Reply #9: WA Post & McClatchy: Colorado U.S. attorney was suggested for ouster

[L. Coyote]

Colorado U.S. attorney was suggested for ouster
By The Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers
05/17/2007
http://www.denverpost.com/arcade/ci_5914809

Washington - ..... Leone, then the acting U.S. attorney for Colorado, was placed on a firing list in January 2006, 13 months after he took over as interim U.S. attorney. He previously had been the top assistant in the office. He was lead prosecutor on the insider-trading case against Joe Nacchio, former chief executive of Qwest Communications, until he announced in August that he would return to private practice.

Leone said in a phone interview that he was never asked to step aside, nor did he know he was targeted for firing. He said he had expressed interest in becoming the permanent U.S. attorney
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but was never told why he was passed over.

Leone, who described himself as an "independent-minded U.S. attorney," said he was always aware that he wasn't nominated by the president.

"I always used to say to people, 'I'm not the president's man.' My assumption was all along I would be replaced by somebody who had more political stroke. I understand that's what happened."

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