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US Attorney Firings

Scandal hits the nation's highest law-enforcement body. Will justice be served?

The Justice Department’s decision to replace eight US Attorneys at the end of 2006 could have slipped quietly into the bureaucratic annals. Instead, it exploded into scandal when critics—including several of the fired attorneys themselves—charged that the firings had been politically motivated. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dismissed the affair as little more than “an overblown personnel matter,” but the Democratic Congress seized on Attorneygate, subpoenaing Justice and administration players and forcing a messy confrontation on the issue of executive privilege. Meanwhile, calls for the AG to resign continue to trickle in from both sides of the aisle—leaving the Bush loyalist's future decidedly uncertain.

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  • March 2007

    • Mink: He's Merely a Pawn

      Belleville News Democrat  |  Mar 29, 07 10:02 PM CDT

      Mink: He's Merely a Pawn

      (Newser) - Who really cares if Alberto Gonzales resigns? Nobody but his family and friends, writes Eric Mink in the St. Louis Dispatch. Because Bush's embattled attorney general proved himself inconsequential long before the botched firings of the  insufficiently loyal U.S. attorneys. Congress learned how little clout the AG had when the president repeatedly overrode deals he had negotiated. More »

    • Novak: Bush Is Alone On Gonzales

      Washington Post  |  Mar 26, 07 8:39 PM CDT

      Novak: Bush Is Alone On Gonzales

      (Newser) - There is virtually no support on Capitol Hill for the president's wish to save Alberto Gonzales, who is even more disliked than Rumsfeld was, Robert Novak wrote today. "In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress.  Not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment." More »

    • Lithwick: Nutty Legal Logic Used to Fire Attorneys

      Slate  |  Mar 22, 07 11:30 AM CDT

      Lithwick: Nutty Legal Logic Used to Fire Attorneys

      (Newser) - The same legal argument marshaled to justify mistreating prisoners is behind the Bush administration’s contention that the President can fire U.S. attorneys for any reason or no reason, according to Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick. It’s the theory that a greater power—like killing people in war—embodies a lesser power, such as injuring prisoners during interrogation. More »

    • Email Fingers Rove in Attorney Scandal

      New York Times  |  Mar 16, 07 12:09 PM CDT

      Email Fingers Rove in Attorney Scandal

      (Newser) - An email released Thursday implicates Karl Rove in the U.S. attorney firings scandal, suggesting he knew of the plotted purges much earlier than previously acknowledged. In a message dated January 6, 2005, a White House lawyer reported that Rove had asked to discuss the firings with D. Kyle Sampon, the attorney general's then-chief of staff. More »

    • Email Outs Politicized Attorney Firings

      Washington Post  |  Mar 14, 07 9:00 PM CDT

      Email Outs Politicized Attorney Firings

      (Newser) - Emails the White House handed over to investigators today outline a systematic plan to fire U.S. attorneys who were too independent. D. Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales, shot off a memo just after Bush's second inauguration suggesting Justice retain only attorneys who had "exhibited loyalty to the president and the attorney general." More »

    • Gonzales Under Siege

      Time  |  Mar 14, 07

      After weeks of conflicting explanations for last December's firing of eight federal prosecutors, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has finally taken personal responsibility for the burgeoning scandal, announcing at the Justice Department that "mistakes were made here." But his belated admission has done little to quiet the outcry on Capitol Hill, where several leading Democrats continue to call for his resignation and even key Republicans are joining the criticism and calls for further investigation into whether the mass dismissals of the U.S. attorneys was politically motivated.

    • Gonzales explanation of firings called 'sorry excuse'

      CNN  |  Mar 14, 07

      WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday "mistakes were made" regarding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and he accepts responsibility for the ordeal.

    • A White House Hand in the Firings?

      Time  |  Mar 13, 07

      Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has characterized the controversial firing of eight U.S. attorneys as an "overblown personnel matter." If so, it is a personnel matter that appears to have involved the White House. A spokeswoman for the President revealed the White House's deep involvement in the decision to dismiss the prosecutors, a step that involved former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, Presidential adviser Karl Rove and, apparently, even Bush himself.

    • Eyeing a White House Role in the U.S. Attorney Firings

      Time  |  Mar 9, 07

      Ratcheting up its investigation of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the House Judiciary Committee is turning its attention to the White House's role in the affair.

    • Why Were These U.S. Attorneys Fired?

      Time  |  Mar 7, 07

      After Republicans lost control of Congress last year, newly empowered Democrats promised to launch a series of tough investigations on everything from the Iraq war to Medicare and high energy prices. But since taking charge on Capitol Hill in January, a series of unexpected new issues have captured their attention, none potentially more damaging to the Bush Administration than the controversy over alleged political influence in the firing of eight Republican U.S. attorneys last Dec. 7, in an episode that some of