Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Star article explores Bond's attempts to remove Graves

Today's Kansas City Star covers attempts by Sen. Kit Bond's aides to have U. S. Attorney Todd Graves removed due his role in the scandal surrounding the awarding of lucrative license fee offices by Governor Matt Blunt's administration.

The Star continues to promote the fiction that the government investigation found no wrongdoing. At the most, the investigation found that there was nothing on which any charges could be based; that does not translate to no wrongdoing. Many wrong things take place which are perfectly legal. Of course, in this case even that statement is questionable since U. S. Attorney Bud Cummins was replaced while he was conducting the investigation. (Of course, there will be a few who will continue to insist no undue pressure was placed on Cummins because he remained at his post for several months, but it seems obvious no one in positions of power favored the investigation into Blunt, and documents that have recently surface indicate Cummins was not trying to rock the boat during his final months:

Graves' unexpected resignation as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri is now under congressional scrutiny, along with the other U.S. attorney evictions. At the time he said his departure was voluntary so he could begin a private law practice.

McClatchy Newspapers has reported that Graves was one of at least 12 U.S. attorneys targeted by the Justice Department. The communication from Bond's office could help explain, at least in part, why Graves ended up on the removal list.

Other explanations include Graves’ alleged reluctance to pursue voter fraud cases and the possibility that Graves, like the other dispatched prosecutors, was not, in the words of one Justice official’s e-mail, a "loyal Bushie."

While he doesn't think the communication or the fee office scandal were directly responsible for Graves’ departure, Bond said he doesn't know why Graves was pushed out. "I really couldn’t speculate about any administration list," he said. "You would have to ask them about that."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nobody cares