S
Sarcastic American!
Guest
The former Justice Department official who carried out the firings of
eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that several of the
prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings
was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.
The statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle,
former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent
another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has
said that he never saw any documents about the firings and that he had
"lost confidence" in the prosecutors because of performance problems.
Special Report
View continuing Washington Post coverage of the 2006 firings of eight
U.S. attorneys.
Full Coverage
Documents Released by DOJ and Congress
Who's Blogging?
Read what bloggers are saying about this article.
The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS
DownWithTyranny!
Full List of Blogs (34 links) »
Most Blogged About Articles
On washingtonpost.com | On the web
Save & Share Article What's This?
DiggGoogle
del.icio.usYahoo!
RedditFacebook
Battle's statements, relayed to reporters yesterday by Sen. Charles E.
Schumer (D-N.Y.), came as Gonzales prepares for a make-or-break
appearance on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prepared
testimony released yesterday indicates Gonzales will apologize to the
fired prosecutors for the way they were treated and will acknowledge
that he has been "less than precise" in describing his role in the
firings.
But Gonzales will also hold firm to his contentions that any missteps
were "honest mistakes," that "nothing improper" took place, and that
most of the details were handled by his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle
Sampson, according to the testimony.
"I have nothing to hide and . . . I am committed to assuring the
Congress and the American public that nothing improper occurred here,"
Gonzales says in his remarks.
"I made mistakes in not ensuring that these U.S. attorneys received
more dignified treatment," he adds later. "Others within the
Department of Justice also made mistakes. As far as I know, these were
honest mistakes of perception and judgment and not intentional acts of
misconduct."
Seven U.S. attorneys were fired on Dec. 7, and another was dismissed
earlier, as part of a plan that originated in the White House to
replace some prosecutors based in part on their perceived disloyalty
to President Bush and his policies.
The uproar over the removals has grown amid allegations that some
Republican lawmakers improperly contacted prosecutors about
investigations and repeated misstatements by Gonzales and other Bush
administration officials about the scope and nature of the dismissals.
Democrats have also seized on presidential senior adviser Karl Rove's
connection to some of the firings, and on revelations last week that
the White House and the Republican National Committee have lost e-
mails that are supposed to be preserved under record-keeping laws.
Gonzales and his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, initially told Congress that
the firings were due to "performance-related" problems. Subsequent e-
mails and other documents released by Justice showed that most had
positive job reviews, that they and other U.S. attorneys were ranked
on whether they were "loyal Bushies," and that Gonzales was more
deeply involved in the process than he has sometimes acknowledged.
The statements by Battle, who left his job last month, are the first
details to emerge from more than 20 hours of interviews with four top
Gonzales aides over the past two weeks by staff members on the House
and Senate Judiciary committees. The last of those interviews was
conducted yesterday with Sampson, who testified publicly last month
that he was only an "aggregator" of information on the firings and
that ultimate responsibility rested with Gonzales.
Battle told investigators that he was "not aware of performance
problems with respect to several" of the prosecutors when he called to
fire them, Schumer said in a conference call with reporters yesterday.
Schumer said Battle also contradicted Gonzales's assertion at a March
13 news conference that he had not seen any documents or participated
in any discussions about the firings. A memo related to the dismissals
was passed out at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Gonzales and others,
Battle told investigators.
"Mike Battle remembers a memo was distributed," Schumer said.
In his prepared remarks for Tuesday, Gonzales says "my statement about
'discussions' was imprecise and overbroad, but it certainly was not in
any way an attempt to mislead the American people."
Gonzales also addresses new documents released Friday showing that
Sampson had identified five potential replacement prosecutors in early
2006, which appeared to contradict testimony from Sampson and repeated
statements from Justice officials that no such list had been drawn up.
Gonzales will testify that he remembers being told about two possible
replacements, but that neither was approved and no one was lined up
when the last seven firings were carried out.
Schumer and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary
panel, immediately criticized Gonzales's planned testimony as falling
short of answering key questions about the firings.
"The attorney general has offered another in a series of contradictory
statements about the mass firing of U.S. attorneys," Leahy said. "It
has been impossible to discern the truth in this matter based on the
shifting explanations and changing stories coming out of the Justice
Department and White House."
Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the committee's ranking Republican, also
said Gonzales should consider reinstating the fired U.S. attorneys.
Specter and fellow Republican Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said Gonzales
has an "uphill" climb to restore his credibility with Congress.
Numerous Democrats and some Republicans have called on Gonzales to
resign.
"He needs to explain what he did and why he did it," Graham said
yesterday on "Fox News Sunday." "There are three or four different
versions of his role in this, and he needs to bring clarity to what he
did and why he did it."
In a related matter yesterday, an attorney for Sen. Pete V. Domenici
(R-N.M.), who faces an ethics inquiry into his role in the firings,
declined to comment on an Albuquerque Journal report that Domenici
directly contacted Rove to push for the firing of David C. Iglesias as
New Mexico's U.S. attorney.
