Legal Commentary

Rove, Miers Transcripts, E-Mails Released in U.S. Attorney Firing Probe

By Jeralyn

Via the Washington Post, the House Judiciary Committee has released transcripts of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers' testimony and emails in its investigation into the firing of U.S. Attorneys.

You can access them here. Rep. John Conyers concludes: [More...]

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) today released over 700 pages of on-the-record interview transcripts of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers on the U.S. attorney firings and the Bush administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice. Conyers also released over 5,400 pages of Bush White House and Republican National Committee e-mails on these subjects.

The released materials reveal that White House officials were deeply involved in the U.S. attorney firings and the administration made a concerted effort to hide that fact from the American people. "After all the delay and despite all the obfuscation, lies, and spin," Conyers said, "this basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons. Under the Bush regime, honest and well-performing U.S. attorneys were fired for petty patronage, political horsetrading and, in the most egregious case of political abuse of the U.S. attorney corps – that of U.S. Attorney Iglesias – because he refused to use his office to help Republicans win elections. When Mr. Iglesias said his firing was a ‘political fragging,’ he was right."

I haven't read them yet, and I'm off to court for the afternoon, so I'll weigh in later.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 11, 2009 (boomark / email).