Posted on 05/26/2006 7:40:00 PM PDT by RWR8189
WASHINGTON, May 26 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday.
Mr. Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress.
The potential showdown was averted Thursday when President Bush ordered the evidence to be sealed for 45 days to give Congress and the Justice Department a chance to work out a deal.
The evidence was seized by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents last Saturday night in a search of the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana. The search set off an uproar of protest by House leaders in both parties, who said the intrusion by an executive branch agency into a Congressional office violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. They demanded that the Justice Department return the evidence.
The possibility of resignations underscored the gravity of the crisis that gripped the Justice Department as the administration grappled with how to balance the pressure from its own party on Capitol Hill against the principle that a criminal investigation, especially one involving a member of Congress, should be kept well clear of political considerations.
It is not clear precisely what message Mr. Gonzales delivered to Mr. Bush when they met Thursday morning at the White House, or whether he informed the president of the resignation talk. But hours
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
bravo gentleman.
My stomach hurts. See you all in a few days.
How do we know this is true...it's in the NY Slimes??
I propose a law whereby the entire bureaucracy in DC is laid off, and must reapply for their jobs, making the case on merit.
And we vote them back in one at a time, starting with the janitors.
Must protect the elites at all costs apparently.
First reaction, unbelivable.
Second reaction, sadness, how far this Republican leadership has fallen.
Ping
Would that make positions at the Justice department jobs that Americans don't want to do?
loll
NYSlimes. Credibility personified.... NOT
Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales trimmed the Presidential Hedge.
It seems to be a pretty powerful standoff right now. Congress wants the papers back, and the Justice Department wants to keep them. I just have to believe there could be some earthshaking things in those files, and I will lean to supporting Gonzales on this one.
Ooops! gotta read the article first :{
damn right. everything about this was legal, the mechanism, the court order. if Congress wants to challenge the constitutionality of it - let's them take it to the judiciary, not to the Executive.
What? Gonzales has the backing of a federal judge. He did the right thing. And Bush did the right thing.
OH! I like that!
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, doing a job that some Americans would not do, trimmed the Presidential Hedge.
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