From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Yet another  debasement of the Patroit Act - The Bushies firing Federal
prosecutors  to get their cronies in without Senate confirmation.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4606122.html

WASHINGTON - A fired federal prosecutor told a Senate committee Tuesday
that he felt "leaned on" and sickened as Republican Sen. Pete
Domenici hung up on him in disgust last fall when told that indictments in
a corruption case against Democrats would not be issued before the fall
elections.

"He said, 'Are these going to be filed before November?'" former
federal prosecutor David Iglesias, one of eight U.S. attorneys summarily
fired in recent months, told the panel. "I said I didn't think so. And
to which he replied, 'I'm very sorry to hear that.' And then the line went
dead."

The Bush administration also applied a heavy hand after the firings of
eight prosecutors became public and some of the dismissed U.S. attorneys
had been quoted in media, according to one of those ousted, Bud Cummins of
Arkansas.

Cummins said in an e-mail released by the Senate Judiciary Committee that
Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, had
called and expressed his displeasure that the fired prosecutors talked to
reporters about their dismissals.

"If they (DOJ) feel like any of us intend to continue to offer quotes
to the press, or organize behind the scenes congressional pressure, then
they feel forced to somehow pull their gloves off and offer public
criticisms to defend their actions more fully," Cummins said in the
e-mail to five other fired prosecutors.

Iglesias said he received the call at home on Oct. 26 or 27th and that it
lasted two minutes, "tops."

"I felt leaned on. I felt pressured to get these matters moving,"
Iglesias testified.

Asked by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whether such a call was unusual in
Iglesias' experience, the former prosecutor answered,
"Unprecedented."

Six of eight prosecutors fired by the Department of Justice in recent
months were expected to appear before House and Senate panels - all six
under subpoena before the House, four voluntarily in the Senate. Justice
officials have said most of the eight were dismissed for
performance-related issues, an allegation those testifying staunchly
denied.

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2007/03/06/editorial/editorial/daily938.txt

The New Mexico controversy suggests a possible attempt to use the courts to
sway an election. In San Diego, reasonable people might detect a whiff of
payback as well as a possible fear of where an unfinished investigation
might lead next. And when a former Karl Rove aide ends up as a federal
prosecutor in Arkansas, it's hard to avoid the notion that someone's
planning to revive the Whitewater scandal against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Apparently, a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act allows U.S.
attorneys to be replaced without Senate confirmation. A lack of
confirmation hearings no doubt caused some fine political minds to believe
they could put people more sympathetic to their plans in those jobs, as
long as they kept things quiet.

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