In his testimony today, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Todd Graves reiterated what he has maintained for the last few weeks in the press: he was pushed out to make room for someone else, not for performance reasons.
That someone, of course, was Bradley Schlozman who testified first today. Schlozman asserted that he knew nothing about Graves’ dismissal and never discussed it with anyone.
Graves also recounted how he refused to sign a letter outlining a civil case against the state of Missouri for failing to purge its voter rolls.
One of the most interesting parts of Graves’ testimony was his response to former Justice Department White House liaison, Monica Goodling’s testimony from two weeks ago. Goodling implied in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that Graves was under investigation by the Office of the Inspector General and that factored into his dismissal. Graves told the Kansas City Star that, in fact, he brought the case himself to squelch a complaint from a fired employee. Here is video of Graves explaining this to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI):
