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."
Of course he did. He was the Attorney General. Can you fire a U.S. Attorney without the Attorney General passing on it? ABC is a bunch of idiots, or they think that the public is a bunch of idiots.
So?
AND???
I still can't believe this is still 'news'. These attorneys are hired and fired at the discretion of the President. PERIOD! If any case can be made for firings, it is not one attorney brought Clinton, Sandy Burglar and the rest of his crooked lying administration to face blantant criminal acts upon America and individual rights' violations.
Shocked I tell you...shocked.
I would assume that hiring and firing would be part of his job description.
Documents show Big Giant Head Approved of Gonzales doing his job.
"...or they think that the public is a bunch of idiots."
In that regard, they would be largely correct.
Ok. And this is a problem because . . . . . . ????
Where does it say anywhere that US attorneys are entitled to a job for life??? Especially, incompetent partisan hacks who won't do the jobs assigned to them!!??
Oh! My bad!! I forget these are Democrats we are talking about. Stupid comment withdrawn.
Watch out Democrats. This could come back to haunt you!
Remember Anita Hill and then later Paula Jones?
I should hope so - he is the AG after all.
The author of this article is the wife of John Kerry's 2004 campaign manager.
To parrot Sport: So?
In other words, he was not involved in the decisions, but he was aware of it and signed off on the final decisions.
They make it sound nefarious, but there were 8 firings, and if they discussed them all one last time, that means they spent less than 8 minutes per discussion, and with multiple people giving their inputs that means Gonzalez would have had time to do little more than listen to a few speeches and say "sure, sounds like you did your homework."
*yawn*
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