Attorney General
Mukasey Appoints Prosecutor in U.S. Attorney Firing Probe
Posted Sep 29, 2008, 05:02 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Updated: Attorney General Michael Mukasey has named a prosecutor to continue the investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
Nora Dannehy, the acting U.S. attorney in Connecticut, will lead the probe, report Reuters and the Associated Press.
The appointment follows the release of a Justice Department report (PDF) today that does not recommend charges against Mukasey’s predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, but says he "abdicated" his responsibility to oversee the firing process.
The report cited evidence that "partisan political considerations played a part in the removal of several of the U.S. attorneys," the Wall Street Journal reports. Gonzales bears "primary responsibility" for not supervising the official who oversaw the dismissals, his then chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, according to the report.
The report also criticized former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, saying he did not object to the plan once it came to his attention in the fall of 2006, the Washington Post reports.
The report said the removal of prosecutor David Iglesias of New Mexico was particularly troubling. He was fired after complaints by Republican congressmen about voter fraud cases he was pursuing.
Gonzales' lawyer, George Terwilliger, issued a rebuttal saying there is no evidence that partisan political considerations played a role in the firings.
Dannehy will have more powers to investigate than the report’s authors, the Justice Department’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility. The ethics inspectors did not have the authority to compel testimony from officials outside the department, and they were not able to interview lawmakers, their assistants or former White House aides, the Washington Post reported this morning.
The Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal all had news in this morning's editions that the report would be released today.
Updated at 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. to include the name of the prosecutor who was appointed and information in the report.
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