By Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy angrily threatened Tuesday to issue subpoenas “if the White House continues to stonewall” his panel’s investigation into fired U.S. attorneys, and he said he was “deeply troubled” by what he called White House efforts to “manipulate the (Justice) Department into its own political arm.”
Leahy, D-Vt., charged that “every week seems to bring new revelations about the erosion of independence at the Justice Department. This administration was willing, in the U.S. attorney firings and in the vetting of career hires for political allegiance, to sacrifice the independence of law enforcement and the rule of law for loyalty to the White House.”
In two tense hours of sworn testimony, former Acting Assistant Attorney General Bradley Schlozman faced harsh questioning from Leahy and other committee Democrats over his hiring practices, his handling of a complaint of voter discrimination against Native Americans and his decision as U.S. attorney in Kansas City to seek voter fraud-related indictments days before the 2006 congressional election.