Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House Judiciary Committee member who led questioning of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, released a statement today skewering the Bush White House for considering “partisan and political considerations” in firing US Attorneys.
He concludes that “a weak and pliant leadership” of the Justice Department “largely refused to stand up to the pressure.”
Schiff’s office says the committee’s findings will be forwarded, as expected, to prosecutor Nora Dannehy, who is investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in the firings.
Schiff’s full statement:
The growing body of evidence demonstrates that the White House brought improper partisan and political considerations to bear in the decision to fire United States Attorneys,” said Schiff. “The White House was assisted in politicizing the Justice Department by a weak and pliant leadership of that agency that largely refused to stand up to the pressure. In the most pernicious case of partisan interference, Republican political operatives in New Mexico — aided and abetted by Rove and Miers — succeeded in putting a strong U.S. Attorney on the chopping block because he failed to do their political bidding. Although Rove did his best to spin and Miers to forget, the testimony and documents make clear a dark period of unprecedented political intrusion into the work of the Justice Department.
