Dems Ask Gonzales for Answers about Minnesota USAHouse Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a member of the committee, wrote Alberto Gonzales today to ask about U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Rachel Paulose, the Federalist Society member and former senior aide in the Justice Department who was installed there last year. Paulose attracted attention last month when four members of her senior staff voluntarily stepped down to protest her apparently dictatorial managerial approach.
One of the mysteries of the U.S. attorney scandal has been whether Paulose’s predecessor, Thomas Heffelfinger, who abruptly resigned in February of last year, left voluntarily. He says he did. If so, it’s a hell of a coincidence — just the month before, he’d appeared on a draft of Kyle Sampson’s list of U.S. attorneys to be fired.
Conyers and Ellison want answers on whether Heffelfinger was asked to leave and why Paulose was put in his place. They’ve also asked for any documents relevant to Heffelfinger’s removal, Paulose’s selection, or the turmoil there. You can read the letter here.
So it would appear that Gonzales can expect some questions about Paulose when he appears before the committee on Thursday.
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