Justice Department memos show performance issues were being detailed after the fact in order to justify the terminations.
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 21 2007
Senior Justice Department officials began drafting memos this month listing specific reasons why they had fired eight U.S. attorneys, intending to cite performance problems such as insubordination, leadership failures and other missteps if needed to convince angry congressional Democrats that the terminations were justified.
The memos, organized as charts with entries for each of the federal prosecutors and labeled “for internal DOJ use only,” offer new details about disputes over policy, priorities and management styles between the department and several of its U.S. attorneys.
The prosecutors’ shortcomings also were listed in a talking-points memo, indicating the willingness of the Justice Department to make public what are normally confidential personnel matters in order to counter its critics.
Justice Department officials hoped that documenting specific reasons for terminating the prosecutors would satisfy demands for more information after Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, described the dismissals as vaguely “performance-related.”
(More)