Word: doj
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...Gonzales, who cancelled an out-of-town trip to appear at a hastily called Department of Justice (DOJ) press conference Tuesday, said, "I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on ... That's basically what I knew as attorney general." Gonzales then said he had accepted the resignation of his close collaborator and chief of staff Kyle Sampson, citing Sampson's role in orchestrating the firings. DOJ explained that Sampson had withheld information from two key Justice Department officials, who later gave sworn testimony to Congress about the firings that...
...Gonzales stood by the decision to fire the eight U.S. attorneys and repeated his claim that politics was not a factor in the dismissals. In an apparent attempt to shield the White House, Gonzales' aides protrayed the firings as a largely DOJ operation...
...significant elements of the case Gonzales and the White House have been trying to make appear undercut by the release of a sheaf of e-mails and other documents cataloguing exchanges between DOJ and the President's top lawyers, including former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, and Deputy Counsel William Kelley...
...Those e-mails show that Miers first proposed firing all 93 U.S. attorneys shortly after Bush was reelected in 2004. After her idea was rejected by DOJ and White House political guru Karl Rove, Sampson, Gonzales's chief of staff, suggested forcing out a more limited number of U.S. attorneys. In consultation with Miers and others at the White House and DOJ, Sampson drew up a hit list and detailed plans to oust them, with a heavy emphasis on politics...
...Amid all the criticism, several DOJ officials offered a robust defense of the Administration in testimony before Congress. One official, repeating the assertion that most of the firings were motivated by poor performance, cited the case of U.S. attorney Carol Lam of California, who last year successfully prosecuted former G.O.P. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham for corruption. The DOJ official said Lam was pushed out, not because of the Cunningham case, but because her prosecution rates for violent crime and border violations were inadequate. Another DOJ official testified that Iglesias had been fired because he delegated too much to a subordinate...