Two former U.S. attorneys said yesterday they believe the White House had them fired along with six other federal prosecutors, and that ongoing investigations into the dismissals could result in criminal charges against senior Justice Department officials, the Seattle Times reports. John McKay, the former U.S. attorney in Seattle, and David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, said they believe Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty lied under oath when they testified to Congress about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Gonzales is scheduled to testify today before the House Judiciary Committee. “I think there will be a criminal case that will come out of this,” McKay told the Times. “This is going to get worse, not better.”
The Washington Post reports that the former U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., Todd P. Graves, said he was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006, months before eight other federal prosecutors would be fired by the Bush administration. The disclosure means that that the administration began moving to replace U.S. attorneys five months earlier than was previously known. It also means that at least nine prosecutors were asked to resign last year, a deviation from repeated statements by Gonzales and other senior Justice officials.
Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003700907_mckayforum10m.html