Prosecutor to Probe U.S. Attorney Firings

Sept. 29, 2008 — -- An internal Justice Department probe was launched today after a scathing report by Justice watchdogs concluded that the process to remove several U.S. attorneys in 2006 was "fundamentally flawed" and that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other senior Justice officials "abdicated their responsibility" to oversee the process.

The 400-page report by the department's Inspector General Glenn Fine and Marshall Jarrett of the Office of Professional Responsibility falls short of referring criminal charges to a federal grand jury. But the two watchdogs said there are major "gaps" in their investigation because of the refusal of "key witnesses" such as former senior White House adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed.

In a letter to the investigators, the Deputy White House counsel declined to provide internal documents for the investigation, writing that "unqualified disclosure" of all documents "would have an adverse impact on the effective provision of legal advice within the White House."

Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed career prosecutor Nora Dannehy to "conduct further investigation" and "determine whether any prosecutable offense was committed." Dannehy will report to Mukasey through the deputy attorney general.

The controversy began more than a year ago when some U.S. attorneys who had lost their jobs alleged that they had been removed for improper political considerations. Gonzales and several other top Justice Department officials resigned their positions after the allegations came to light and Gonzales faced withering questions regarding his knowledge of the firings during heated congressional hearings.

A lawyer for Gonzales released a 42-page memorandum responding to the controversy and saying that it had "blossomed unjustifiably into a classic Washington political imbroglio."

Lawyer George J. Terwilliger III admitted that the process of removing the U.S. attorneys was "flawed" but that after the inquiry by the department "there is still not a shred of evidence to support a conclusion" that the attorneys were removed "for any improper reason."