CREW Asks AG Gonzales for Special Prosecutor to Probe U.S. Attorney Firings

Also Requests DOJ Inspector General and OPR Investigations

    WASHINGTON, March 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Citizens for
 Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today sent a letter to
 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for the immediate appointment of a
 special prosecutor to investigate potential criminal violations related to
 the recent dismissals of eight U.S. Attorneys. CREW also asked the
 Department of Justice's Inspector General and Office of Professional
 Responsibility to investigate the situation.
     In the past few months, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials have
 testified before Congress that the U.S. Attorneys were asked to resign for
 performance-related reasons, that the White House was minimally involved in
 the firings and that the department was in no way attempting to evade the
 confirmation process for new U.S. Attorneys.
     Documents provided by the DOJ to Congress suggest that at least one
 high-ranking official, D. Kyle Sampson, knew that the statements made to
 Congress were untrue. If, as it appears, a Department of Justice official
 allowed other officials to provide inaccurate information to Congress,
 federal crimes may have been committed. Because DOJ obviously cannot
 investigate and prosecute the misconduct of its own officials, CREW has
 called on the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to handle
 this matter.
     It is clear that at least two officials, former White House Legal
 Counsel Harriet Miers and Sampson, schemed to fire prosecutors for
 political reasons. According to press reports, Sampson has acknowledged
 that he did not tell DOJ officials about the extent of his communications
 with the White House regarding the firings. Justice officials who testified
 before Congress, including the attorney general, Deputy Attorney General
 Paul McNulty and Principal Associate Attorney General William Moschella,
 all told Congress that the White House, though consulted, was not deeply
 involved in the firing decisions.
     Federal law provides that if Sampson knew that he was causing DOJ
 officials to make inaccurate statements to Congress, he can be prosecuted
 for the federal crime of lying to Congress even though he did not
 personally make any statements to Congress. The special prosecutor should
 investigate not only Mr. Sampson's conduct but whether anyone else was
 involved in formulating the incomplete and erroneous congressional
 testimony or whether the officials who testified were aware that they were
 providing imperfect information to Congress.
     CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said, "Given the murky nature of
 this situation and the unresolved questions of what top level Justice
 officials knew, when they knew it and whether they deliberately withheld
 information from Congress, Attorney General Gonzales should immediately
 appoint a special prosecutor." Sloan continued, "Both Congress and the
 American people deserve a full accounting of the truth behind the firings
 of the U.S. Attorneys. If the attorney general doesn't want to see the
 truth come out, perhaps the Inspector General will."
     CREW's letters to Attorney General Gonzales, DOJ Inspector General
 Glenn Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility Counsel H. Marshall
 Jarrett and related documents are available on CREW's website.
     Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a
 non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials
 accountable for their actions.
     For more information, please visit http://www.citizensforethics.org or
 contact Naomi Seligman Steiner at
 202.408.5565/nseligman@citizensforethics.org.
 
 

SOURCE Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington