I said last week that the game was afoot. Well last evening two very important things happened. First, Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson resigned. Allegedly he did not tell key Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information to Congress. Second, and the reason for Sampson's admission and resignation, several key documents were made available to congress and the press. The documents indicate that in February of 2005 former White House Counsel Harriet Miers proposed that the administration fire all 93 of the then serving US Attorneys. According to this morning's Washington Post article Gonzales rejected Meirs idea as impractical, but endorsed Sampson's
recommend(ation) that the Department of Justice and the Office of the Counsel to the President work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of U.S. Attorneys. (A) limited number of U.S. attorneys could be targeted for removal and replacement, mitigating the shock to the system that would result from an across the board firing.Later Sampson
strongly urged bypassing Congress in naming replacements, using a little-known power slipped into the renewal of the USA Patriot Act in March 2006 that allows the attorney general to name interim replacements without Senate confirmation.
"I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed," Sampson wrote in a Sept. 17 memo to Miers. "It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don't have replacements ready to roll immediately.
"I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments," he wrote.
By avoiding Senate confirmation, Sampson added, "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."
"Kyle thanks for this," Miers wrote back. "I have not forgotten I need to follow up on the info. But things have been crazy."
The New York Times also published an article after rummaging through Monday evening's White House document dump. It finds:
Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were not aggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday. Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, was among the politicians who complained directly to the president, according to an administration official.
The president did not call for the removal of any specific United States attorneys, said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman. She said she had “no indication” that the president had been personally aware that a process was already under way to identify prosecutors who would be fired.
But Ms Perino disclosed that White House officials had consulted with the Justice Department in preparing the list of United States attorneys who would be removed.
Within a few weeks of the president’s comments to the attorney general, the Justice Department forced out seven prosecutors.
Harriet, oh Harriet, the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to talk to you and to your little friend Mr. Sampson. No wonder she resigned in January.
Read both articles. This mess is beginning to sound a little like Watergate on steroids. Every day is a new disclosure. So many questions, so much data.
