US Attorneys Fired for Being Soft on Porn

Several of the U.S. attorneys axed by Alberto Gonzales may have been forced out because they failed to crack down on pornography, Salon reveals. Gonzales and his staff pressured attorneys to pursue adult obscenity cases, even if it meant yanking prosecutors away from, say, terrorism. Some who resisted got a pink slip.

Suggestions linger that politics motivated the firings—porn may have been nothing more than another pretext. But, Salon notes, Gonzales did make dirty videos a priority early on, surrounding himself with a cadre of porn-haters, including a number of his most important appointees. Gonzales will defend the firings at a Judiciary Committee hearing later today. (More Alberto Gonzales stories.)