Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday he relied on his resigning deputy more than any other aide to decide which U.S. attorneys should be fired last year.
His comments came a less than a day after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty announced he would resign at the end of the summer _ a decision that people familiar with the plans said was hastened by the controversy over the purge of eight prosecutors.
"You have to remember, at the end of the day, the recommendations reflected the views of the deputy attorney general. He signed off on the names," Gonzales told reporters at a National Press Club forum in Washington. "And he would know better than anyone else, anyone in this room, anyone _ again, the deputy attorney general would know best about the qualifications and the experiences of the United States attorneys community, and he signed off on the names."
McNulty, reached in San Antonio after Gonzales’ remarks, declined to comment.
McNulty has acknowledged approving the list of prosecutors who were ordered to leave last October, a few weeks before the firings were made official. But documents released by the Justice Department show he was not closely involved in picking all the U.S. attorneys who were put on the list _ a job mostly driven by two Gonzales staffers with little prosecutorial experience.
Gonzales ultimately signed off on the list in a process that Congress is investigating to see whether the firings were politically motivated.
Gonzales also called McNulty’s pending departure "a loss. … I’m really going to miss him." But his comments about McNulty’s role in the prosecutors’ purge seemed designed to distance himself from the deputy who announced his resignation just 18 hours earlier, following a year and a half on the job.
rɪAfter reading Comey’s testimony, I read about Alberto Gonzales jumping to blame the firing of the Attorneys on Paul McNulty [less than a day after McNulty resigned]. So I looked up the antonym [opposite] of integrity.
It’s amazing how well AG can remember who was involved in the firings, but not remember the details of the firings at all. Again, it’s a case of the “smart” playing dumb. Either they are lying (probably) or they are incompetent (this too) or they are both (BULL’S EYE!) It’s time for Rove, Gonzales, Bush and Cheney to go!
Smoochie,
It’s past time! But I agree with the list. When our daughter was small, her word for parents was “mommy-daddy.” While “Bush-Cheney-Rove-Gonzales” doesn’t so readily roll off of the tongue, it’s kind of my word for the scourge in Washington these days…
AG IS JUST PLAIN SOB…………………
The attorney general is a slick, sleazy weasel… So much for integrity and honor. Kick the dog when he’s down…