Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy

[10] Attorney General Gonzales, in a confidential memorandum dated March 1, 2006, delegated authority to senior DOJ staff Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson to hire and dismiss political appointees and some civil service positions.

[36] In September 2008, the Inspector General for the Department of Justice concluded that some of the dismissals were motivated by the refusal of some of the U.S. attorneys to prosecute voter fraud cases during the 2006 election cycle.

[44] On September 29, 2008 the Justice Department's Inspector General (IG) released a report on the matter that found most of the firings were politically motivated and improper.

The next day Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Nora Dannehy as special prosecutor to decide whether criminal charges should be brought against Gonzales and other officials involved in the firings.

[46] On July 21, 2010, Dannehy concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to establish that persons knowingly made material false statements to [the Office of Inspector General] or Congress or corruptly endeavored to obstruct justice"[47] and that no criminal charges would be filed against Sampson or Gonzales.

On January 6, 2005, Colin Newman, an assistant in the White House counsels office, wrote to David Leitch stating, "Karl Rove stopped by to ask you (roughly quoting) 'how we planned to proceed regarding U.S.

[48][49] In reply, Sampson, then Department of Justice counsel to Attorney General John Ashcroft, wrote that it would be "weird to ask them to leave before completing at least a 4-year term", that they "would like to replace 15–20 percent of the current U.S.

As late as December 2, Sampson had written to Michael Elston that the Justice Department was "[s]till waiting for green light from White House" with regards to the firing.

[57] U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins in Arkansas had been informed in June 2006 that he was to be replaced, and he resigned, effective December 20, 2006, several days after the public announcement of the appointment of his successor Timothy Griffin.

6Subsequently returned to positions at the Department of Justice in Washington David Iglesias (R) believes he was removed from office at the behest of two New Mexico Republican congressmen when he refused to prosecute state Democratic senators before the November 2006 election.

[59] Kevin Ryan (R) Though described as "loyal to the Bush administration," he was allegedly fired for the possible controversy that negative job performance evaluations might cause if they were released.

After a close Washington governor's race resulted in a Democratic victory, local Republicans criticized McKay for not investigating allegations of voter fraud.

[72] On March 23, 2007, The New York Times reported that Chiara was told by a senior Justice Department official that she was being removed to make way for a new attorney that the Bush administration wanted to groom.

"[73][74] Todd Graves (R) had been pressed to bring a civil suit against Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) for allegedly failing to crack down on voting fraud.

[76][77] Graves had clashed with the Department of Justice's civil rights division over a federal lawsuit involving Missouri's voter rolls.

[80] Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified that Cummins was removed for no reason except to install a former aide to Karl Rove: 37-year-old Tim Griffin, a former opposition research director for the Republican National Committee.

[81][82][83] Cummins told the Senate Judiciary Committee "that Mike Elston, the deputy attorney general's top aide, threatened him with retaliation in a phone call [in February 2007] if he went public.

Weh was dissatisfied with Iglesias due in part to his failure to indict New Mexico State Senator Manny Aragon (D) on fraud and conspiracy charges.

"[86] Thomas M. DiBiagio (R) U.S. Attorney for Maryland, stated in March 2007 that he was ousted because of political pressure over public corruption investigations into the administration of then-Gov.

The White House role in the dismissals remained unclear despite hours of testimony by Attorney General Gonzales and senior Department of Justice staff in congressional committee hearings.

[96] McNulty testified that Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney for Arkansas, was removed to install a former aide to Karl Rove and Republican National Committee opposition research director, Timothy Griffin.

[100] Salon.com reported: "[A]t least three of the eight fired attorneys were told by a superior they were being forced to resign to make jobs available for other Bush appointees, according to a former senior Justice Department official knowledgeable about their cases.

[56][102] On March 6, 2007, Gonzales responded to the controversy in an op-ed in USA Today in which he wrote: To be clear, [the firing] was for reasons related to policy, priorities and management — what have been referred to broadly as "performance-related" reasons — that seven U.S. attorneys were asked to resign last December ... We have never asked a U.S. attorney to resign in an effort to retaliate against him or her or to inappropriately interfere with a public corruption case (or any other type of case, for that matter).

[55] On March 13, Gonzales stated in a news conference that he accepted responsibility for mistakes made in the dismissal and rejected calls for his resignation that Democratic members of Congress had been making.

[105] Records released on March 23 showed that on his November 27 schedule "he attended an hour-long meeting at which, aides said, he approved a detailed plan for executing the purge".

Rosenberg initiated a DOJ inquiry into possibly inappropriate political considerations in Monica Goodling's hiring practices for civil service staff.

[112] Meinero, a Howard University law school graduate who had worked on civil rights cases at the Environmental Protection Agency, was serving as a special assistant prosecutor in Taylor's office.

[112][120] In response to questions during the hearing, Goodling stated that she "crossed the line" and broke civil service rules about hiring, and improperly weighed political factors in considering applicants for career positions at the Department of Justice.

Sununu cited not only the controversial firings but growing concern over the use of the USA PATRIOT Act and misuse of national security letters by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel stated that some of the emails that had involved official correspondence relating to the firing of attorneys may have been lost because they were conducted on Republican party accounts and not stored properly.