Gonzales: Graves' resignation was not linked to firings of eight other U. S. attorneys

Describing it as a "resignation," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee today that the departure of former U. S. Attorney Todd Graves of Missouri had nothing to do with the firing of eight other prosecutors:

Gonzales previously testified before Congress that just eight U.S. attorneys were fired and repeated the assertion under questioning during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Graves, who served as U.S. attorney for Kansas City, Mo., was asked to resign in January, 2006, the Washington Post reported Thursday. He said he refused to sign onto a Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit against the state of Missouri aimed at ridding its voter rolls of potentially invalid names. The department lost the case, but Democrats have asked whether
Graves’s refusal to support the lawsuit had anything to do with his stepping down, especially considering that Graves’s replacement, Bradley Schlozman, had promoted the suit while at DoJ's Civil Rights division.

At the hearing, Gonzales said he had spoken to the head of the Civil Rights Division, who said no one at DoJ was aware of any complaints from Graves on the voter-fraud issue.