Testimony: Bush administration threatened prosecutors with additional retaliation if they talked

Eight fired U. S. attorneys, including Bud Cummins of Arkansas, were threatened with retaliation if they went public after their firing last year, according to testimony given Tuesday on Capitol Hill:

Yesterday's testimony featured new allegations of threatened overt retaliation against the prosecutors, as former U.S. attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock said a senior Justice Department official warned him on Feb. 20 that the fired prosecutors should remain quiet about their dismissals. Cummins recounted in an e-mail made public yesterday that the official cautioned that administration officials would "pull their gloves off and offer public criticisms to defend their actions more fully."

This would seem to be a direct contradiction of earlier claims that the firings had nothing to do with performance. Several of the prosecutors were involved or had been involved in investigations of Republican officials, including Cummins, who was in the middle of an investigation of the awarding of lucrative license fee offices by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt's administration.