The report said Domenici's call to the White House came after a late
October phone conversation with Iglesias about a local corruption
case. Iglesias has testified he felt the call amounted to improper
political pressure and believes it lies at the heart of his firing.
Domenici has acknowledged that he complained to Gonzales and McNulty
about Iglesias, and has said he told the Justice Department he wanted
Iglesias replaced "some months" before the call. But he has never
acknowledged calling the White House about the issue.
Thousands of pages of documents released by Justice have yet to
explain the rationale for Iglesias's firing. In his testimony last
month, Sampson could not recall why Iglesias was put on the list,
which did not happen until Nov. 7, less than two weeks after
Domenici's call to Iglesias.
Print This ArticleE-Mail This Article
RSS Feed
Permission to Republish
More on washingtonpost.com
Poll Shows U.S. Attorney Firings Seen as Political
2 GOP Sens.: Gonzales Has Uphill Fight
Correction: Fired-Prosecutors Story
Administration Picked Replacements Prior to Firings
First Lady Cancels Trip Due to Weather
Powered by Inform» Related Topics & Web Content
Most Viewed Politics Articles
Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings
Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings
Clinton's Campaign Has Most In Bank
Poll: Race, Gender Divide Americans on Imus' Firing
» Top 35 Most Viewed
Post a Comment
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Your washingtonpost.com User ID will be displayed with your comment.
Comments: (Limit 5,000 characters)
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other
inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by
someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will
take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards,
terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this
site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and
discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
Ads by Google
Most Funny Bush Jokes
What Are The Top Bush Jokes? Have Fun! Top 3 Bush Jokes.
allbadjokes.com/Bush-jokes.php
Severance Pay Advice?
Free Consultation! Legal Experts. Get A Great Severance Package.
www.CareerProtection.com
Attorney-General Pressure
House panel subpoenas Gonzales. Breaking News from Financial Times.
www.FT.com
Featured Advertiser Links
Refinance Rates As Low As 2.9% - FREE QUOTES!
$300,000 Mortgage for $965⁄mo! Refinance & Save $1,000's!
Retirement plans for small businesses from Fidelity.
Be Prepared. Fight Identity Theft! Equifax.com.
HSBC Direct Now Earn 6.00% APY on New Money
The Police Tickets, Nationals Tickets, NASCAR Tickets
Accutane, Auto Accident, Personal Injury, Asbestos
Mother's Day Gifts, T-shirts, Custom Hats, Koozies
Cool Gadgets, Great Deals, Visit CircuitCity.com
Try Email Marketing with Constant Contact
BLAST AWAY CHOLESTEROL: Lose 67 Points in 28 days
eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that several of the
prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings
was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.
The statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle,
former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent
another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has
said that he never saw any documents about the firings and that he had
"lost confidence" in the prosecutors because of performance problems.
Special Report
View continuing Washington Post coverage of the 2006 firings of eight
U.S. attorneys.
Full Coverage
Documents Released by DOJ and Congress
Who's Blogging?
Read what bloggers are saying about this article.
The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS
DownWithTyranny!
Full List of Blogs (34 links) »
Most Blogged About Articles
On washingtonpost.com | On the web
Save & Share Article What's This?
DiggGoogle
del.icio.usYahoo!
RedditFacebook
Battle's statements, relayed to reporters yesterday by Sen. Charles E.
Schumer (D-N.Y.), came as Gonzales prepares for a make-or-break
appearance on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prepared
testimony released yesterday indicates Gonzales will apologize to the
fired prosecutors for the way they were treated and will acknowledge
that he has been "less than precise" in describing his role in the
firings.
But Gonzales will also hold firm to his contentions that any missteps
were "honest mistakes," that "nothing improper" took place, and that
most of the details were handled by his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle
Sampson, according to the testimony.
"I have nothing to hide and . . . I am committed to assuring the
Congress and the American public that nothing improper occurred here,"
Gonzales says in his remarks.
"I made mistakes in not ensuring that these U.S. attorneys received
more dignified treatment," he adds later. "Others within the
Department of Justice also made mistakes. As far as I know, these were
honest mistakes of perception and judgment and not intentional acts of
misconduct."
Seven U.S. attorneys were fired on Dec. 7, and another was dismissed
earlier, as part of a plan that originated in the White House to
replace some prosecutors based in part on their perceived disloyalty
to President Bush and his policies.
The uproar over the removals has grown amid allegations that some
Republican lawmakers improperly contacted prosecutors about
investigations and repeated misstatements by Gonzales and other Bush
administration officials about the scope and nature of the dismissals.
Democrats have also seized on presidential senior adviser Karl Rove's
connection to some of the firings, and on revelations last week that
the White House and the Republican National Committee have lost e-
mails that are supposed to be preserved under record-keeping laws.
Gonzales and his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, initially told Congress that
the firings were due to "performance-related" problems. Subsequent e-
mails and other documents released by Justice showed that most had
positive job reviews, that they and other U.S. attorneys were ranked
on whether they were "loyal Bushies," and that Gonzales was more
deeply involved in the process than he has sometimes acknowledged.
