The simmering controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys has raised troubling questions about just how politicized the Justice Department has become. The subject will be explored in a Senate hearing next week with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Episodes in Wisconsin and Minnesota have raised eyebrows.
In recent days, a panel of federal appeals judges threw out what appears like a politically motivated prosecution of a Wisconsin state employee working under a Democratic administration. Though Georgia Thompson was a civil servant originally hired during a Republican administration, her conviction last June repeatedly was cited in attack ads by Republicans looking to oust Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
Thompson, a state purchasing agent, was accused of steering a $750,000 contract to a travel firm employing two Doyle donors. There was no evidence that she knew of their donations, or that she gained anything from the transaction. In fact, the company was the lowest bidder.
A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago did an extraordinary thing when it heard her case. The court acquitted her on the spot and ordered her freed immediately. One judge called the evidence “beyond thin.”
U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, a Bush appointee, has yet to explain why he brought the case to trial, though others in his office have defended the prosecution. His actions have prompted critics to ask if that’s what a U.S. attorney will do to stake out ground as a “loyal Bushie.”
In Minnesota, three top lawyers in the U.S. attorney’s office resigned their leadership posts last week and returned to staff positions. The action was said to be a protest of the abrasive and ideologically driven style of their new boss, U.S. Attorney Rachel K. Paulose. Paulose was appointed to her post after serving briefly as special counsel to Paul McNulty, deputy U.S. attorney general.
The situations in Wisconsin and Minnesota raise to mind the political importance of those states. Last year, White House political adviser Karl Rove told a group of Republican lawyers that 11 states would be critical in the 2008 presidential race. The list included both Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Attorney General Gonzales is to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the U.S. attorney dismissals. He has fended off calls for his resignation and, while he has enjoyed support from President Bush, his job may hang in the balance. A complete and candid explanation of the U.S. attorney situation is long overdue.
