U.S. Attorney Scandal—Montana

By Scott Horton

One of the dead give-aways of the hastily manufactured rationalizations for the firing of U.S. attorneys was the claim that they are “absentee” figures because they spent too much time outside of their district attending to other business. This was used as a bullet against David Iglesias, who as a Navy JAG reservist was obligated to spend time in the service of his country in uniform. (In fact, the citation of a reserve officer’s service to undermine his career is also a violation of federal law, but that wouldn’t stop Alberto Gonzales and company for a second.) The documents emerging from Justice (such as they are—it is increasingly clear that a large-scale obstruction campaign is underway, and that documents may have been destroyed to avoid Congressional subpoenas) put the U.S. Attorney for Montana right at the heart of the scandal. Bill Mercer, who holds that office, doesn’t even live in Montana—he set up his household in suburban Washington and he hangs his hat at main Justice. In fact, this is a violation of the law, which required him to be a resident of Montana in order to hold the office of U.S. attorney there. A district court judge in Montana vented over his absenteeism and pointed out that his conduct was illegal. So what did Mercer do? He had the law changed, using the legislative legerdemain which is the telltale sign of the administration of justice in the era of Bush and Gonzales. And the figures involved once more include Brett Tollman, the mysteriously unfaithful aide to Arlen Specter who was rewarded for his services to the Department of Justice with a prompt appointment as the U.S. Attorney in Salt Lake City. The Washington Post reports this sordid tale in some detail this morning.

“It's a curious contrast that leaders in the Department of Justice would slip a change into law to allow one U.S. Attorney to spend only a few days a month in his district and keep his job, while at the same time claiming to fire another for spending a few days a month away from his district to serve his country,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement.

Of course, as Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us in his great essay “Self-Reliance,” “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” And the assumption that “loyal Bushies” are obligated to abide by the law which binds others is what Karl Rove would call a “foolish consistency.” Don’t miss Paul Kiel’s take on the whole affair in TPMMuckraker.