Rove fingered five of the US Attorneys slated for dismissal RAW STORY

Published: Monday May 14, 2007 Print This Email This The Washington Post continues to break news on the US Attorney firing scandal, which has largely vanished from the rest of the US media. According to the Post story, slotted on page A4, nearly half of the US attorneys slated for removal were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax in prosecuting voter fraud, "including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews." "Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state," writes the Post's Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein. "Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed." Excerpts: # It has been clear for months that the administration's eagerness to launch voter-fraud prosecutions played a role in some of the firings, but recent testimony, documents and interviews show the issue was more central than previously known. The new details include the names of additional prosecutors who were targeted and other districts that were of concern, as well as previously unknown information about the White House's role. The Justice Department demanded that one U.S. attorney, Todd P. Graves of Kansas City, resign in January 2006, several months after he refused to sign off on a Justice lawsuit involving the state's voter rolls, Graves said last week. U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic of Milwaukee also was targeted last fall after complaints from Rove that he was not doing enough about voter fraud. But he was spared because Justice officials feared that removing him might cause political problems on Capitol Hill, according to interviews of Justice aides conducted by congressional staff members. READ THE FULL STORY HERE.



