After so much media coverage of Alberto Gonzales and the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, I realized I was a little hazy on what exactly a U.S. Attorney does. I had a vague idea that they were the local equivalent of the U.S Attorney General. In fact, I was wrong.
U.S. Attorneys act as prosecutors of criminal offenses against the U.S. Government in U.S. Court Districts -- there are 93 U.S. Attorneys and 94 U.S. Court Districts with one U.S. Attorney overseeing the districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. In their respective districts, they also "prosecute or defend, for the Government, all civil actions, suits or proceedings in which the United States is concerned". http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/usc_sec_28_00000547----000-.html
Similarly, the U.S. Attorney General, who is the head of the Department of Justice, represents or supervises "the representation of the United States Government in the Supreme Court of the United States and all other courts, foreign and domestic, in which the United States is a party or has an interest". http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/mps/manual/ag.htm#ag
However, unlike U.S. Attorneys, the U.S. Attorney General also has a role in the appointment of federal judges including those who officiate in the 94 U.S. Districts as well as the U.S. Attorney themselves. The official Department of Justice website states one duty of the Attorney General is to "make recommendations to the President concerning appointments to federal judicial positions and to positions within the Department, including U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals". The keyword here is "recommendation", the Attorney General has what is intended to be almost exclusively, an advisory role.
The U.S. Attorney office in Washington and the U.S. Attorneys on the local district level come under the jurisdiction of the DoJ.
As for the current controversy, a pivotal date was March 9, 2006, when President George W. Bush signed into law the U.S. Patriot Act. Up until then the Attorney General was able appoint U.S. Attorneys for a temporary term of 120 days. A U.S. Attorney could only be appointed to the usual 4 year term by the President and could only officially take office after confirmation by the Senate. A provision included in the Patriot Act revised the statute, removing the 120 day limit and allowing the term of a U.S. Attorney appointed by the Attorney General to continue until the President appointed, subject to Senate approved, another candidate. This created a loophole effectively giving the Attorney General the ability to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate approval: if the President failed to appoint another candidate the Attorney General's appointee could remain in office until the President chose to remove them. While there are potentially legitimate reasons for the change in this statute, circumventing Senate confirmation is not one of them. Senate confirmation of U.S. Attorneys and other federal officials, in theory if not in always in practice, helps to prevent the President from appointing unqualified or overly partisan officials.
On December 7, 2006, it has been well publicized elsewhere that seven U.S. Attorneys were asked by the DoJ to resign. They were reportedly given no reason for their termination. (Something I haven't figured out yet is why the DoJ is requesting these resignations and not the White House since the U.S. Attorneys serve at pleasure of the President not at the pleasure of the Attorney General.)
As for the firing of the eighth U.S. Attorney, Bud Cummins: on December 15, 2006, J. Timothy Griffin, a Bush insider, was named as the U.S. Attorney of the Arkansas District. Cummins was on vacation and resigned his post a few days later on December 20, 2006. He had reportedly been planning to leave for several months yet he was told he was being asked to resign so that Griffin could be given the post. http://mediamatters.org/items/200703290010
D. Kyle Sampson was Alberto Gonzales' Chief of Staff when he resigned on March 12, 2007 -- a day before the DoJ released emails that revealed Sampson's role in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys. On September 13, 2006, he had sent an email to Harriet Miers (who had been White House Counsel until her resignation in January 2007), in which he urged, "that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG [Attorney General] to make USA [U.S. Attorney] appointments.... we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House". According to other emails the appointment of Griffin was to be a sort of test case to see if this plan would work. Griffin had very little experience as a prosecutor and his appointment was being questioned by both Senators (Democrats) from the state of Arkansas. Senators are traditionally asked for input regarding who is to be appointed as U.S. Attorneys in their state. http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/print.aspx?ArticleID=828918ba-6945-4db7-937c-7aaa4efa6a3a
On January 11, 2007, Democratic Senators introduced legislation to close the loophole that allowed the Attorney General to appoint U.S. Attorneys without seeking confirmation by the Senate.
On February 6, 2007, Paul J. McNulty, Deputy Attorney General, in a written statement told the Judiciary Committee : "At no time, however, has the Administration sought to avoid the Senate confirmation process by appointing an interim U.S. Attorney and then refusing to move forward, in consultation with home-State Senators, on the selection, nomination, confirmation and appointment of a new U.S. Attorney. The appointment of U.S. Attorneys by and with the advice and consent of the Senate is unquestionably the appointment method preferred by both the Senate and the Administration." He also stated that the the seven U.S. Attorneys fired on December were let go because of "performance-related" issues. Unfortunately this was the first that most of the attorneys had heard that the DoJ had any problem with their performance. This assertion on the part of McNulty was another discrepancy between what had actually occurred and what the DoJ was now telling the Senate had occurred.
On February 16, J. Timothy Griffin, realizing that one way or another he'd now have to undergo the confirmation process, resigned as U.S Attorney, giving the reason that because of the controversy surrounding his appointment he would have difficulty being confirmed by the Senate.
Some pundits have said that if the President had not given any explanation beyond that it is his right to fire and replace any U.S. Attorney, who serve "at the pleasure of the President", that that would have been the end of the controversy. I really doubt that. If the Republicans were still in power in the Congress it might have ended there but if they had been in power they wouldn't have had to come up with an ill-advised plan to dodge Senate confirmation in order to get their people appointed. And because of at least one obvious politically motivating factor: Carol Lam the U.S. Attorney being fired from the Southern California District was in the middle of the Duke Cunningham prosecution, the Democrats would have been irresponsible not to look into the firings more closely no matter what reason the President gave.
At this point in the Senate's investigation into the firings the big issue is did Gonzales lie when he claimed to be out of the loop regarding the details of the plan to fire the attorneys. He is now preparing for his April 17 hearing before the Senate when I'm sure he will be questioned about D. Kyle Sampson's testimony in which he claimed that Gonzales was kept informed about the plan and it's details.
Breaking News: Monica Goodling, a Gonzales aide and DoJ liaison to the White House resigned today. She figures prominently in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys -- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17986525/
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/03/14/WashingtonDCBureau/341041.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/usa-timeline.php
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703290010
Friday, April 6, 2007
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