The statements by Battle, who left his job last month, are the first
details to emerge from more than 20 hours of interviews with four top
Gonzales aides over the past two weeks by staff members on the House
and Senate Judiciary committees. The last of those interviews was
conducted yesterday with Sampson, who testified publicly last month
that he was only an "aggregator" of information on the firings and
that ultimate responsibility rested with Gonzales.
Battle told investigators that he was "not aware of performance
problems with respect to several" of the prosecutors when he called to
fire them, Schumer said in a conference call with reporters yesterday.
Schumer said Battle also contradicted Gonzales's assertion at a March
13 news conference that he had not seen any documents or participated
in any discussions about the firings. A memo related to the dismissals
was passed out at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Gonzales and others,
Battle told investigators.
"Mike Battle remembers a memo was distributed," Schumer said.
In his prepared remarks for Tuesday, Gonzales says "my statement about
'discussions' was imprecise and overbroad, but it certainly was not in
any way an attempt to mislead the American people."
Gonzales also addresses new documents released Friday showing that
Sampson had identified five potential replacement prosecutors in early
2006, which appeared to contradict testimony from Sampson and repeated
statements from Justice officials that no such list had been drawn up.
Gonzales will testify that he remembers being told about two possible
replacements, but that neither was approved and no one was lined up
when the last seven firings were carried out.
Schumer and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary
panel, immediately criticized Gonzales's planned testimony as falling
short of answering key questions about the firings.
"The attorney general has offered another in a series of contradictory
statements about the mass firing of U.S. attorneys," Leahy said. "It
has been impossible to discern the truth in this matter based on the
shifting explanations and changing stories coming out of the Justice
Department and White House."
Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the committee's ranking Republican, also
said Gonzales should consider reinstating the fired U.S. attorneys.
Specter and fellow Republican Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said Gonzales
has an "uphill" climb to restore his credibility with Congress.
Numerous Democrats and some Republicans have called on Gonzales to
resign.
"He needs to explain what he did and why he did it," Graham said
yesterday on "Fox News Sunday." "There are three or four different
versions of his role in this, and he needs to bring clarity to what he
did and why he did it."
In a related matter yesterday, an attorney for Sen. Pete V. Domenici
(R-N.M.), who faces an ethics inquiry into his role in the firings,
declined to comment on an Albuquerque Journal report that Domenici
directly contacted Rove to push for the firing of David C. Iglesias as
New Mexico's U.S. attorney.
The report said Domenici's call to the White House came after a late
October phone conversation with Iglesias about a local corruption
case. Iglesias has testified he felt the call amounted to improper
political pressure and believes it lies at the heart of his firing.
Domenici has acknowledged that he complained to Gonzales and McNulty
about Iglesias, and has said he told the Justice Department he wanted
Iglesias replaced "some months" before the call. But he has never
acknowledged calling the White House about the issue.
Thousands of pages of documents released by Justice have yet to
explain the rationale for Iglesias's firing. In his testimony last
month, Sampson could not recall why Iglesias was put on the list,
which did not happen until Nov. 7, less than two weeks after
Domenici's call to Iglesias.
Print This ArticleE-Mail This Article
RSS Feed
Permission to Republish
More on washingtonpost.com
Poll Shows U.S. Attorney Firings Seen as Political
2 GOP Sens.: Gonzales Has Uphill Fight
Correction: Fired-Prosecutors Story
Administration Picked Replacements Prior to Firings
First Lady Cancels Trip Due to Weather
Powered by Inform» Related Topics & Web Content
Most Viewed Politics Articles
Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings
Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings
Clinton's Campaign Has Most In Bank
Poll: Race, Gender Divide Americans on Imus' Firing
» Top 35 Most Viewed
Post a Comment
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Your washingtonpost.com User ID will be displayed with your comment.
Comments: (Limit 5,000 characters)
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other
inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by
someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will
take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards,
terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this
site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and
discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
Ads by Google
Most Funny Bush Jokes
What Are The Top Bush Jokes? Have Fun! Top 3 Bush Jokes.
allbadjokes.com/Bush-jokes.php
Severance Pay Advice?
Free Consultation! Legal Experts. Get A Great Severance Package.
www.CareerProtection.com
Attorney-General Pressure
House panel subpoenas Gonzales. Breaking News from Financial Times.
www.FT.com
Featured Advertiser Links
Refinance Rates As Low As 2.9% - FREE QUOTES!
$300,000 Mortgage for $965⁄mo! Refinance & Save $1,000's!
Retirement plans for small businesses from Fidelity.
Be Prepared. Fight Identity Theft! Equifax.com.
HSBC Direct Now Earn 6.00% APY on New Money
The Police Tickets, Nationals Tickets, NASCAR Tickets
Accutane, Auto Accident, Personal Injury, Asbestos
Mother's Day Gifts, T-shirts, Custom Hats, Koozies
Cool Gadgets, Great Deals, Visit CircuitCity.com
Try Email Marketing with Constant Contact
BLAST AWAY CHOLESTEROL: Lose 67 Points in 28 days
