A detailed chronology of events in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
2001 and 2002 Dates that attorneys were sworn in under a presidential nomination and United States Senate confirmation (some may have already been serving under interim appointment, in anticipation of senate confirmation).United States Attorney Purge Timeline Talking Points Memo (Update May 15, 2007). Retrieved May 19, 2007. Todd Graves steps down as U.S. Attorney. Press Release, United States Department of Justice, March 10, 2006. Retrieved May 25, 2007.
October 11, 2001: Todd Graves (Western Missouri) October 18, 2001: David Iglesias (New Mexico) October 24, 2001: John McKay (Western Washington) November 2, 2001: Margaret Chiara (Western Michigan) November 2, 2001: Daniel Bogden (Nevada) November 14, 2001: Paul Charlton (Arizona) January 9, 2002: H.E. "Bud" Cummins III (Eastern Arkansas) August 2, 2002: Kevin Ryan (Northern California) November 8, 2002: Carol Lam (Southern California)
2003 September 2003: The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel completes a memorandum exploring the laws and the limit to the term for an interim U.S. Attorney that had not received Senate confirmation. The memorandum came to the conclusion that it was possible for an interim appointee to be in office for as long as 330 days, under two different vacancy and appointment laws and procedures. The memorandum was completed in September 2003.
2004 March 2004
March 2004: Confrontation over the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program undermines the trust of senior Department of Justice (DOJ) staff in White House officials, and promotes turnover of senior DOJ officers over the next two years. In early March, Deputy Attorney General James Comey is advised by Jack Goldsmith (the then recently appointed head of the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel) that there is no legal basis authorizing the form of the program as it was then structured and operated. Comey briefs John Ashcroft, who hours later falls critically ill with pancreatitis, and delegates operational authority as Attorney General to Comey. On March 10, 2004, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card, White House chief of staff visited Ashcroft at the hospital, where Ashcroft declined again to re-approve the secret program, while indicating that Comey is the presently acting Attorney General. Comey reaffirmed his rejection of the program as acting attorney general. Comey and as many as 30 senior DOJ staff were ready to resign over the issue if the President continued to carry out the program in unmodified form, and in protest over the attempt to sidestep Comey and obtain approval from the critically ill Ashcroft. The program is modified via negotiations between the President's staff and senior DOJ staff over the next several weeks. (The first of a series of articles based the book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman, (2008) Penguin Press.) See especially pages 24 through 35 of the report for the dispute over the "warrantless wiretap program".)
June 2004 June 17, 2004: John Ashcroft announces the resignation of Jack Goldsmith, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, effective July 30, 2004. Goldsmith had been nominated by Bush to the position in April 2003; he had previously served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense.
November 2004 November 2, 2004: On the day of the presidential election, John Ashcroft submits his resignation from the post of Attorney General, marking the conclusion of a tumultuous term in office. The White House announces acceptance of the resignation a week later, on November 9, 2004, along with that of Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans. Ashcroft states in the resignation his willingness to serve until a successor is nominated and confirmed. He is the first cabinet-level officer to resign from the George W. Bush administration. It was reported that the White House had indicated to Ashcroft that his resignation would be expected. Ashcroft would remain in office until Alberto Gonzales took the oath of office on February 3, 2005, after his confirmation by the Senate.
2005 January 2005 January 2005: Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove asked Deputy Counsel David Leitch "how we planned to proceed regarding U.S. attorneys, whether we were going to allow all to stay, request resignations from all and accept only some of them, or selectively replace them, etc." In reply, Department of Justice counsel to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Kyle Sampson wrote that it would be "weird to ask them to leave before completing at least a 4-year term" and that "we would like to replace 15–20 percent of the current U.S. Attorneys–the underperforming ones. (This is a rough guess; we might want to consider doing performance evaluations after Judge comes on board.) The vast majority of U.S. Attorneys, 80–85 percent, I would guess, are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies, etc."
February 2005
February 3, 2005: Gonzales is confirmed as the 80th United States Attorney General. He takes the oath of office the same day.Judge Alberto R. Gonzales confirmed as 80th Attorney General of the United States Press Release, Department of Justice, February 3, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2007.
February 15, 2005: Kyle Sampson is promoted, adding the new title of Deputy Chief of Staff to his continuing title, Counselor to the Attorney General.Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announces appointment of three senior Department of Justice staff Press Release, Department of Justice, February 15, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2007.
March 2005 March 1, 2005: Attorney General Gonzales signed a confidential order, not published in the Federal Register, that formally delegated his authority to senior DOJ staff, White House liaison and public affairs officer Monica Goodling and deputy chief of staff for the Attorney General Kyle Sampson to hire and dismiss political appointees.Internal Document Granting Personnel Hiring Authority to DoJ Aides (via Talking Points Memo, May 9, 2007.) Retrieved May 10, 2007. Alberto Gonzales, Office of the Attorney General. Order 2808–2006. Delegation of certain personnel authorities to the Chief of Staff to the Attorney General and to the White House Liaison of the Department of Justice. March 1, 2006.
March: "Sampson, chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, came up with a checklist. He rated each of the U.S. attorneys with criteria that appeared to value political allegiance as much as job performance. He recommended retaining 'strong U.S. Attorneys who have ... exhibited loyalty to the President and Attorney General.' He suggested 'removing weak U.S. Attorneys who have ... chafed against Administration initiatives'".
August 2005 August 8, 2005: the Los Angeles Times reported that the day after a grand jury subpoena of records connected to Jack Abramoff "U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black." His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party, was confirmed without any debate. The investigation of Abramoff in Guam ended when "Rapadas recused himself from the public corruption case involving [Carl] Gutierrez" because "the new U.S. attorney was a cousin of 'one of the main targets'", according to a confidential memo to Justice Department officials."
2006 January 2006 January 2006: Sampson wrote in January 2006 to White House Counsel Harriet Miers that he recommended 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, as well as that by limiting the number of attorneys "targeted for removal and replacement" it would "mitigat[e] the shock to the system that would result from an across-the-board firing." January 2006: Western Missouri U.S. Attorney Todd Graves receives a phone call from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys requesting that he submit his resignation. January 9, 2006: Sampson recommends to Miers and Kelley that their office "work quietly with targeted U.S. attorneys to encourage them to leave government service voluntarily."
February 2006 February 12, 2006: Monica Goodling sent a spreadsheet of each U.S. Attorney's political activities and memberships in conservative political groups, in an email to senior administration officials, with the comment "This is the chart that the AG requested".
Late February 2006: The White House and Senate had a minor dispute over the nomination of the U.S. Attorney to Utah. The White House favored Kyle Sampson for the position, while Senator Hatch (R-Utah) favored Brett Tolman. Tolman was eventually nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate. Both Sampson and Tolman originate from Utah.
March 2006 March 8, 2006: Foggo resigns as executive director of the CIA. March 9, 2006: Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 into law. The act amended the law for the interim appointment of U.S. attorneys by deleting two provisions: (a) the 120-day maximum term for the Attorney General's interim appointees; (b) the subsequent interim appointment authority of Federal District Courts.The text to the statute (U.S.C Title 28, Section 546), and its amendments, may be found at Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy#Law references. With the revision, an interim appointee can potentially serve indefinitely (though still removable by the President), if the President declines to nominate a U.S. Attorney for a vacancy, or the Senate either fails to act on a Presidential nomination, or rejects a nominee different from the interim appointee. The change was written into the bill by Republican Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania when the bill was modified in joint conference committee, reconciling the Senate and House versions of the bill.
March 10, 2006: Western Missouri U.S. Attorney Todd Graves submits his resignation, effective March 24, 2006, after being ordered to do so two months previously. March 24, 2006: Bradley Schlozman's first day in office for the Western Missouri District. Schlozman is the first interim attorney appointed under the revised law; he has no term limit.
May 2006 May 10, 2006: The U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego notifies the Justice Department that search warrants are to be executed for Foggo, the No. 3 official in the CIA. May 11, 2006: Sampson tells White House Deputy Counsel William Kelley: "The real problem we have right now with Carol Lam ... leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires." May 12, 2006: The FBI raids Foggo's house and office.
June 2006
June 2006: U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Arkansas is informed that his resignation will be requested.
September 2006 September 13, 2006: Sampson sends a preliminary plan to push out attorneys to Miers. The plan mentions Bud Cummins of Arkansas as an attorney already in the process of being pushed out. Sampson states in the email: "I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed–it will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don't have replacements ready to roll immediately." September 17, 2006: Via email, Miers responds to Sampson's preliminary plan to push out attorneys: "I have not forgotten I need to follow up on the info, but things have been crazy. Will be back in touch!"