Complete investigation of U.S.
attorney firings is needed
If no one is held accountable, it would give license
to future administrations
Honolulu Star Bulletin,
October 1, 2008
go to original
See Article
II.3 Failure to Uphold Accountability
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Alberto Gonzalez: "primary responsibility"
"extraordinary lack of recollection"
Source: Gambling911.com
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As the Bush administration limps through its final
days, continuing an inquiry into the firing of U.S.
attorneys for political purposes would seem pointless
- except to restore trust and confidence in the institution
duty bound to enforce laws without bias or partisanship.
Michael Mukasey, the third attorney general to serve
President Bush, was correct to heed the call of the
Justice Department's inspector general to appoint
a federal prosecutor to investigate further.
Though a conclusion could be months if not years
away, misconduct by administration officials shouldn't
be allowed to pass. Unless someone is held accountable,
the loose atmosphere that has prevailed during the
past seven years would give license to future administrations
and muddy ethical boundaries even more.
Mukasey's move was prompted by a 392-page report
by the inspector general and the Office of Professional
Responsibility, who had been examining the dismissals
for 18 months. The report found "significant
evidence that partisan political considerations were
an important factor in the removal" of several
U.S. attorneys.
However, because some key witnesses refused to cooperate
- including former White House counsel and Supreme
Court nominee Harriet Miers, Bush's former political
adviser Karl Rove and former Justice liaison Monica
Goodling - the investigation could not be completed,
the report said.
Mukasey, in describing the dismissals as "haphazard,
arbitrary and unprofessional," properly recognized
that his department "has an obligation to the
American people to pursue this case" regardless
of whether the alleged culprits have left their jobs.
It is a departure from his earlier decision not to
pursue legal action against former White House operatives
who applied litmus tests of party affiliation and
conservative views in hiring immigration judges and
for other nonpolitical positions.
The difference is probably due to the level of authority
involved with the report pointing at the White House,
then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other department
officials for playing major roles in the unprecedented
firings and providing "inconsistent, misleading
or inaccurate" statements.
The report is particularly critical of Gonzales,
who it said "bears primary responsibility"
for the messy episode and had "an extraordinary
lack of recollection about the entire removal process,"
most remarkably a meeting in his conference room when
he approved the dismissals.
The most serious case was that of David Iglesias,
the U.S. attorney for New Mexico who was fired because
of "complaints from New Mexico Republican politicians
and party activists to the White House and the Department"
that he would not bring voter fraud charges that would
boost the party's chances in elections there.
Political considerations also were suspected in firing
three other attorneys, including one who was pushed
out to provide a job for a former Rove aide, the report
said, but, unable to compel testimony, investigators
were stymied.
The new prosecutor, armed with grand jury subpoenas,
won't have that problem
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