The Bush Administration used a little-known clause in the Patriot Act, which allows the attorney general to appoint U. S. attorneys without Senate approval to remove Cummins to make way for Karl Rove confederate Tim Griffin:
E-mails show that Justice officials discussed bypassing the two Democratic senators in Arkansas, who normally would have had input into the appointment, as early as last August. By mid-December, Sampson was suggesting that Gonzales exercise his newfound appointment authority to put Griffin in place until the end of Bush's term. "[I]f we don't ever exercise it then what's the point of having it?" Sampson wrote to a White House aide.
Relying on e-mails that have been turned over, The Post also reports that former Bush advisor and one-time U. S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers at one time suggested the removal of all U. S. attorneys. The scandal has led to Monday's resignation of a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Kyle Sampson, who did not tell Justice Department officials how much the White House was actually involved in the firing of the prosecutors.
Leading Democratic officials have called for the resignation of Gonzales, since most of the fired prosecutors were involved in the investigation of alleged Republican wrongdoing, including Cummins who was investigating the awarding of lucrative license fee offices in Missouri.
What is evident is that the scandal is already reaching into the White House:
Lawmakers requested the documents as part of an investigation into whether the firings were politically motivated. While it is unclear whether the documents, which were reviewed yesterday by The Washington Post, will answer Congress's questions, they show that the White House and other administration officials were more closely involved in the dismissals, and at a much earlier date, than they have previously acknowledged.
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