Bush Administration Targeted Another Top Federal Prosecutor (McClatchy, via Truthout)

[marmar]

Bush Administration Targeted Another Top Federal Prosecutor
By Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers

Friday 27 April 2007

Washington - The Bush administration considered firing the former U.S. attorney in Minnesota, but he left his job voluntarily before the list of attorneys to be ousted was completed, two congressional aides said Thursday.

Congressional investigators probing the firings of eight U.S. attorneys saw Thomas Heffelfinger's name on a version of the list that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, began assembling in early 2005. Heffelfinger left in February 2006, more than nine months before the Justice Department agreed on a final list of prosecutors to remove.

The two senior congressional aides spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the document in question hasn't been made public and because the Justice Department has allowed investigators to read it but not to photocopy it. One of the aides, who also was familiar with Sampson's closed-door testimony to investigators earlier this month, said that Sampson couldn't recall specifics but said he'd been told that senior Justice officials had concerns about Heffelfinger.

The Justice Department Thursday declined to confirm or deny the report.

Heffelfinger's case interests congressional investigators because he worked in one of the states that White House political adviser Karl Rove identified as an election battleground, and because he was replaced by a 34-year-old Bush administration loyalist who'd been a member of Gonzales' inner circle.

In April, four top deputies in the U.S Attorney's Office in Minnesota resigned their leadership posts, apparently to protest the leadership of Heffelfinger's replacement, Rachel Paulose.

Reached Thursday, Heffelfinger said he "had no indication" that he was on a list of prosecutors to be fired. "I had no indication whatsoever at any point during my service as U.S. attorney that anybody at Justice was less than fully satisfied with my work," he told McClatchy Newspapers.

Democrats who control the Senate and House Judiciary Committees are investigating whether some prosecutors may have been fired for partisan political reasons. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042707B.shtml

[peacetalksforall]

1. This one sound tame compared to the MO one Last night on DU

there was a fascinating revelation of a US Atty departure, three assistants being fired, and two untimely deaths. Involved were US Bank, Piper Jaffrey, some GPO's, and I was starting to read about GE.

No one i stalking about it today. Too bad more DUers aren't learning about it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x758013