Attorneygate : Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys in 2006

[Guest Concerned Citizen]

On December 7 2006, eight United States Attorneys were notified by the United States Department of Justice that they were being dismissed, after the George W. Bush administration made the determination to seek their resignations. Although the Prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the President, Critics have claimed the dismissals were either motivated by desire to install attorneys more loyal to the Republican party or as retribution for actions or inactions damaging to the Republican party. At least six of the eight had positive internal Justice Department performance reports. There were various hearings and testimony offered in January though March. Criticism increased upon the release of emails by Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson, which showed extensive communication between Sampson and White House Administration official Harriet Miers. Sampson resigned, but the emails indicate that a number of statements from the Dept of Justice, including statements made by Gonzales himself, were possibly inaccurate. According to the Attorney General, in a press conference given on March 13, "incomplete information was communicated or may have been communicated to Congress."

 

Gonzales lost more support when records subsequently released were seen to contradict some of his statements at the March 13 press conference. At that press conference he stated: "I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood." But DOJ records released on March 23 showed that on his Nov. 27 schedule "he attended an hour-long meeting at which, aides said, he approved a detailed plan for executing the purge.". Despite insisting that he was not involved in the "deliberations" leading up to the firing of the attorneys, newly released emails suggest that he had indeed been notified and that he had given ultimate approval.