Via WaPo: Justice Department Fires 8th U.S. Attorney:
An eighth U.S. attorney announced her resignation yesterday, the latest in a wave of forced departures of federal prosecutors who have clashed with the Justice Department over the death penalty and other issues.Margaret Chiara, the 63-year-old U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., told her staff that she was leaving her post after more than five years, officials said. Sources familiar with the case confirmed that she was among a larger group of prosecutors who were first asked to resign Dec. 7.
[...]
The firings have been criticized by lawmakers in both parties and have prompted proposals in Congress to restrict the ability of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to appoint interim prosecutors indefinitely.
All of this is relates to the fact that the USA PATRIOT Act gives the AG the power to appoint interim US Attorney’s for indefinite period of time. I blogged on the issue last month (post here).
The story also notes:
Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty told senators earlier this month that all but one of the prosecutors were fired for “performance-related” reasons. McNulty said that former U.S. attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock was removed so the job could be given to a former aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove.
Nearly all of the dismissed prosecutors had positive job reviews, but many had run into political trouble with Washington over immigration, capital punishment or other issues, according to prosecutors and others. At least four also were presiding over high-profile public corruption investigations when they were dismissed.
The situation is quite fishy, as it very much appears to be the case that the AG is using this new power to force persons from their jobs not because of incompetence, but rather smacks of crude politics and an attempt by the AG to assert direct control over the process. The change in the law, as described in the link above to my older post, was not to allow the AG to behave in this fashion. As such, the whole situation has the feel of an abuse of power. And the Little Rock job cited above sounds like crass cronyism.
Certainly the evasiveness of the situation makes one pause:
Justice officials have been evasive about the number of fired prosecutors. McNulty told the Senate Judiciary Committee that fewer than 10 had been dismissed, but he declined to elaborate.
Of course, that is roughly 10%–not an insignificant number–and only over a matter of months.
Ed Morrissey quite correctly state:
it does not seem too nosy to ask what the hell is going on at Justice.
Indeed.
Ed further goes on to correctly note that given what appears to be a rather unusual and unprecedented amount of turnover in these positions, that there is some ’splainin needed:
The Attorney General should be making the case for its ten-percent solution publicly, because most of these prosecutors got appointed by the Bush administration. If they’re incompetent, then let’s find out how they managed to get good evaluations up to the time they got pressured to resign their posts. If they’re not incompetent, then I think we need a better explanation why they have been pushed out the door than just some vague reference to “performance”.
Jeralyn Merritt points to the death penalty as perhaps the key issue.
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