U.S. Attorneys Scandal: The Pittsburgh to Anchorage Axis

By Scott Horton

Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan is one of the 85 “non-fired” U.S. attorneys who stands under heavy accusations of political manipulation of her office in local Pennsylvania media. Not surprisingly, she seems to be well-connected with the White House and the Gonzales Justice Department, and she appears to have played a key inside role in the decision to cashier some of her fellow U.S. attorneys. It seems that she also was given the opportunity to place one of her principal aides as the U.S. attorney in Alaska.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that the new U.S. attorney for Alaska, Nelson Cohen, had been Buchanan's right-hand man in Pittsburgh. When the slot in Anchorage opened up, Alaska's two GOP senators went through the normal process of offering the Justice Department a list of names for the job. They got a cold brush off from Justice, and ultimately learned that all of their candidates had been dismissed—without so much as an interview. Instead the position was filled on the basis of Buchanan's recommendation.

Buchanan has handled a series of high-profile political prosecutions in and around Pittsburgh—all of them against Democrats. She also pursued the Bush Administration's anti-drug and pornography agenda, going after pornographers in California and California-based comedian Tommy Chong, who was accused of selling bongs. Her vision appears to have strongly shaped the U.S. attorney purge.