as strong
performers who “exhibited loyalty” to the administration. On December 4, 2006, Sampson sent an e-mail to
the White House with a plan, “We would like to execute this on
Thursday, Dec. 7.” Some of the attorneys
were in Washington
attending a conference at the time so he proposed postponing telling them they
were being fired. He explained in the e-mail, “We want to wait until they
are back home and dispersed to reduce chatter. U.S Attorneys desiring to save their jobs aided by their
allies in the political arena as well as the Justice Department community,
likely will make efforts to preserve themselves in office. You should expect
these efforts to be strenuous.”
Documents released and testimony so far show that Karl Rove was encouraged
by the New Mexico Republican party chairman, Allen Weh, to oust New Mexico’s U.S. attorney. Weh was concerned because the U.S. Attorney
had failed to speed-up indictments of Democrats in a voter fraud investigation
before a tight race where such indictments would have helped the Republican
candidate. In 2005, according to Weh, he
complained to a White House aide who worked for Rove about the U.S. Attorney. Weh then said he asked Rove during a White
House visit in late 2006, “Is anything ever going to happen to that
guy?” Weh said Rove responded, “He’s
gone.”
The
investigation is from over now. On March
9th, House Judiciary
Chairman John Conyers sent a letter to Harriet Miers requesting that she submit
to an interview. A letter was also sent
to present White House counsel, Fred Fielding. That letter requests that Deputy White House counsel,
William Kelly, and other White House officials yet to be determined also agree
to interviews.
The House Judiciary Committee
has also indicated it wants to speak to various Justice Department aides. They include: Michael Elston, Kyle Sampson,
Monica Goodling, Bill Mercer and Mike Battle. As we know, Sampson is the designated fall
guy. Elston is staff chief to Deputy
Attorney General Paul McNulty and Mercer is an Associate Attorney General.
Goodling is Gonzales’ senior counsel and White House liaison. Battle is the
departing director of the office that oversees the 93 U.S. attorneys.
But at least one White House official is on no list
so far and he shows no signs of contrition about his role in the firings. Karl Rove in a speech on March 8th
stated, “My view is this is unfortunately a very
big attempt by some in the Congress to make a political stink about it.” And White House spokesperson, Perino stated, “We
continue to believe that the decision to remove and replace U.S. attorneys
who serve at the pleasure of the president was perfectly appropriate and within
our discretion. We stand by the
Department of Justice assertion that they identified the seven U.S.
attorneys who were removed, as they have said, based on performance and
managerial reasons.”
WorldCantWait.org
will continue to follow this investigation and report on it as appropriate.
For more background on this, read
What Is Behind Firings of U.S. Prosecutors?