Justice Department Report Ignored

Thanatos

The Justice Department's report on the firing of U.S. attorneys by Alberto Gonzalez just hit, and it's going to be pretty much completely ignored in light of the current election and economic crisis; who wants to bet that the timing of the release of the report is deliberate?

The LA Times wrote:

Report criticizes Gonzales, deputy in firings of U.S. attorneys
But the long-awaited Justice Department report finds no hard evidence that firings were illegal. Authors say they had trouble uncovering the truth because the White House wasn't cooperative.

By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:38 PM PDT, September 29, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and his top deputy, Paul McNulty, "abdicated their responsibility" in the 2006 firing of U.S. attorneys, were strikingly aloof and ill-informed about the process and offered the public reasons for the dismissals that were "inconsistent, misleading and/or inaccurate," Justice Department investigators concluded today.

The long-awaited report, a combined effort by the Justice Department inspector general and the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, found no firm evidence that any of the U.S. attorneys were fired for illegal reasons.

But the authors also said they were unable to get at the truth in all cases because of a lack of cooperation from the White House in offering up documents and testimony about the role of officials there in the dismissals.

The report said that a number officials, including Karl Rove, the longtime political adviser to President Bush, and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers, refused to be interviewed, which muddied the pursuit of how the purge was begun and why.

Responding to the concern, Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey announced today that he was appointing a career prosecutor, Nora R. Dannehy, the acting U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to continue the investigation.

According to the report, the "most disturbing" unsolved case was that of the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, David Iglesias, who was fired after members of New Mexico's congressional delegation, including Rep. Heather Wilson, and Sen. Pete Domeneci complained to department and White House officials about Iglesias' alleged failure to pursue voter fraud and public-corruption cases before the November 2006 election.

"We concluded that the department never objectively assessed these complaints; rather, based upon these complaints, Iglesias' name was placed on the removal list, and in December 2006, he was told to resign," the report said. It added that investigators interviewed Wilson but that Domeneci declined to be questioned.

At the same time, the report said that investigators found no evidence that two of the U.S. attorneys, Carol Lam of San Diego and Paul Charlton of Phoenix, were fired because of their pursuit of corruption cases against Republicans. There had been widespread speculation that both were dismissed for those reasons. Lam's office handled the high-profile prosecution of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham; Charlton's office investigated Arizona Republican Rick Renzi.

The report said that Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, who was tasked with overseeing the replacement of the U.S. attorneys, "mishandled the removal process from the outset," and engaged in "misconduct" by making misleading statements about that process and failing to disclose relevant information to the White House, members of Congress and others.

In a prepared statement, George Terwilliger, Gonzales' attorney, said the report confirmed that Gonzales had been truthful with Congress about his involvement in the affair. Terwilliger criticized the authors, however, for second-guessing personnel decisions that were within the exclusive discretion of the president.

"My family and I are glad to have the investigation of my conduct in this matter behind us and we look forward to moving on to new challenges," Gonzales said, in the statement released by his lawyer.

So, basically, "since they won't cooperate, we can't prove anything." Fuckers.

Adrenaline

Where are two aspiring young Washington Post reporters to uncover the truth when you need them?

Hoz

Bush Administration:

Oh thank God there is a complete meltdown of our economy due to our policies. It's completely overshadowing the other things we did!

Kalkino

I imagine a lot of such news will be buried around the world over the coming months, and no doubt people will be caught on record stating that this is their intention. The Brits got into trouble over this a few years back for that exact reason

Bogart

Yeah, a couple of aides were fired for being caught on record advising Ministers to break terrible news just after horrific tragedies or whatever. It's a sound tactic, but for God's sake don't put it in an email.

TokyoRaver

They've named a special prosecutor, so this ain't over yet.

PantsB

Bogart wrote: »

Yeah, a couple of aides were fired for being caught on record advising Ministers to break terrible news just after horrific tragedies or whatever. It's a sound tactic, but for God's sake don't put it in an email.

The White House just deletes those emails

SithDrummer

PantsB wrote: »

Bogart wrote: »

Yeah, a couple of aides were fired for being caught on record advising Ministers to break terrible news just after horrific tragedies or whatever. It's a sound tactic, but for God's sake don't put it in an email.

The White House just deletes those emails

While Palin would instead auto-forward them to her husband's Yahoo account. She truly is a maverick!