E-mail trail shows power struggle behind US attorneys' firings
Newly released documents show the White House sought the upper hand over US prosecutors and Congress.
from the March 21, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
'Less deference' to senators
In recent congressional testimony, Justice officials have insisted that they did not intend to use this provision to simply evade the confirmation process. Indeed, home-state senators have long played a key role in the selection of US attorneys. Federal prosecutors are powerful local officials, after all.
But e-mails released March 19 indicate that, back in their offices, some Justice Department officials felt otherwise.
An e-mail sent Sept. 13, 2006 from Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Gonzales's former chief of staff, said that by avoiding the confirmation process "we can give far less deference to home-state senators."
According to Mr. Sampson, who resigned recently over his role in the firings furor, this meant chosen replacements could be up and working more quickly, "at less political cost to the White House."
The recipient of the memo? Former White House counsel Harriet Miers.
The Senate voted 94-2 Tuesday to repeal this provision.
Congress irked by testimony
Members have also expressed irritation about what they consider to be misleading or incomplete testimony from executive-branch officials about the circumstances surrounding the recent prosecutor dismissals.
For instance, after drawing the short straw, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Moschella appeared before a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 6. In response to a question about possible White House involvement about the firings, he implied that White House officials were consulted only after the list of those to be dismissed had been drawn up.
Internal documents released by the Justice Department have since shown that the White House had at least some involvement in the listmaking process.
Early in January 2005, White House political adviser Karl Rove asked "how we planned to proceed" in firing some US attorneys, according to an e-mail from a White House lawyer. Another e-mail from that time period notes that Sampson, then a lower-level Justice Department aide, had discussed the idea with the White House counsel, Gonzales.
At the time of writing it remained unclear whether Gonzales could withstand the crisis swirling around his office.
President Bush's new chief counsel, Fred Fielding, was scheduled to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Senate committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont has said he wants Mr. Rove and others to testify before his panel under oath. The White House indicated that it might resist that move on grounds of executive privilege.
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