Justice Dept "Carefully Crafted Response" To Avoid Backlash For Purge

[kpete]

Posted on Tue, Mar. 20, 2007
E-mails show confusion over why U.S. attorneys were sacked
By Marisa Taylor and Greg Gordon

McClatchy Newspapers

..............

The Justice Department initially said that the firings were for "performance-related" problems. Officials have since backed away from that characterization, and e-mails and documents released in connection with a congressional inquiry into the firings point to differing and sometimes conflicting causes for the terminations.

For example, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who approved the firing of one of the prosecutors, said in an e-mail that he hadn't read the attorney's job review to assess his competence. In other messages, officials defended and sometimes praised other prosecutors they were preparing to dump.

The documents and e-mails also show Justice officials in a defensive posture as they braced for a backlash about the firings, which were planned as far back as spring 2005. The plan gained momentum the day of the 2006 congressional elections.

To tamp down controversy, McNulty and other high-ranking officials carefully crafted a response to possible criticism of the firings and secured the approval of the firings from then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, according to the documents.

more at:
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/politics/16942105.htm

[Solly Mack]

1. Yep- sure did...according to what was released in the doc. dump

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Hmm...

The plan gained momentum the day of the 2006 congressional elections.

Now why might that be?

[Solly Mack]

3. They picked that day to call the USA's to "ask for their resignations"

and to call key Senators to gain support and "nominee" ideas