Word: marstons
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...Republicans rubbed their hands in glee, the Carter Administration last week found itself trying to explain away a skein of presidential lies. In a letter to Justice Department investigators looking into the firing two weeks ago of Philadelphia's Republican U.S. Attorney, David Marston, Carter last week corrected a misstatement he had made during a nationally televised press conference on Jan. 12. Republican Congressmen saw an opportunity to duplicate last summer's damaging controversy over Bert Lance's financial peccadilloes, and to lay siege again to what was once the President's pride: his credibility...
Carter got himself in trouble by making two serious mistakes. Several times he told less than the truth about his role in expediting the removal of Marston. Then, after admitting he was asked to fire Marston by one of the prosecutor's targets of investigation, Democratic Congressman Joshua Eilberg of Pennsylvania, Carter did it anyway...
...Griffin Bell announced William Webster's appointment to the FBI post, he noted proudly that it had been made "without regard to political party." One motivation for the remark: both he and President Carter had become embroiled in a controversy over their desire to sack a Republican, David Marston, as U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia...
...Marston, who has convicted some top Democratic officials, including Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Herbert Fineman, was summoned to Bell's office the day after Webster's nomination. When he emerged, Marston said the Attorney General had told him that "the decision to fire me was final, and would not be reconsidered." Carter admitted the previous week that he had asked Bell to "expedite" the ouster of Marston after receiving a phone call from Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman Joshua Eilberg. Carter presumably did not know that Eilberg was under investigation by Marston's office for financial irregularities...
Bell offered the outgoing prosecutor a three-month extension, but Marston declined. Said he: "I've been crippled by the events of the past few weeks. I don't want to be a lame duck...