This article about dismissed U.S. attorneys summarizes the circumstances surrounding a number of U.S. attorneys dismissed from office in the United States Department of Justice in 2006. Eight were dismissed In December 2006, and others may have been forced out of office under similar circumstances in 2005 and 2006. The manner of the firings, the congressional response to them, and the explanations offered by Bush administration officials are aspects of a political controversy starting in the first quarter of 2007. As of May 2007 a clear explanation of why the attorneys were dismissed had not been put forward by the Bush administration or the Department of Justice leadership. There are in total 93 U.S. attorneys that serve 94 Federal district courts (two Pacific island territory districts share one attorney).
List of dismissed attorneys
Seven attorneys were dismissed on December 7, 2006. Subsequent disclosures showed that two additional attorneys, Bud Cummins and Todd Graves, may have been dismissed under similar circumstances earlier in 2006. Bud Cummins is frequently associated with those dismissed on December 7 because he announced his resignation in mid-December, effective December 20, 2006. However, Cummins had been informed of his pending dismissal in June 2006.Q & A from Committee for Bud Cummins (no date). United States House Committee on the Judiciary Retrieved May 18, 2007. (Written responses by Bud Cummins to committee interrogatories, post-hearing.) Cummins' dismissal received significant attention from the media and from congressional investigators after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified that his dismissal was requested from the White House in order to install Karl Rove protégé Timothy Griffin in his place. Both Todd Graves, and his replacement, Department of Justice official Bradley Schlozman, have been called to testify in the ongoing Senate investigation of the U.S. Attorney controversy. United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary website - Schedule for June 5, 2007 hearing "Preserving Prosecutorial Independence: Is the Department of Justice Politicizing the Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys? -- Part V"
Two U.S. Attorneys who were fired in 2005, Thomas M. DiBiagio and Kasey Warner, have made public statements claiming that there may be similarities between their dismissals and those of the nine attorneys fired in 2006. To date, their cases have received significantly less attention from the media in comparison to the attorneys fired in 2006.Number of articles returned via LexisNexis search of 2-years-prior, full text articles in major papers for "Attorney" and the following: "Kasey Warner" - 10, "Thomas DiBiagio" - 3, "Todd Graves" - 23. All other 2006 attorneys returned between 46 (Bogden) and 362 (Lam) articles. Search date 5-30-2007
David Iglesias
Allen Weh, chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House aide for Karl Rove, asking that Iglesias be removed. Then in 2006 Rove personally told Weh "He's gone." Weh was dissatisfied with Iglesias due in part to his failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud investigation. Weh followed up with, "There's nothing we've done that's wrong." In March 2007, the White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Rove "wasn't involved in who was going to be fired or hired." However, one of the stated reasons for Iglesias' dismissal, by Administration officials, was dissatisfaction in his prosecution of voter-fraud cases. Nevertheless, Iglesias "had been heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes" and was "one of two chief federal prosecutors invited to teach at a 'voting integrity symposium' in October 2005... sponsored by Justice's public integrity and civil rights sections."
In February 2007 Iglesias publicly alleged that "two lawmakers called him about a well-known criminal investigation involving a Democratic legislator" and that "the lawmakers who called him seemed focused on whether charges would be filed before the November elections.The Dallas Morning News, "Fired U.S. attorney alleges political pressure", February 28, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2007. He said the calls made him feel 'pressured to hurry the subsequent cases and prosecutions.'" (U.S. Attorneys in Arizona, Nevada and California were also conducting corruption probes involving Republicans at the time of their dismissals.) According to and later confirmed prior to the 2006 midterm election, Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici called and "pressured" Iglesias "to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator." When Iglesias told Domenici that an indictment wouldn't be handed down until at least December, Iglesias said "the line went dead," and he was fired one week later by the Bush administration. After initially denying the call, Domenici admitted making it in March 2007. According to The Washington Post, "A communication by a senator or House member with a federal prosecutor regarding an ongoing criminal investigation is a violation of ethics rules." Domenici admitted calling Iglesias despite the initial denial, but Domenici said he never used the word "November" when he called Iglesias about an ongoing Albuquerque courthouse corruption case. Domenici has denied trying to influence Iglesias, and has hired lawyer K. Lee Blalack II to represent him. According to the Justice Department, Domenici called the department and demanded Iglesias be replaced on four occasions. On the day that Iglesias was fired, Harriet Miers' deputy William Kelley wrote that Domenici's chief of staff "is happy as a clam" about Iglesias and a week later Sampson wrote that "Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias's body to cool)."
