Unjust Behavior by the Justice Department

Quietly, some might say with stealth, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez of the United States Justice Department has fired (according to the Wall Street Journal) 11 U.S. attorneys since March 2006, seven in the last few months without evidence of misconduct. 
 
This unusually high number of vacancies occurred after a little known, year-old amendment to the Patriot Act was made. Prior to this, and according to the 1986 law, when a vacancy arose the court nominated an interim U.S. Attorney with a limit of 120 days until the Senate confirmed a Presidential nominee. When the Patriot Act was reauthorized last year, a provision, unknown to most in Congress, was included that modified this statute, by removing the 120-day limit on an interim appointment. 

As Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pointed out, “Now the Attorney General can nominate someone who goes in without any confirmation hearing by this Senate and serve as a U.S. Attorney for the remainder of the President’s term in office. This is a way, simply stated, of avoiding a Senate confirmation of a U.S. attorney.”

The recent firings that have come under scrutiny are from California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arkansas, Texas, Washington and Arizona. All were told in early December to resign, except H.E. Cummins of Arkansas, who was removed last summer.

Democrats have said the removals represented an effort to make room for political favorites of the Bush administration. Administration officials denied the dismissals were politically motivated. Gonzalez, however, has been selecting interim appointees from the White House inner circle.

 Paul J. McNulty, the deputy attorney general, confirmed this last week during a closed-door briefing for senators. According to the New York Times, McNulty stated that Arkansas U.S. Attorney, Cummins was removed after Harriet E. Miers, former White House counsel, phoned at the request of Karl Rove, the Attorney General’s office suggesting the appointment of J. Timothy Griffin for the position. Griffin was a former prosecutor and political director for the Republican National Convention as well as a deputy to Karl Rove. Soon thereafter Cummins was removed without explanation.

McNulty further stated “Mr. Cummings had done nothing wrong but was removed to make room for Mr. Griffin.”

That sounds suspiciously like political favoritism to me.

The Attorney General’s office has stated the firings were “performance-related”

Recently fired U.S. Attorney John McKay of Washington took umbrage to that statement. In an interview with the Tacoma News Tribune, he stated that his Seattle office received glowing reviews as recently as last fall, when an intensive Justice Department audit heaped praise on McKay and his staff.

“That is unfair.” McKay said in response to the performance comment,  “That reflects on my former colleagues in the office and the good work that we did, and I know that’s not true.”

Further praise was heaped on McKay by the chief judge of the federal court in Seattle, Judge Robert Lasnik.  “We were dismayed to see that the Justice Department was suggesting there was something wrong with his performance as United States attorney,” said Lasnik. “We unanimously agreed that he was absolutely superb.”

Another questionable firing was that of Daniel Bogden of Nevada. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada accused the Bush administration of the firing as an attempt to name more political allies as federal prosecutors. In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal, Reid stated, “What has happened in my town in Nevada is …distasteful to say the very least. We want to know what’s going on.”

When asked who Bogden’s replacement could be Reid said, “I don’t know, maybe somebody from Scooter Libby’s office.”

Perhaps the most disturbing removal is that of U.S. Attorney Carol Lam of San Diego. Lam was responsible for the 2005 conviction of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the former San Diego congressman, on bribery charges. He is now serving eight years in prison after confessing to taking $2.4 million in bribes.

Two days before she left her post on Feb. 15, Lam held a press conference announcing two new indictments stemming from the Cunningham case. A federal grand jury has charged defense contractor Brent R. Wilkes, and former CIA Director Kyle ‘Dusty’ Foggo, with fraud, conspiracy and illegal money transfers. When making the announcement, Lam called the charges against the two men “breathtaking in scope”.

So, what exactly has Carol Lam done that she deserves to be fired? Senator Feinstein apparently wondered the same thing when she stated, “We have people from the FBI indicating that Carol Lam has not only been a straight shooter, but a good prosecutor.” There seems to be no concrete answer. There has been some speculation she was forced out for not prosecuting more border-related crimes. Wouldn’t prosecuting congressmen, defense contractors and former CIA directors of bribery and fraud be pretty substantial? However, maybe these very same indictments, that she says are “breathtaking in scope”, may be getting too close to the White House.

Since the raft of firings came to light a few of weeks ago, there has been much activity on Capital HIll. Legislation, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) would remove the provision in the Patriot Act that gave the attorney general power to replace fired U.S. attorneys indefinitely without a Senate confirmation.

According to “The Hill” (the Newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress) Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill) has called on Attorney General Gonzalez to name Carol Lam as an outside counsel so she can continue investigating the corruption case of against Cunningham in light of the two new indictments. He asked this be done “To remove the cloud of politics over Ms. Lam’s dismissal, and to ensure there are no delays in the investigation of the Cunningham matter.”

Last Thursday evening, as reported in the New York Times, Gonzalez called several Arkansas lawmakers to advise them that Mr. Griffin’s name would be withdrawn as candidate to succeed Mr. Cummins as U.S. attorney. This, after it came to light that Harriet Miers intervened on behalf of Griffin, that Cummins was only removed to make room for Rove’s crony and that Arkansas lawmakers said they would not support Mr. Griffin if he were nominated.

Finally, a little justice in the Justice Department.