Paul Kiel March 19, 2007, 7:21 PM

U.S. News gives a taste of what’s to come:

…one day after Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified on Capitol Hill about the reasons why eight U.S. attorneys were fired summarily, a Justice Department spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse — on travel abroad with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales — sent an E-mail to McNulty* saying Gonzales was unhappy with McNulty’s testimony regarding why U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Arkansas had been let go.

That email, U.S News reports, is “causing the most concern” at the Justice Department as they ready to turn over thousands more.

Now, why would Gonzales have been upset at McNulty? McNulty had testified about Cummins that “there was a change made there that was not connected to, as was said, the performance of the incumbent, but more related to the opportunity to provide a fresh start with a new person in that position.”

So, in other words, McNulty publicly admitted that Cummins was pushed out for no other reason than to give Karl Rove’s deputy a shot (which was, by the way, the truth). And that made Gonzales upset. And it looks like there might be more in that email.

Update: An update to the post adds some detail: “In the E-mail to McNulty, Roehrkasse said the attorney general disagreed with his characterization of Cummins’s firing, because Gonzales believed that it was at least in part performance related.” Right, “in part” performance related, just like all the other firings? Too bad they couldn’t keep their stories straight.

*Late Update: The Justice Department has responded to the story with a statement to U.S. News:

The attorney general was “upset,” Roehrkasse said, because he believed that “Bud Cummins’ removal involved performance considerations and it was that aspect of the DAG’s testimony that the Attorney General was questing.”

And apparently the email is not sent from Gonzales’ spokesman to McNulty, but rather to Kyle Sampson and another DoJ spokesperson.

Note: A Justice Department official also laments to U.S. News amidst the chaos of collecting hundreds and hundreds of documents: “You have no idea … how bad it is here.” I think that’s another way of saying that you shouldn’t hold your breath for the timely delivery of those documents tonight.

Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorneys