Continuing Meltdown at the Department of Justice

By Scott Horton

It’s Friday after the press deadline for the evening news, and the Bush Administration has just released the usual torrent of bad news. As usual, much of this related to the Department of Justice led by Alberto Gonzales, Paul J. McNulty, and William E. Moschella, three figures in the crosshairs of the Purgegate scandal.

And then there were twelve. McClatchy examines the documents and statements to emerge from the last week and finds that the number of purged U.S. attorneys was certainly twelve, and there’s significant smoke surrounding a number of others.

Congressional sources who have seen unedited internal documents say the Bush administration considered firing at least a dozen U.S. attorneys before paring down its list to eight late last year. The four who escaped dismissal came from states considered political battlegrounds in the last presidential election: Missouri, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Two of the four said they resigned voluntarily before the mass firings of U.S. attorneys on Dec. 7. Two continue to serve as federal prosecutors.

Environment at DOJ is “Toxic.” One of the newcomers to the list is Todd Graves, the former U.S. Attorney in Kansas City. McClatchy reports that he was cleared out to make room for Brad Schlozman, who was tasked with running a full-tilt voter suppression program in Missouri in time for the 2006 midterm election. According to the Kansas City Star, Graves was asked to return to the Gonzales Justice Department, but declined, comparing the department to a toxic waste dump. “What is going on today in [the Justice Department] is a three-ring circus, and I don’t want to have anything to do with it,” Graves said.

Brad Scholzman Recalled to Main Justice. The controversial voting suppression guru Brad Scholzman has been recalled from his position as U.S. Attorney in Kansas City and will now man a post in the Executive Office for the U.S. Attorneys, according to TPMMuckraker’s Paul Kiel.

Resignation of Senior Criminal Division Official Linked to Abramoff Scandal. Robert E. Coughlin, chief of staff in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, has resigned under circumstances which are closely tied to the criminal investigation of Jack Abramoff, according to McClatchy Newspapers. McClatchy states that his resignation occurred after he came under intense scrutiny because of ties to an Abramoff protégé who is a target of the investigation.