Elston to Targeted USAs: So SorryWhen it became apparent in March that the Justice Department would be forced to turn over all the documents relevant to the U.S. attorney firings, Michael Elston, chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, made a round of phone calls.
He wanted to apologize to the five U.S. attorneys whom he had listed on a November 1st email as “other possibilities” for firings (yesterday Elston’s lawyer claimed that Elston had never intended for any of those U.S.A.s to be fired). But it sounds like a lot of the calls went like this:
Colm F. Connolly, the chief federal prosecutor in Delaware, said Elston called “to inform me that there was an e-mail that was going to be turned over to Congress and, although it was not to be disclosed publicly, often times Congress would leak things and this could be public at some point.”Connolly said he “expressed disappointment” and asked how the e-mail was prepared. He said Elston told him “that there was this firing process in the works at the time, and he had been asked to find out whether there were any other U.S. attorneys about whom there had been concerns.”
Connolly said Elston told him that he collected names by “speaking to people” but that he “could not remember who he spoke with, and he said he could not remember what the concerns were as they related to me.”
In other words, ‘Sorry for almost getting you fired and sorry I can’t remember why I almost got you fired.’
Remember that Elston, as the chief of staff to the DAG, plays a key role in overseeing the U.S. attorneys. I’m guessing this won’t help that working relationship.