Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) gets the medal for the best line of questioning of the day so far, pressing Gonzales on the reason for John McKay’s firing.
Gonzales has previously pointed to McKay’s touting of an information sharing system (a system that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey praised effusively during his hearing last week) and his choice to speak to the press about his office’s lack of resources to explain McKay’s firing. But as Rep. Watt pointed out, McKay appeared on the firing list far before either of those things became issues.
When Watt pressed Gonzales on whether McKay had been removed because he’d failed to indict Democrats on voter fraud charges. Gonzales said no, but seemed to leave the door open for that possibility:
Yes, I agree that if in fact there was pressure put on McKay to investigate a case, which didn’t warrant an investigation [that would be improper]. But obviously there may be some circumstances where investigation may have been warranted. We’d have to look at the circumstances of the particular case.
He added that there had been “a great deal of concern with his efforts with respect to voter fraud,” that he had received letters “from a number of groups and outside parties.”
McKay has said that he didn’t pursue criminal charges in the probe arising from the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election because there was “no evidence.”