Rep. Heather Wilson also called and "pressured New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator. Wilson was curt after Iglesias was non-responsive to her questions about whether an indictment would be unsealed." Iglesias was fired one week afterward by the Bush administration. Ex-Governor David Cargo (R-NM) accused Wilson of "essentially taking the Fifth [Amendment]" defense thus far.Michael Gisick, The Albuquerque Tribune, GOP VIPs ponder David Iglesias fallout , March 3, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
DOJ also received complaints from "two prominent Republican attorneys, Mickey Barnett and Patrick J. Rogers, [who] met last June with Gonzales's senior counsel, Monica Goodling, to complain that Iglesias was inattentive to voter fraud. Goodling met with them after Kyle Sampson sent her an email saying, "It is sensitive -- perhaps you should do it."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., issued subpoenas on March 1 requiring Iglesias, among other recently ousted U.S. attorneys, to testify before Congress about their firings. Then on March 21, Iglesias wrote an opinion piece that was published in The New York Times. In that article he stated that "it seems clear that politics played a role in the ousters...[M]y name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign — even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate. (In one of the documents released this week, I was deemed a "diverse up and comer" in 2004. Two years later I was asked to resign with no reasons given.)...[the fired U.S. attorneys] had apparently been singled out for political reasons."
In addition, Iglesias responded to critics about his failure to pursue voter fraud cases: "As this story has unfolded these last few weeks, much has been made of my decision to not prosecute alleged voter fraud in New Mexico. Without the benefit of reviewing evidence gleaned from F.B.I. investigative reports, party officials in my state have said that I should have begun a prosecution...After reviewing more than 100 complaints of voter fraud, I felt there was one possible case that should be prosecuted federally. I worked with the F.B.I. and the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. As much as I wanted to prosecute the case, I could not overcome evidentiary problems. The Justice Department and the F.B.I. did not disagree with my decision in the end not to prosecute."
Kevin Ryan
The Los Angeles Times reported on March 22, 2007, that Kevin Ryan was a loyal Bush supporter and that the only reason the DOJ fired him was because his poor performance could cause a public relations problem. The Times reported that Ryan's problems in office were "well documented in legal newspapers" but that "Justice officials wanted to keep Ryan on, even as they plotted the firings of other U.S. attorneys." The article goes on to state that it was only after a judge threatened to report this information to Congress publicly that Ryan was put on the list to be fired.
John McKay Until his dismissal, John McKay received very positive evaluations for his work, including the successful prosecution of terrorist Ahmed Ressam, and the Navy's highest civilian honor for promoting a computer network co-ordinating law enforcement agencies. In February, the Seattle Times noted that "One of the most persistent rumors in Seattle legal circles is that the Justice Department forced McKay, a Republican, to resign to appease Washington state Republicans angry over the 2004 governor's race. Some believe McKay's dismissal was retribution for his failure to convene a federal grand jury to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the race." On March 17, 2007, the Seattle Times reported, "Former Republican congressman Rick White, one of three candidates the Republicans have submitted to replace John McKay as U.S. attorney for Western Washington, cannot practice law in the state."
In a March 20, 2007 interview, McKay said that "Gonzales the attorney general...He's accountable. The fact that he's presiding over a department that did not defend the independence of its prosecutors is a grievous error." McKay also recalled a call from the chief of staff of Congressman Doc Hastings (R-WA) inquiring into the investigation.
McKay disputed that his firing was based on his support of a proposed information sharing system for federal and state law enforcement, which some DOJ e-mails have suggested. "When they go back and keep shifting stories it tends to indicate there's a more nefarious reason that they're not willing to admit to...That's the real problem, and in my case it may be true because if they put me on that list because I wasn't aggressive enough in ensuring that the Republican candidate for governor was elected, then that's a terrible thing. I still haven't seen clear evidence of that, but the timing is very suspicious." McKay stated.
Prior to his firing McKay had been up for a federal judge position, but had been opposed by all three Republicans on the committee. McKay said that he was told by a source that "the explanation for why I was not one of the three finalists was that I had mishandled the 2004 governor's election." McKay also stated that in his judgeship interview the first question he was asked was about the 2004 race. "I'm in the White House on Aug. 22, I'm on the list [to be fired] on Sept. 13...I might still be United States attorney if I hadn't applied to be a judge."