Conyers Tells Gonzales to Explain Ninth Fired US Attorney
    By Deniz Yeter
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Wednesday 16 May 2007

    House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan), along with committee members Zoe Lofgren (D-California) and Linda Sanchez (D-California), sent a letter yesterday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, which pressed him to explain the events surrounding the dismissal of Todd Graves, the ninth US Attorney to be fired.

    The letter called on Gonzales and the Justice Department to identify all former and current department officials involved in the matter, and to disclose the identities of any other US attorneys, if any, who were fired or forced to resign during Bush's second term.

    The committee's letter also stated that Gonzales and the Justice Department needed to promptly produce any and all pertinent documents related to the forced resignation of Todd Graves to be released in full, unredacted form.

    This request asks who placed Graves's name on any proposed termination lists, who consulted over the termination, who picked Bradley Schlozman to be his replacement, what other candidates were considered for the position, and who finalized the decisions on the subject.

    During last Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Gonzales refused to acknowledge that Graves appeared on any lists of proposed US attorneys to terminate.

    In fact, Graves does show up on a January 2006 list of US attorneys suggested for purging. Gonzales's former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson had emailed the list to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Sampson resigned in March 2007 amidst the attorney firings scandal.

    In her questioning at last Thursday's hearing, Representative Lofgren pointed out that "there are disturbing indications that the decision to fire Mr. Graves was related to his disagreement with a voter fraud lawsuit pushed by Mr. Schlozman, the very person eventually named by you to succeed Mr. Graves as an interim US attorney."

    "Notwithstanding your assertions, our review indicates that the district court decision dismissing that lawsuit focused on much more than the procedural defect of naming the wrong defendant."

    After refusing to endorse the voter fraud lawsuit, Graves was forced to resign from his position in March of 2006. Shortly thereafter, Schlozman was picked to replace Graves and represent Missouri's Western District Court, which includes Kansas City, Springfield and Jefferson City.

    Lofgren also noted during the hearing that Judge Nanette Laughery from Missouri's Western District Court "appears to have ruled directly on the merits of Missouri's own performance and whether or not the government had produced any evidence of voter fraud."

    Among the findings by that court were:

• US prosecutors hadn't substantiated allegations that the defendants violated the National Voter Registration Act.
  
  
• The present Missouri secretary of state had already voluntarily tried to monitor local election authorities after a 2005 survey surfaced, outlining potential problems.
  
  
• US prosecutors failed to show that any Missouri residents committed or were targets of voter fraud, suppression or disenfranchisement.