Still more on the staff shake-up in the Minneapolis 
US Attorney’s office, where 34-year old Federalist Society member and former Gonzales aide Rachel Paulose was just sworn in last month. Below we noted that the simultaneous resignations of all four top officials in the office came just after what the Star-Tribune called a “visit to the office by a representative from the Executive Office of the U.S. Attorney in Washington.”
That reference to a visit from an official from Main Justice was a cryptic hint. And it seemed pretty clear there was more of a story there.
Now the local CBS affiliate seems to have the scoop. Apparently, the Gonzales Justice Department, already embroiled in a rapidly escalating scandal, was so worried about another shoe dropping (okay, more bad publicity) that they sent an emissary to the local office to beg the four to stay put.
Here’s the CBS affiliate’s more delicate phrasing …
The Bush Administration did not want to see this happen and in an eleventh hour attempt to prevent it, sent a top justice official to Minneapolis Thursday to mediate the situation. The mediation failed.
As I said in the previous post, there was already a lot of smoke about the Paulose appointment. The circumstances of her predecessor’s departure remain ambiguous. And is there any question now that the eight firings we know about now is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s going on in the Bush-Gonzales DOJ?
