Given what we’ve seen and learned over the last several months, one might assume that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would go out of his way to avoid anything that even came close to politicizing U.S. Attorneys’ offices.
But Gonzales is apparently incapable of restraint. Knowing that there is literally nothing he could do to get fired, our embattled Attorney General is reportedly “tightening the leash” on federal prosecutors. (via TP)
Gonzales described what he delicately calls “a more vigorous and a little bit more formal process” for annually evaluating prosecutors. What that means, as he explained it, is hauling in every U.S. attorney for a meeting to hear, among other things, politicians’ beefs against the prosecutor.
If that should happen, expect the fair-mindedness and independence Americans still count on from their Justice Department to slip.
In testimony to Congress and comments at the National Press Club, Gonzales framed the meetings as a way of improving communications. But it also looks a lot like a way to remind recalcitrant U.S. attorneys what the home team expects.
And what might this “formal process” include? As of Friday, the Justice Department said it is considering one-on-one meetings between Gonzales and every U.S. attorney
As Gonzales describes it, these meetings will offer him an opportunity to let prosecutors know what they’re doing wrong, what lawmakers on the Hill are complaining about, what the DoJ’s expectations are of them, etc.
Except, as the Chicago Tribune’s Andrew Zajac explained, “[T]here’s already an evaluation process run by the Justice Department’s executive office for U.S. attorneys. But that only measures how well a prosecutor runs the office, not how loyal he or she is to the administration’s agenda.”
