Email Outs Politicized Attorney Firings

Justice Dept. considered firing 26; documents contradict Gonzales' testimony

(NEWSER) - The Justice Department considered firing at least 26 US attorneys, the Washington Post reports, including 13 who still have their jobs. Alberto Gonzales' office compiled the previously undisclosed lists, which appear to indicate that the AG targeted far more prosecutors than he has acknowledged. He has testified that the purge effort was limited to the eight who were ultimately fired. More»

(NEWSER) - Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty will quit the Justice Department after admitting he misled a Senate committee in its investigation into nine fired US attorneys. Three other top Justice officials have resigned in recent weeks, but McNulty, AG Alberto Gonzales' second-in-command and himself a former US attorney, is the highest-ranking casualty of the scandal to date. More»

Most were strong performers, former deputy AG tells House panel

(NEWSER) - Most of the U.S. attorneys axed en masse by the Justice Department last year weren't underperforming, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told a House panel yesterday. Comey, who left Justice over a year before the firings, said he'd rated the attorneys' performance for Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson in 2005. More»

Leaked testimony insists any mistakes made weren't actionable

(NEWSER) - Alberto Gonzales will finger chief-of-staff Kyle Sampson as the point man on the U.S. attorney firings but won't cop to any major wrongdoing, an advance copy of his congressional testimony tomorrow reveals. He admits only to lesser sins—withholding "dignified" treatment from pink-slipped U.S. attorneys, for instance—and says it was Sampson who cherry-picked attorneys to ax and suggested potential replacements. More»

Monica Goodling resigns after declining to testify on dismissals of U.S. attorneys

(NEWSER) - Gonzales aide Monica Goodling resigned yesterday, a little more than a week after she plead the fifth rather than testify before a Senate committee about the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the Times reports. Democrats had hoped Goodling, who was Justice's liaison to the White House, would provide details about Karl Rove's role in the dismissals. More»