Justice lawyer defends attorney firings

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - A top Justice Department lawyer acknowledged Tuesday that more than a half-dozen U.S. attorneys were fired in the last year, in some cases without cause, but denied Democrats' charges that they were dismissed and replaced for political reasons.

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told the Senate Judiciary Committee that six or more U.S. attorneys were telephoned last December and told to resign in January for reasons he would not divulge. He also acknowledged that seven others were asked to leave their posts last year.

But McNulty reminded the panel that federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president. And he repeated Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' promise to submit the name of every replacement to the Senate for confirmation.

"The attorney general's appointment authority has not and will not be used to circumvent the confirmation process," McNulty told the Democrat-led panel. We never have and never will seek to remove a United States attorney to interfere with an ongoing investigation or prosecution or in retaliation for a prosecution."

McNulty spoke after weeks of accusations from Democrats that the forced resignations of prosecutors in Arkansas and California particularly were moves to reward Republican allies.

Democrats and Republicans blamed the situation on that fact that without their knowledge a little-known provision was slipped into the Patriot Act reauthorization to allow the attorney general to replace prosecutors indefinitely. They now are seeking legislation to give interim appointment authority to District Court judges, with a deadline by which the prosecutor must be confirmed by the Senate.

Judges often are not qualified to make those appointments, Gonzales told The Associated Press last month.

But lawmakers insisted that the Justice Department has used that provision to appoint political allies to the offices of the U.S. attorney.

In Arkansas, H.E. Bud Cummins received a call from a Justice Department official last year telling him to resign and assuring him there was no cause for the firing, a fact McNulty confirmed Tuesday. Cummins' replacement was to be J. Timothy Griffin, a former aide to presidential counselor Karl Rove and a former military prosecutor.

Also riling the Democrats is the case of former San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, whose pursuit of public corruption cases included the government's case against Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the former Republican congressman who pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes.

McNulty denied she was fired in retaliation for Cunningham's conviction, calling Lam's pursuit of the case "a very good thing for the American people and the Department of Justice to accomplish."

"We are proud of that accomplishment," McNulty said.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070206/ap_on_go_co/senate_us_attorneys [link]