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

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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."

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14 comments

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July 31, 2009 5:31 PM   

Could Senator Ensign's little fling with his assistant's wife be considered "obscenity"?
This could be Bogden's chance for revenge!
Prosecute Ensign for "immoral behavior" just to prove that he could, in fact, be diligent regarding obscenity matters.
After all, Ensign is a bible-thumping Promise Keeper who very conveniently forgets some of the Ten Commandments!

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August 1, 2009 1:45 PM    in reply to Alguien

Ensign was in fact critical of the Bush administration for firing Bogden as U.S. Attorney, and will be a help in getting Bogden approved by the Senate for reinstatement.

I don't like Ensign, but he did actually fight for Bogden's reputation.

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July 31, 2009 5:32 PM   

Nice thumb in Rove's eye. But, I still would like to see Obama appoint Dems and quit reaching out to the other side so much.

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July 31, 2009 5:50 PM   

NPR reported this week that Obama has appointed ZERO judges and USatty's. So how come his first USatty appointment is a Bushie? Even if not a completely "Loyal Bushie", still, what gives?

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July 31, 2009 10:31 PM    in reply to threesmommy

Maybe it's because he's a good prosecutor. Not a good Republican prosecutor or a good Democratic prosecutor. Just a good prosecutor.

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July 31, 2009 5:51 PM   

It would be nice to David Iglesias back in his old position. I believe he came fully over from the dark side.

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July 31, 2009 6:03 PM   

He didn't diligently prosecute obscenity cases in Nevada? Seriously? Jesus, why not just say he didn't crack down on gambling there too? Without obscenity and gambling Nevada would be as popular as Iraq as a tourist destination.

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July 31, 2009 6:17 PM   

Dan Bogden's one of the good guys; it's wonderful to have him re-appointed as USA.

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July 31, 2009 8:55 PM   

"Department of Justice Obscenity Prosecution Task Force"... my god, all the crap going on in this country and we're staffing an office with people concerned about folks watching porn?

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July 31, 2009 11:20 PM   

It would be nice to have David Iglesias back as Attorney General. Competent good guys from both parties should be given all the advancement they handle.

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July 31, 2009 11:38 PM   

Government officials should have to take a memory test before being appointed, with occasional retests to ensure their mental fitness for the job -- and also to eliminate (or at least seriously undercut) the "I don't recall" defense.

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August 1, 2009 2:28 PM   

The Justice Department Inspector General's report makes it clear that Bogden was fired on the recommendation of Brent Ward, himself a former US Attorney from Utah and now head of the Justice Department's Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, because Bodgen, according to Ward, refused to prosecute "the good cases we gave him." In fact, Ward's "good cases" were crap -- not surprising since Ward is an anti-porn zealot -- and Bogden knew it. In other words, Bogden was fired for doing his job properly-- also not too surprising.

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August 1, 2009 3:33 PM   

What better way?

How about dumping the dregs from the former administration, starting with Leura Canary?

Nice gesture to re-hire one of the fired ones, but I'd be a lot more impressed if they took a fire hose and a skid of disinfectant to Alabama.

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August 2, 2009 1:51 AM   

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?

I can think of one.

Drop the Don Siegelman prosecution and investigate (and prosecute) the prosecutors who trumped up the charges against him. And investigate the election "irregularities" that mysteriously flipped the election against him in the dead of night.

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