ABC Exclusive: McNulty-Ignored WH "Initial Plan To SIMPLY DENY Existence Of Improper Motives"

[kpete]

By JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG

March 26, 2007 — The firestorm over the fired U.S. attorneys was sparked last month when a top Justice Department official ignored guidance from the White House and rejected advice from senior administration lawyers over his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Until McNulty's testimony, administration officials had consistently refused to publicly say why specific attorneys were dismissed and insisted that the White House had complete authority to replace them. That was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' approach when he testified before the committee in January.

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In doing so, however, McNulty went well beyond the scope of what the White House cleared him to say when it approved his written testimony the week before the hearing, according to administration sources closely involved in the matter.

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"The initial plan had simply been to deny the existence of improper motives. People thought that should be enough," said another source familiar with the discussions that day. "McNulty argued vigorously the other way. He said DOJ had to give these guys on the Hill an explanation."



much more at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2983066&page=3

[MADem]

1. What a clusterfuck!!! Once again, they fire the WRONG asshole!!!!!

" thought he could explain it was performance-related and Schumer would accept that. He touted his relationship with Schumer, and he said you have to be reasonable with these guys and give them the information," the source said. "No one was willing to second guess McNulty."

At one point, one of the lawyers asked about Cummins's dismissal and how McNulty could explain that using the "performance-related" phrase, the source said. McNulty said he would "just explain the White House had a candidate for the job," the source said.

"That opened up the entire thing," said a source with knowledge of the meeting. "The phrase 'performance-related' is where all this goes wrong."

Instead of accepting those explanations, however, Schumer aggressively challenged McNulty during the hearing over perceived inconsistencies in his testimony and that of Gonzales. "This is the first we've heard of this," Schumer said incredulously, moments after McNulty revealed that Cummins was fired so Griffin could step in.

Schumer then pressed McNulty repeatedly about why Cummins and other U.S. attorneys were fired, and he quoted directly from Gonzales's testimony, when the attorney general told the committee "we would never, ever make a change in the U.S. attorney position for political reasons." ...

[wicket]

2. K & R

Another gem from kpete!!! :hi:

:kick:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. So the WH tried to coach McNulty into giving misleading info... what else is new? eom