As one of the nine U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration in 2006, I have been carefully monitoring the train wreck that followed.
I am not happy to see the enormous damage that has been done to the Department of Justice, a once-venerated institution. But I am pleased that the internal investigations, including the report released Monday by the department, have fully vindicated what my colleagues and I have been saying for the last two years: Improper politicization has crippled the department, and the Bush administration’s culture of partisanship-loyalty above all has done a terrible disservice to this country.
Little did I know in December 2006 when I was asked for my resignation that almost two years would pass until I would find out the extent of the improper politicization. Now, it can no longer be said that there are mere “allegations” of improper politicization but rather, official findings of fact. Justice was compromised. Not only were my colleagues and I not insulated from politics — as we should have been in our jobs as prosecutors — but we were fired for the most partisan of reasons.
