Prosecutors Describe Contacts From Higher Up

[babylonsister]

Weird title? O8)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/washington/07attorneys.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Prosecutors Describe Contacts From Higher Up



WASHINGTON, March 6 — Six ousted United States attorneys told Congressional panels Tuesday new details about lawmakers’ intrusions in sensitive investigations and possible efforts by the Justice Department to squelch their public protests over their firings.

In testimony at hearings in the Senate and House, the prosecutors spoke of intrigue over their dismissals and their surprise last December that they had been asked to resign but were given no explanation.

Democrats said the testimony raised more questions about the Justice Department’s motives for the removal of eight prosecutors. “Federal prosecutors are supposed to be bedrock neutral servants of the law, not temporary tools in the service of some political end,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and a member of the Judiciary Committee.

H. E. Cummins III, who was removed last summer as a United States attorney in Arkansas, said that in late February, Michael Elston, chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, told him by telephone that any prosecutor who spoke to reporters could face retaliation.

In an e-mail message to several dismissed prosecutors that was disclosed at the hearing, Mr. Cummins wrote of senior Justice Department officials, “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 to organize behind the scenes Congressional pressure, then they would feel forced to somehow pull their gloves off.”

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[KingofNewOrleans]

1. Those higher ups ain't angels, sister eom

[babylonsister]

2. You're kidding, right? I was joking about the title. nt

[KingofNewOrleans]

3. Just playin' along

gotta figure out how to make one of those emoticons wink