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Ex-prosecutors detail pressures

By WASHINGTON POST
Published March 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - Six fired U.S. attorneys testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that they had been the target of complaints, improper telephone calls and thinly veiled threats from a high-ranking Justice Department official or members of Congress, both before and after they were abruptly removed from their jobs.

In back-to-back hearings in the Senate and House, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico and five other former prosecutors recounted specific instances in which some said they felt pressured by Republicans on corruption cases. One said he was warned by a Justice official to keep quiet or face retaliation.

Iglesias, whose allegations of congressional interference have prompted a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry, offered new details about telephone calls in October from Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., saying he felt "leaned on" and "sickened" by the contacts, which sought information about an investigation of a local Democrat.

Another former prosecutor, John McKay of Seattle, alleged for the first time that he received a call from the chief of staff to Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., asking about an inquiry into vote fraud charges in the state's hotly contested 2004 gubernatorial election. McKay said he cut the call short.

Ed Cassidy, the former Hastings aide who now works for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that the call was routine and did not violate "permissible limits" on contact with federal prosecutors. Hastings, the ranking GOP member on the House ethics committee, also said the episode was "entirely appropriate."

Tuesday's testimony also featured allegations of threatened overt retaliation against the prosecutors. Former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock, Ark., said a senior Justice Department official warned him Feb. 20 that the fired prosecutors should remain quiet about their dismissals.

The senior official, Michael Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, wrote in a letter to the Senate that he never intended to send a threatening message to Cummins. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said "a private and collegial conversation" was "being twisted into a perceived threat by former disgruntled employees grandstanding before Congress."

The six U.S. attorneys who appeared Tuesday had all declined to testify voluntarily but had been subpoenaed by a House Judiciary subcommittee and threatened with subpoenas in the Senate.

Their testimony marked the latest twist in the U.S. attorneys saga, which began quietly Dec. 7 with a spate of firings, and has prompted concern among current and former federal prosecutors that the firings - and the Justice Department's evasive and shifting explanations - threaten to damage the credibility of U.S. attorney's offices across the country.

"The whole series of events has been remarkable and unprecedented," said Mary Jo White, who was a U.S. attorney for nine years in New York during the Clinton and Bush administrations. "It's not a matter of whether they have the power to do it; it's a matter of the wisdom of the actions taken. It shows a total disregard for the institution of the U.S. attorney's offices and what they stand for."

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during the testimony that "if the allegations are correct, there has been serious misconduct in what has occurred."

The Justice Department has offered varying explanations for the firings, saying initially that the group all had "performance-related" problems but more recently asserting they had not adequately carried out Bush administration priorities on immigration, the death penalty and other issues.

The department has also acknowledged that Cummins was asked to resign solely to provide a job for a former aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove.

E-mail excerpt

U.S. attorney's e-mail cautions his cohorts

From: Former U.S. attorney Bud Cummins

To: Five other U.S. attorneys, who also have been fired

Date: Feb. 20, two days after Cummins spoke out in a Washington Post article over Justice Department statements regarding attorneys' performance, saying the statements masked the "true agenda."

"Mike Elston from the DAG's (Deputy Attorney General's) office called me today. ... The essence of his message was that they feel like they are taking unnecessary flak to avoid trashing each of us specifically or further, but if they feel like any of us intend to continue to offer quotes to the press, or organize behind the scenes congressional pressure, then they would feel forced to somehow pull their gloves off and offer public criticisms to defend their actions more fully.

"I can't offer any specific quotes, but that was clearly the message. I was tempted to challenge him and say something movie-like such as "are you threatening ME???", but instead I kind of shrugged it off and said I didn't sense that anyone was intending to perpetuate this. ...

"I don't want to stir you up conflict or overstate the threatening undercurrent in the call, but the message was clearly there and you should be aware before you speak to the press again if you choose to do that."

[Last modified March 7, 2007, 01:21:22]