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Kerry Calls On President Bush to Fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez
FBI privacy abuses, U.S. Attorney Purge Show Lack of Judgment
WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator John Kerry today said that President Bush should immediately fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez because of a continuing series of incompetent blunders. Kerry also promised to work with colleagues in Congress who are demanding details on what appears to be the politically-motivated firing of US prosecutors, and suggested that presidential advisor Karl Rove should also be compelled to testify.
“I’ve had concerns about the qualifications of Gonzalez since before he took the job, when we learned that he was one of the Administration’s architects of the infamous detention and interrogation policies,” Kerry said today.
"Neither Attorney General Gonzales politically calibrated news conference, nor the Administration's efforts to turn his chief of staff into the latest fall guy, change the fact that there must be accountability from the top down. If the Attorney General was serious about taking responsibility for otherwise un-justifiable terminations, he would reinstate the 8 qualified U.S. attorneys who have suffered the most from this injustice.”
“It’s disappointing to hear that the White House had an even larger role in orchestrating the firing of competent prosecutors and it makes me question how the Justice Department is being run on a daily basis. In addition, the recent report about DOJ’s use of National Security Letters (NSL) to obtain otherwise private information about American citizens revealed glaring abuses of an already too-lenient law. When we in Congress ordered the investigation, we had no idea that the trail of abuse and deception would reach go so far,” Kerry added.
“I will work with my colleagues in the weeks ahead to ensure that these types of abuses never happen again,” added Kerry, who was one of 36 senators to vote against the confirmation of Gonzalez.
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