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Whitehouse Presses Gonzales on What's "Improper"
Alberto Gonzales, following the lead of Kyle Sampson, has drawn a well defined line at what would be an "improper" reason to fire a U.S. attorney: the motive of affecting a particular criminal case.
As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) pointed out, that's a "very low bar." What Gonzales is describing is what would constitute possible criminal obstruction of justice. Gonzales admitted as much, saying that in considering what would be improper, he'd thought, "what is the legal standard?"
Pressing on, Whitehouse tried to get Gonzales to understand that it would also be improper to fire a U.S. attorney for a generally political reason -- that attempting to discourage U.S. attorneys who might follow in Carol Lam's path, for instance, would be improper. Gonzales didn't seem to grasp the idea.
Comments (147)
Node of Evil wrote on April 19, 2007 3:25 PM:Ooh, good question by Leahy. Fitzgerald apparently received all of Rove's emails during the Plame investigation, Leahy wants the AG to turn those over to the committee if they relate to the firing of USAs. Gonzales is dodging right and left.
Node of Evil wrote on April 19, 2007 3:26 PM:...Adding, apparently Fitzgerald got all of the emails from his gwb43 account.
profmarcus wrote on April 19, 2007 3:26 PM:uh-oh... leahy's moved to the subject of the emails on rnc servers and gonzo's flailing all over the place while claiming that they're privileged white house communication... imho, gonzales is dead meat...
http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/
uncle vester wrote on April 19, 2007 3:27 PM:Sen Leahy: Do you suffer from long-term memory loss?
AG: I don't remember.
Node of Evil wrote on April 19, 2007 3:30 PM:Dodge, dodge, dodge... AG Gonzales should be their spokesperson.
bobh wrote on April 19, 2007 3:36 PM:omfg please spectre - stay on target you old fuck
its like watching cnn all abt the shootings
DF wrote on April 19, 2007 3:37 PM:What is Specter doing? The VT Mass has nothing to do with this!!! He can't even pronounce Amish correctly. I have to admit he is no better than the rest.
Superba wrote on April 19, 2007 3:39 PM:"leahy's moved to the subject of the emails on rnc servers and gonzo's flailing all over the place while claiming that they're privileged white house communication..."
They are privileged White House communications even though they were sent from off-site RNC servers?
Very happy Leahy is pressing Gonzales on these emails. Therein lies the evidence.
eric wrote on April 19, 2007 3:42 PM:What exactly was Gonzales trying to do today? He is in so much trouble and doesn't seem to have any real strategy to explain this situation. With all of the preparation and rehearsing, I was expecting something more than this floundering. He has done even more damage to the administration. I would have expected that he would have resigned if this is all he has.
bobh wrote on April 19, 2007 3:44 PM:This is Michael Brown all over again.
Sampson said it wasnt hi m that made the list and now AGAG says it wasnt him.
Bye Gonzales.
jt wrote on April 19, 2007 3:45 PM:eric-
I agree. This kind of floundering is pretty painful for me to watch.
I love to watch Sen Feinstein question. She is very slow, deliberate and basic in her questions
regular lurker wrote on April 19, 2007 3:46 PM:rnc emails....emptywheel over at FDL wants someone to ask Gonzales:
Did Karl Rove turn over the emails relating to Plame in the initial disclosure? You reviewed EVERY one of the files from WH. Did Rove include the RNC emails?
LnGrrrR wrote on April 19, 2007 3:47 PM:Eric,
I think he's trying to make himself look SO idiotic that everyone will be relieved to have him gone.
A magicians' trick to focus your attention towards him, if you will, while using misdirection to distract people from asking the important questions.
Legalize wrote on April 19, 2007 3:51 PM:This is very confusing. Seriously, if this is the best performance Abu Gonzales had in him, he should have just thrown himself under the buss.
DF wrote on April 19, 2007 3:53 PM:Feinstine Rocks!
eric wrote on April 19, 2007 3:55 PM:"I love to watch Sen Feinstein question. She is very slow, deliberate and basic in her questions
Posted by: jt"
I agree.
She didn't really get a good answer to the question about *who* actually put these USAs on the list. Who was it? We still don't know. It's crazy.
boonelsj wrote on April 19, 2007 3:56 PM:I'm enjoying Hatch's desperation in trying to come up with defensive comments. Good times.
Node of Evil wrote on April 19, 2007 3:57 PM:Ah, there's Hatch. I always feel a twinge (I was born and raised in Utah) when I hear him. I hope my home state wises up and votes him out of office.
do-ci-do wrote on April 19, 2007 3:58 PM:Abu, we don't want to go out with you any more!
Seriously, thanks to all of you who blog this tirelessly and keep the focus on the right issues even if the MSM doesn't. Do journalists need to take history? Did they miss the free press/propaganda antonym question on the SAT?
I'm also enjoying the ads for high pressure and hemmorhoid medicine along with criminal defense attys mixed in with the AG posts. So appropriate!
Code word: "good" as in "good riddance".
