As we’ve suggested many times over recent weeks, the US Attorney Purge story is much bigger than the eight fired US Attorneys you’ve already heard about. Now we have another case where a US Attorney in a key swing state was likely forced out in 2006 to be 
replaced by a Gonzales Justice Department flunky under the US Patriot Act. It’s looked for some time now like Thomas Heffelfinger, former US Attorney in Minneapolis, was likely pushed aside to make room for the now notorious Rachel Paulose, the then 33 year old whose lavish US Attorney ‘coronation’ ceremony garnered so much attention earlier this year.
Paulose, you’ll also remember, recently made news when her entire senior staff voluntarily stepped down due to her alleged managerial incompetence and dictatorial style — a blow-out even a crisis intervention from Main Justice couldn’t contain.
She’s also garnered notice for being a pal of disgraced and defenestrated DOJ appointee Monica Goodling.
In any case, how’d Paulose get her job? To date, her predecessor Heffelfinger has been alternately coy and noncommittal about why he left, though he has recently denied being forced to resign. That however has not silenced speculation in Minneapolis that he was in fact forced out to make room for the rapidly-rising Paulose. And now we have new information from McClatchy that adds a lot of weight to those suspicions. Just around the time Heffelfinger decided to leave his name had turned up on an early version of the DOJ firing list.
Just to be clear, Heffelfinger stills says it’s just a coincidence. He told McClatchy today, “I had no indication whatsoever at any point during my service as U.S. attorney that anybody at Justice was less than fully satisfied with my work.”
As long as that’s what he’s saying, it’s probably more than enough for DOJ defenders to hang their hats on. But in this case I’m not much for coincidences. Let’s put him down as another case of a US Attorney the Gonzales clique wanted gone, who helpfully resigned in short order and was subsequently replaced by a GOP operator like Paulose.
