TPMMuckraker

U.S. Attorney Fired Under Bush To Get Old Job Back

Zachary Roth July 31, 2009, 4:27 PM

What better way to demonstrate a change from the bad old days of the politicized Justice Department than to appoint as US attorney one of the people who was fired from that job as part of the Bushies’ purge?

The White House has announced that Daniel Bogden, who in late 2006 was fired by the Bush administration as U.S. attorney for the district of Nevada, has been re-nominated for that position.

“I’m extremely honored that President Obama has nominated me,” Bogden told TPMmuckraker in a brief phone interview. “I appreciate the opportunity and I’m looking forward to my return to public service. and I certainly appreciate Senate Majority Leader Reid’s recommending me for the position.”

Here’s what we reported last fall about what an internal DOJ investigation found on the circumstances of Bogden’s firing:

In the case of Daniel Bogden of Nevada, little was known about his removal, except that he had not been diligent in prosecution of obscenity cases. The report found the claim to be behind Bogden’s removal, but added some color to the removal. Interestingly, the report found that the complaints of Bodgen’s dalliance in obscenity prosecutions were made by Brent Ward, the head of the DOJ Obscenity Prosecution Task Force — who was friends with Attorney General Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson’s brother and had direct conversations with Sampson regularly.

When questioned by the DOJ, Sampson stated he “did not recall whether those complaints played a role in the decision to remove Bogden,” a response the report found “particularly suspect, given his role in the removal process.”