Steve Hendricks wrote on April 19, 2007 3:59 PM:The equation of improper and felonious behavior is all this administration has left as a defense. Incompetence has long since been acceptable behavior. A failure to distinguish between purely political and official behavior is assumed to be SOP. Lying under oath is similarly acceptable as long as it doesn't result in an indictment. (Whether indictment without conviction would be acceptable is unclear since everyone has been convicted.) So what is left? As long as one is not a convicted felon, one's behavior is by definition "proper."
Paul Rosenberg wrote on April 19, 2007 3:59 PM:I had been waiting for Whitehouse's question for some time. He did such a good job with it, I can only conclude that the other Dems must have known what he had in store.
However, as for who wonder, ala Eric:
What exactly was Gonzales trying to do today?
The answer is simple: It's just like the tobacco companies and cancer, or the oil companies and global warming:
Job one is create doubt. And if you can't do that, then at least create confusion.
Abu, of course, is confusion incarnate.
Mission accomplished!
Ponds wrote on April 19, 2007 3:59 PM:Orrin Hack - what an embarrassment to Utah.
RR wrote on April 19, 2007 4:01 PM:I guess Gonzo doesn't care about the appearance of impropriety that undermines public confidence in the Justice Department. I guess he learned that from Bush.
Too bad they're breaking new ground on how to chop Justice into chop suey... It doesn't bode well for our future.
Security code: Keep, as in "keep on lying, Gonzo, and we'll catch you at perjury and obstruction of justice."
Paul Rosenberg wrote on April 19, 2007 4:01 PM:Orrin Hack - proof that Utah is BEYOND embarrassment.
Anna S. wrote on April 19, 2007 4:04 PM:What baffles me here is that Gonzalez is woefully underprepped for most of these questions. He takes unnecessary hits that a few hours of talking point drills would have avoided. He concedes where concession isn't necessary, and stands firm where he ought to be conceding. Granted, these are high-pressure hearings, some mistakes are forgivable. But not on this scale. The ONLY areas he's obviously been prepped on are those like the Feinstein question of who actually put the USAs on the list. On THOSE questions, he dodges like a pro. Why didn't they prep him on anything else?
eric wrote on April 19, 2007 4:09 PM:Anna S.:
I asked a similar question, above. Part of it is that there simply is no good way to answer some of these questions. But your point about not conceding when he should also makes me wonder. It is as if he *does* think that some good can come out of this. Its bizarre.
Marky wrote on April 19, 2007 4:13 PM:Has anyone asked what if any action the DOJ took to ensure continuity of cases when Lam et. al. were fired? It seems it would be normal to make sure the discontinuity would be as small as possible.
seedyrum wrote on April 19, 2007 4:14 PM:Anna, Gonzales is incompetent. Whomever prepared him is incompetent. The new folks added to the DOJ are incompetent as long as they were Bushies they qualified. However, that shouldnt be surprising, the Bush Administration is incompetent as the President who is looking for a war czar codename a fall guy for Bush's war.
Anthony wrote on April 19, 2007 4:15 PM:Gonzales says that changing the USAs doesn't effect existing prosecutions. I'd love to know if that were true. Are decisions made by an Asst USA based on his own discretion or is the USA involved in deciding which cases should go forward? And who handles the purse strings?
eric wrote on April 19, 2007 4:21 PM:I can't believe that Gonzales isn't toast after this hearing. The question then is why did they even allow him to testify when this is the best he can do? He could have resigned before the hearing and it might have killed the momentum for this story. As it is now, there is even more fuel for this scandal.
lawling law wrote on April 19, 2007 4:21 PM:COME ON! We know that changing USAs changes existing prosecutions! Just watch the season of Law and Order where Fred Thompson joined the cast, lol.
Strangely Enough wrote on April 19, 2007 4:30 PM:I'm sorry, but is there really anyone surprised at Specter anymore? His MO is as old as he is: get all cranky and pissy about something, and fold like a cheap suit.
code: door, as in show him the...
Nuncamas21 wrote on April 19, 2007 4:33 PM:i think i heard him directly contradict himself within about ten minutes.
he first said that he didn't like the spectre bypass usa replacement provision. then a little later i think he said he did. did anyone else hear that.
Bush LIPS sink ships. wrote on April 19, 2007 5:11 PM:Gonzales serves at the pleasure of Bush.
Enough said.
SC: again; born again.
The Oracle wrote on April 19, 2007 6:43 PM:And here all this time I thought that Gonzales was just playing dumb, but now I realize that he isn't playing, he's just plain dumb.
Oh, and security codeword: Screw...as in all Americans are screwed as long as Alberto Gonzales, or any other Bush loyalist, is attorney general.
The nightmare of the "culture of corruption and evil" Bush/Cheney/Gonzales/Rove administration cannot end too soon.
enough wrote on April 19, 2007 7:46 PM:Does anyone know where to get the charts that were used during the hearings?
conniptionfit wrote on April 20, 2007 1:06 AM:Dahlia Lithwick over at Slate has the Whitehouse charts
Anonymous wrote on April 20, 2007 2:18 PM:Thanks Oracle, Unfortunately, I can't read the chart at Slate. The print is too small. Froomkin also has it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html but I can't read that either.
Anonymous wrote on April 20, 2007 2:23 PM:Thanks Oracle, Unfortunately, I can't read the chart at Slate. The print is too small. Froomkin also has it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html but I can't read that either.
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