Posted on 03/23/2007 6:41:23 PM PDT by pitinkie
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals. The Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Justice Department officials said late Friday.
There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was crafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week amid a political firestorm surrounding the firings.
The documents indicated that the hour-long morning discussion, held in the attorney general's conference room, was the only time Gonzales met with top aides who decided which prosecutors to fire and how to do it.
Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said it was not immediately clear whether Gonzales gave his final approval to begin the firings at that meeting. Scolinos also said Gonzales was not involved in the process of selecting which prosecutors would be asked to resign.
On March 13, in explaining the firings, Gonzales told reporters he was aware that some of the dismissals were being discussed but was not involved in them.
"I knew my chief of staff was involved in the process of determining who were the weak performers where were the districts around the country where we could do better for the people in that district, and that's what I knew," Gonzales said last week. "But that is in essence what I knew about the process; 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 the attorney general."
Later, he added: "I accept responsibility for everything that happens here within this department. But when you have 110,000 people working in the department, obviously there are going to be decisions that I'm not aware of in real time. Many decisions are delegated."
Why is this administration tripping all over itself and mounting no defense nor going on the offensive?
Why is there suddenly a "big fight" over closing Gittmo and Gates, Cheney, Gonzales and the President's conversations about it all over the tube now?
Is somebody leaving the Oval Office doors open or are there a bunch of moles in the White House?
Don't you just hate it when someone does their job? ;)
C'mon guys......get up off the mat and fight!
Of course he will approve their firing, that is his JOB. Are those people that stupid to think that this is NEWS?!!!
I think certainly the latter, and possibly the former (ok, they are idiots, but I think they understand that this is a non-story).
susie
No, they know that the public is a bunch of idiots. Uncritical, underinformed and undereducated nonthinking slugs.
THIS IS MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Clinton & Dyke Reno fired all the U.S. Attorneys when he took office.
These people deserved to be fired. You should have seen the O'Reilly Factor last night. He laid it all out in the open and explained why they were fired.
The Prez and his administration need to get some 'nads and tell the Dems in the Senate to drop dead.
I know!! but to them its the smoking gun or something!
LOL..
Actually, they know that half of all Americans are idiots.
Did you have a point?
Where's the contradiction? And what is the big deal? They were fired - probably should have been.
The media continues to display its overwhelming hypocrisy and dishonesty. Clinton fires 43 U.S. attorneys and it is portrayed as cleaning house and portrayed positively - fluffy interviews with Reno on the subject and the like. 8 U.S. attorneys get fired in the Bush administration and it gets reported as a major scandal.
But he said last week, if the article can be trusted, that he "was not involved in any discussions about what was going on." Now perhaps he simply didn't recall this meeting, but I bet otherwise.
So what!
Lack of Iraq bad news prompts stupid headlines by the MSM.
Let the MSM augment the liberal insistence to destroy themselves politically.
They are good at it.
Well, duh!!
SOOOOOOOO!! Sheeeeesh! These people need to get over themselves and their "ascension to the throne" syndrome.
He did his job..
What shall we do?
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