Schlozman, Graves to testify this week

The investigation into the firings of U. S. attorneys continues this week with former U. S. Attorney Todd Graves of Missouri and his successor, Bradley Schlozman scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill:

On Schlozman's watch, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit in November 2005 against the state of Missouri, where in some counties the number of registered voters exceeded the voting-age population. The government said the lists were rife with potential for fraud.

Todd Graves, then the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, reportedly had reservations about the suit, and refused to sign the complaint. Graves, who has said he was ordered to resign last year by department headquarters, is also scheduled to testify at Tuesday's congressional hearing.

In March 2006, Schlozman was given an interim appointment as the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, replacing Graves.

Less than a week before the November election, Schlozman obtained indictments of four members of the liberal activist group Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, for allegedly submitting fraudulent voter registrations. The Justice Department election manual says prosecutors should refrain generally from bringing cases just before elections, out of concern that the charges could affect voting.

ACORN itself had brought the case to the attention of authorities after discovering that some of its employees were making up names of registrants as part of a voter-registration drive.

Schlozman's office, apparently in a hurry to file the case, got one of the names on the indictments wrong.

"It seems to me that the only way that could have happened was if the subject of the investigation had not been interviewed. It seems to me they were in such a rush to indict these people that they didn't bother to interview them first," said Robert Kengle, another former Justice voting rights official.

Missouri Republicans seized on the charges in the final days of the campaign. Nevertheless, Missouri voters narrowly elected Democrat Claire McCaskill over Republican incumbent Jim Talent, a victory that sank GOP hopes of maintaining control of Congress.

In April, the suit was dismissed by a federal judge, who ruled that the government failed to produce any evidence of fraud or that any Missouri resident had been denied the right to vote because of the alleged registration deficiencies.