U.S. Attorney Investigation: Meet The New BossWho’s in charge of how the Justice Department handles the investigations into the U.S. attorney firings?
Alberto Gonzales, we know, is holed up rehearsing his version of the story. And the Justice Department wrote last week to assure Democrats that Gonzales and his deputy, Paul McNulty, had nothing to do with the investigations relating to the U.S. attorneys purge.
Following the rules of succession at the Justice Department, according to the letter from Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling, the guy in charge of all that is Solicitor General Paul Clement.
That means Clement was in charge of personnel decisions relating to Monica Goodling (in other words, it was his call to make her the first ever DoJ official to stay on the payroll after pleading the Fifth), he’s supervising the Department’s joint investigation into the firings by the Office of Professional Responsibility and Inspector General, and he’s in charge of which documents are doled over to Congress and which aren’t.
So who is Clement? Since 2005, as Solicitor General, he’s been the administration’s face before the Supreme Court. Legal Times profiled him earlier this year. Can you guess which Supreme Court justice he used to work for?
