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In April, a group of anonymous Justice Department employees wrote to the House and Senate judiciary committees and accused Paul McNulty’s chief of staff Michael Elston, of leading an effort to eliminate applicants to the Justice Department who were Democrats.
And what did McNulty have to say when asked whether his right-hand man was working to politicize the hiring process at the Department.? He doesn’t know. Faint comfort.
The deputy attorney general that wasn’t.
That, at least, is the impression Paul McNulty gave today.
In March of last year, Alberto Gonzales signed a secret order to give Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson the ability to hire and fire junior political appointees (such as, say, McNulty’s own staffers) with only the attorney general’s say-so, and McNulty was intentionally kept out of the loop. The order effectively gave two young aides with close ties to the White House the ability to make hires without the knowledge of the department’s career leadership.
Today, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) asked McNulty when he first found out about this. When National Journal published a story on it in April, McNulty said.
And what did McNulty think about the fact that he was kept in the dark? It “definitely was a concern” to him when he discovered that, he said, somewhat blithely.
Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) also wanted to know about McNulty’s non-involvement.
McNulty had nothing to do with the firing process until October of last year (about 18 months after Sampson began) — so “you were left out of that process?”
“I’m not saying it was intentional or not, I just know I was,” McNulty said.
Delahunt pressed on, asking about Alberto Gonzales’ earlier remarks, shortly after McNulty announced that he was stepping down, that Gonzales had relied on McNulty’s judgment in making the firings. If McNulty was out of the loop, how could Gonzales say that?
Well, McNulty had an easy answer for that, pointing out that on another occasion, Gonzales had said that one of his regrets was that McNulty had not been more directly involved in the process.
It’s a dynamite alibi — and an increasingly popular one, too — the guy in charge who didn’t know what was going on around him.
Mike Bloomberg, last year: “What chance does a five-foot-seven billionaire Jew who’s divorced really have of becoming president?”
From a Reuters article on how a Bloomberg candidacy might face “anti-New York bias.”
Oh, you mean the very highest levels?
During today’s hearing, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) finally asked a question we’ve been waiting to have asked for quite awhile here at TPM. The response was telling.
In early January, Paul McNulty’s chief of staff Michael Elston put the screws to Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney for San Diego, when she asked for more time in office in order to deal with several important prosecutions in her office. Chief among those cases, of course, was the ongoing Duke Cunningham investigation.
But Elston told Lam that she should forget about her cases, that she had to resign within “weeks, not months,” and that these orders were “coming from the very highest levels of the government.”
What did Elston mean by that? Sanchez wanted to know.
âHe was referring to his interactions with the attorney generalâs office in particular,” McNulty replied. Huh. Given that Elston’s regular contact in the attorney general’s office was Gonzales’ chief of staff Kyle Sampson, does that mean Sampson was the “very highest levels?” It’s certainly seemed like that at times.
When Sanchez asked if McNulty was sure about that, he waffled: “I’m not sure specifically who Mike was referring to there.”
Rahm Emanuel to Cheney: If Veep’s office is not an entity in the exec branch, then please move out of the White House.
Whistleblower alleges accounting irregularities at Halliburton.
Administration to close Gitmo and send prisoners to mini-gitmos. From the AP …
The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.
President Bush’s national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House on Friday and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said Thursday.
Need some attention? Just dust off the ol’ Pelosi-to-Syria flap.
GOP Congressman Steve King introduces legislation to restrict Pelosi’s travel to enemy countries.