Dismissed U.S. attorneys summary

The manner of the firings, the congressional response to them, and the explanations offered by Bush administration officials are aspects of a political controversy starting in the first quarter of 2007.

Subsequent disclosures showed that two additional attorneys, Bud Cummins and Todd Graves, may have been dismissed under similar circumstances earlier in 2006.

[3] Both Todd Graves, and his replacement, Department of Justice official Bradley Schlozman, have been called to testify in the ongoing Senate investigation of the U.S. Attorney controversy.

)[9] According to and later confirmed prior to the 2006 midterm election, Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici called and "pressured" Iglesias "to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator."

According to The Washington Post, "A communication by a senator or House member with a federal prosecutor regarding an ongoing criminal investigation is a violation of ethics rules.

"[14] Rep. Heather Wilson also called and "pressured New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator.

[15] DOJ also received complaints from "two prominent Republican attorneys, Mickey Barnett and Patrick J. Rogers, [who] met last June with Gonzales's senior counsel, Monica Goodling, to complain that Iglesias was inattentive to voter fraud.

"[7][16] House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., issued subpoenas on March 1 requiring Iglesias, among other recently ousted U.S. attorneys, to testify before Congress about their firings.

[18] In that article he stated that "it seems clear that politics played a role in the ousters...[M]y name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign — even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate.

"[18] The Los Angeles Times reported on March 22, 2007, that Kevin Ryan was a loyal Bush supporter and that the only reason the DOJ fired him was because his poor performance could cause a public relations problem.

[19] Until his dismissal, John McKay received very positive evaluations for his work, including the successful prosecution of terrorist Ahmed Ressam, and the Navy's highest civilian honor for promoting a computer network co-ordinating law enforcement agencies.

Some believe McKay's dismissal was retribution for his failure to convene a federal grand jury to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the race.

McKay disputed that his firing was based on his support of a proposed information sharing system for federal and state law enforcement, which some DOJ e-mails have suggested.

"When they go back and keep shifting stories it tends to indicate there's a more nefarious reason that they're not willing to admit to...That's the real problem, and in my case it may be true because if they put me on that list because I wasn't aggressive enough in ensuring that the Republican candidate for governor was elected, then that's a terrible thing.

McKay reported a similar call from Mike Elston, the deputy attorney general's top aide, as Cummings did.

If it's true, it's just immoral, and if it's false, then the idea that they would use the death of Tom Wales to cover up what they did is just unconscionable.Paul Charlton's Arizona office had been honored with the Federal Service Award and hailed by the Justice Department as a "model program" for its protection of crime victims.

[30] On March 19, 2007, the White House released 3,000 pages of records connected to the controversy, including e-mails sent by Charlton to the Justice Department about his dismissal.

[35] On May 11, Kyle Sampson urged the White House counsel's office to call him regarding "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam.

In February 2007, two days before her last, her office indicted Dusty Foggo, the former executive director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and a major campaign contributor Brent R. Wilkes (who was previously named on Cunningham's guilty plea).

"[37] North County Times has quoted Republican Congressman Darrell Issa stating that he takes "maybe one-twentieth" of the responsibility for Lam's firing.

But Deputy Attorney General William Moschella later told a House subcommittee "no particular deficiencies" in Bogden's performance existed.

[40] In November 2006, Bogden referred to the FBI allegations that Republican Congressman Jon Porter had committed campaign finance crimes by making fundraising calls from his government offices.

[42] Emails disclosed to Congress revealed that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales's chief of staff, that he had second thoughts about the firing of Bodgen.

"[43] When Bogden was fired, Senator John Ensign, who had originally nominated him, was decidedly unhappy, particularly after hearing explanations by the Justice Department of the reasons.

Schlozman then brought indictments against four voter-registration workers of ACORN, a Democratic-leaning group, several days before the Missouri Senate election date.

[46] [47] Schlozman returned to work for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., in April 2007 shortly before a federal judge dismissed the voter-fraud lawsuit.

[48] Bud Cummins had been investigating allegations that Republican Missouri Governor Matt Blunt had "abused his power by forming a system of umbrella companies established through [the] Kansas City law firm Lathrop & Gage LC to run the state's licensing network," and that he inappropriately rewarded his political supporters with lucrative contracts.

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

[24] On March 23, 2007, The Washington Post reported that "New documents also show that Justice and White House officials were preparing for President Bush's approval of the appointment as early as last summer, five months before Griffin took the job.

[55] After the revelations of the other firings, Thomas M. DiBiagio, the Maryland U.S. Attorney, stated in March 2007 that he had been ousted in 2005 because of political pressure over public corruption investigations into the administration of then-Gov.