Senators Deride Justice Reassignments
Prosecutor Firings and Staff Decisions Draw Hill Criticism
By Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 22, 2007; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062102291.html?nav=rss_politicsDemocratic senators responded caustically yesterday to reports that a former head of the Justice Department's civil rights division pushed aside three minority women on his staff to "make room for some good Americans," as the lawmakers implored his successor to remove all political taint from the agency's work.
Wan Kim, the current assistant attorney general for civil rights, distanced himself from the hiring practices and statements in 2005 of his predecessor, Bradley J. Schlozman, and said he first heard of them hours before they were reported in The Washington Post this week. "At a very minimum, those are intemperate, inopportune remarks," said Kim, the division's second-in-command at the time
The consternation over the removal of government civil rights lawyers erupted in the Senate as Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty defended himself in the House against allegations he had misled Congress about the firings last year of nine U.S. attorneys.
Although Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has told lawmakers that McNulty was the aide most responsible for the firings, McNulty continued yesterday to say that he played a minimal role in the dismissals and had little direct contact with Gonzales over the matter. Still, McNulty, who has announced he will resign this summer, also provided further evidence of possible partisan considerations in the firings, telling a House Judiciary subcommittee that complaints from a senior Republican senator contributed to the removal of one U.S. attorney.
<<snip>>
In the Senate yesterday, Democrats seized on the report that Schlozman had, while acting assistant attorney general for civil rights, removed the female lawyers -- against their supervisors' advice -- as new evidence that the Justice Department under President Bush has been infected by improper political considerations.