The Daily Background
| Why were the US Attorneys really fired? Possible reasons trickle out
by Arlen Parsa
While the White House maintains that the eight US Attorneys suddenly fired in December were let go for “performance related reasons” having to do with their alleged failure to follow up on “voter fraud,” other possible reasons for their firings have trickled out. Keep in mind that 7 of the 8 prosecutors fired by the Administration had positive job reviews conducted by the Department of Justice ranging from “good” to “outstanding.”
One prosecutor was fired after he didn’t bow to pressure from GOP lawmakers to speed up investigations of local Democrats in time for the November elections.
Another prosecutor was fired after they successfully prosecuted powerful-but-corrupt Republican Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham (who is now serving an 8 year prison sentence).
Immediately after one prosecutor was fired, they was replaced with one of Karl Rove’s associates who had been lined up for their job. The replacements for all of the fired prosecutors were appointed by the White House without Senate confirmation, due to an obscure clause in the USA PATRIOT Act which allows them to do so.
Another prosecutor, although a loyal Republican like all but one of the others, disagreed with the Administration over the use of the death penalty (he resisted seeking it as a prosecutor).
Another prosecutor was fired after they didn’t prosecute claims of “voter fraud” in a close gubernatorial election in which the Democratic candidate eventually won.
Another prosecutor, fired at a different time separate from the most recent 8, was fired after he started investigating a Republican governor for corruption.
Now today we learn that one prosecutor was fired after he started investigating the possibility that Republican officials were corrupt in Missouri. The Lost Angeles Times writes today: “Still uncertain exactly why he was fired, former U.S. Atty. H.E. “Bud” Cummins III wonders whether it had something to do with the probe he opened into alleged corruption by Republican officials in Missouri amid a Senate race there that was promising to be a nail-biter.”
It’s important to note however that this prosecutor was on the “hit list” being circulated between Miers, Sampson and likely Rove and Gonzales even before he started the corruption probe. This isn’t to say that his corruption investigation into Republicans didn’t end up being a contributing factor to his firing however, since not all the prosecutors on the “hit list” were eventually fired, and this one was.
