Posted on 03/16/2007 11:20:15 PM PDT by HAL9000
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A fired federal prosecutor said Friday he doubted his investigation into Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's administration was connected to his dismissal.Former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins, a federal prosecutor in Arkansas, was removed from his job in December -- one of eight U.S. attorneys replaced in recent months by President Bush's administration.
Cummins in October publicly cleared Blunt's administration of wrongdoing in the awarding of Missouri license office contracts, saying he closed an investigation without pursuing criminal charges.
Cummins said the Justice Department told him he was being fired to make room for someone else -- as it turned out, Timothy Griffin, who has ties to White House political adviser Karl Rove.
Cummins told The Associated Press that politics has no place at the Department of Justice, but said he didn't believe his dismissal was tied to his handling of the Missouri license office probe or other job issues.
"What is important about the U.S. attorney dismissals is there is a perception because of the way it was handled that politics is a component being considered in at least some of the decisions being made at the Department of Justice," he said.
"That is evidenced by a number of calls I have received asking about the Missouri investigation," Cummins said. "I don't have any information that would connect that investigation to the firing. On the other hand, I'm not in a position to say one way or the other what they took into account because the process has been so discredited that it's anybody's guess what the people in Washington who made these decisions were focused on. From my perspective, there's no connection."
~ snip ~
(Excerpt) Read more at semissourian.com ...
I thought these guys served at pleasure of the President. Wish they and MSM would growup
Once again, when Slick Willie does it, it's okay. When Bush does it, it's an impeachable offense.
Why would anybody think that the White House would, for political reasons, fire a prosecutor for failing to prosecute a pro-life Republican governor who apparently balanced the budget?
Disclaimer: I never heard of Governor Blunt before today. I just researched him online - maybe there is some reason I didn't find that people would assume the President would not like the Governor.
>>Once again, when Slick Willie does it, it's okay. When Bush does it, it's an impeachable offense.<<
Now, that distinction I do understand. Miers or Rove or whoever suggested replacing all the Prosecutors had a point - that way you're not open to allegations that you selected them based on who they did or did not prosecute.
It's unclear whether that was true or not. Noone in Arkansas is aware of any problems with Cummins' performance. Other officials have given contradictory reasons for his firing. Then Cummins started receiving phone calls from DOJ officials who were making implied threats against him and the other fired USAs if they disputed the reasons.
It looks like someone was trying to trash Cummin's reputation without any basis to do so, and naturally, he disagrees with the allegations. If they had just stuck with the reason that the President simply wanted to appoint someone else to the position, there would be little controversy about it. But the way this situation has been handled could lead to the downfall of Rove and Gonzalez.
No the DNC and MSM would manufacture a story, Fake but True
>>They do serve at the pleasure of the President, and Cummins was leaving his position quietly - until some mid-level people in the administration started claiming that Cummins was being fired for a low performance rating.<<
You mean these charges are coming from the administration?
Or do you mean that the way the administration responded to outside charges of political firings was to respond this way?
Unfortunately yes - somewhere within the administration, there is a loose cannon who got out of control. We'll be hearing more about this next week.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep an eye out.
What is not understood about "You serve at the pleasure of the POTUS?" ???!!!
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