AMERICAN FREEDOM AGENDA

910 SEVENTEENTH ST., NW SUITE 800
WASHINGTON, DC 20006
TELEPHONE: 202-775-1776, FACSIMILE: 202-478-1664
WWW.AMERICANFREEDOMAGENDA.ORG

The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
433 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Arlen Specter
Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

April 18, 2007

Dear Senators Leahy and Specter;

As you prepare for tomorrows hearing with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, I urge you to consider threefold falsehoods or misleading statements in Mr. Gonzales’ written statement. The Attorney General spent long and meticulous hours writing and reviewing his statement, and thus chose his words carefully.

On page 5 of his statement, Mr. Gonzales asserts, “I misspoke at a press conference on March 13 when I stated that I ‘was not involved in any discussions about what was going on.” Indeed, Mr. Gonzales was repeatedly involved in discussions, as he now admits. His chief of staff periodically updated him on the review of U.S. Attorneys, including the possibility of an Assistant Attorney General filling a U.S. Attorney vacancy if one opened. Moreover, President George W. Bush spoke to Mr. Gonzales about jurisdictions which the President believed were insufficiently eager to purse voting fraud prosecutions. But instead of characterizing his March 13 statement as a falsehood, the Attorney General resorts to Clintonesque language reminiscent of quarreling with the meaning of the word “is.” He maintains that his March 13 statement was “too broad,” akin to a convicted thief characterizing his assertion of innocence as “too broad.”

In a USA Today column on April 13, 2007, the Attorney General maintained that all the firings of U.S. Attorneys were “performance related.” But on page 6 of his written submission to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Gonzales praises the discharged U.S Attorneys and eschews any insinuation of deficient performance: “[E]very U.S. Attorney who was asked to resign…served honorably, and they and their families made sacrifices in the name of public service. The Justice Department owes them more respect than they were shown.” Further, if the discharges were “performance related,” why did the Attorney General discuss them with the White House, which had no performance related knowledge? The Attorney General’s statements seems like restricted railroad tickets, good for this day and train only.

On page 6, the Attorney General states: “We must ensure that all the facts surrounding the situation are brought to full light.” But the Justice Department and White House are resisting transcribed testimony under oath by Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, and documents sought by Congress to obtain the facts. And there is not a crumb of evidence that the Attorney General has implored President Bush to waive any putative constitutional privileges to dispel the cloud of suspicion over the firing of the U.S. Attorneys in the same manner as President Reagan in the Iran-contra congressional investigation.

Finally, the Attorney General’s chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he resigned because the shifting explanations for the U.S. Attorney firings had created the appearance of improper motivations. The Attorney General’s subordinate recognized that the Department of Justice, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicions to command public confidence in the rule of law. As the Supreme Court has lectured, justice requires the appearance of justice. The Attorney General seems blind to that basic constitutional precept. He seems to think that as long as his heart has been pure, the fact that he has created the impression in Congress and the public that the U.S. Attorneys were removed to promote specific criminal investigations or prosecutions favorable to the Republican Party and Republican candidates is irrelevant to his fitness for continued service.

If Mr. Gonzales’ ethical obtuseness is not disqualifying as Attorney General, then Web Hubbell would be suitable to serve in a President Hillary Clinton administration.

Sincerely,

Bruce Fein
Chairman
American Freedom Agenda