With the news developments in the prosecutor purge scandal coming fairly quickly over the last couple of days, let’s not overlook the fascinating insights from Michael Battle, who just so happened to be the hatchet man who fired the eight U.S. Attorneys, and then resigned when the heat arrived.
There have been a variety of reports that Battle was less than pleased with the DoJ higher-ups when he stepped down a few weeks ago, and now we’re learning why.
The former Justice Department official who carried out the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that all but one of the prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.
The statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle, former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has said he never saw any documents about the firings and had “lost confidence” in the prosecutors because of performance problems.
Just what Gonzales needed on the eve of his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony — another reason to question his credibility. Battle’s remarks not only suggest Gonzales was lying about his involvement in the process, but also about the rationale for the purge in the first place.
And in case there was any doubt that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is playing hardball here, note that the WaPo article about Battle’s revelations came — on the record — from Schumer. Behind the scenes, four top Gonzales aides, including Battle, have been subject to interviews with staff members on the House and Senate Judiciary committees. Schumer waited until Gonzales was gearing up with a p.r. offensive, and then let reporters know about Battle’s comments, which of course make Gonzales look even worse.
Bottom line: Gonzales and his deputy, Paul McNulty, initially told Congress that the firings were due to “performance-related” problems. Battle, who actually did the firings, said that in seven of the eight cases, this just wasn’t true. And since it was his job to supervise the department’s 93 U.S. attorneys, Battle was in a position to know.
I can’t wait to hear Gonzales’ explanation.
In other purge scandal news:
* Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, said Gonzales should consider reinstating the fired U.S. attorneys. That’s not going to happen, of course, but it helps reinforce a narrative that undermines Gonzales’ chances (these prosecutors didn’t deserve to lose their jobs).
* The LA Times reported over the weekend that Karl Rove and other White House employees “were cautioned in employee manuals, memos and briefings to carefully save any e-mails that might discuss official matters even if those messages came from private e-mail accounts.” They didn’t.
* NPR reported that White House Counsel Fred Fielding, when dealing with Congress, said he won’t budge on offering Rove and Miers for private chats with no transcript and no oath. But back at the White House, Fielding is reportedly fighting to negotiate with lawmakers over how the interviews could occur — but Bush refuses to go along with even opening the door to discussions.
* Time magazine reports that a group of influential conservatives and longtime Bush supporters has written a letter to the White House to call for Alberto Gonzales’ resignation. The letter, written on stationery of the American Freedom Agenda, includes signatures from Bruce Fein, a former senior official in the Reagan Justice Department, who has worked frequently with current Administration and the Republican National Committee to promote Bush’s court nominees; David Keene, chairman of the influential American Conservative Union, one of the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative groups, and Richard Viguerie, a well-known GOP direct mail expert and fundraiser.
* And Daniel Metcalfe, a senior attorney at the department who retired in January, told the Legal Times that Gonzales has “shattered” the department’s tradition of independence and politicized its operation more than any other attorney general in more than 30 years. Metcalfe recently resigned in disgust.
Stay tuned.