Recently Fired U.S. Attorney Speaks Out

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Cummins told the WaPo that he was more than a little surprised when he got a call from the Justice Department last year asking him to resign. He was told there was nothing wrong with his performance, but that officials in Washington wanted to give the job to another GOP loyalist.

“I don’t think many of us were aware that the administration might want to ask someone to step aside just to give someone else an opportunity,” said Cummins, who left his office in December. “The precedent was that once you were appointed, assuming you were successful in office, you were there until there was a change in the White House.”

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (pictured, above) recently told the Post: “Every U.S. attorney, like the attorney general of the United States, serves at the pleasure of the president. “We can be asked to leave at any time; we can be asked to leave for any reason.”

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blog comment:

Probably for political reasons, WaPo buried the lead in para. 11: “… there is also evidence that broader political forces are at work. One administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in discussing personnel issues, said the spate of firings was the result of ‘pressure from people who make personnel decisions outside of Justice who wanted to make some things happen in these places.’”
Comment by Anon - February 5, 2007 at 1:32 pm

Did you ever hear someone that was fired tell why it happened? I’d take a big dose of salt with the reasons stated by Lawyer Cummings in the WaPo.
Comment by ROB - February 5, 2007 at 1:52 pm

Curious, though. At least five attorneys were fired. Only Cummins has really come out on record, blasting the Bush Administration (and knowing WaPo, his comments were taken out of context — sorry, but true). However, the Bush administration feels it necessary to respond to Cummins’ comments by trashing the other four. Let’s face it, there is probably some pretext for these firings and the Bush administration is shooting a cannon signal to the group telling them to shut up, or they’re go Valerie Plame on them.
Comment by Anon - February 5, 2007 at 1:55 pm

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/02/05/recently-fired-us-attorney-speaks-out/

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[tanyev]

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