Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy/External links: March 2007 - Part 2

This article is part of the SourceWatch / Congresspedia coverage of the Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy

Main article:

Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy

Related articles:

Bush administration misuse of government agencies controversy Office of Special Counsel Bush administration phony 'voter fraud' vote caging

Sub-articles:

Firings and activities of fired U.S. attorneys E-mail controversy E-mail controversy/External Links gwb43.com External articles (Go to for breakdown of dates.) Office of Counsel (White House Counsel) Alberto Gonzales Monica Goodling Tim Griffin

The following are articles and commentary for March 2007 related to the Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy. Due to the extensive coverage by the media, this article has been subdivided into two sections. This section is Part 2 and covers March 16 through March 31, 2007.

More links are available via the task bar.

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March 16, 2007

• Dan Eggen and Paul Kane, "Justice Dept. Would Have Kept 'Loyal' Prosecutors. Aide Recommended Retaining 'Bushies' And Top Performers," Washington Post, March 16, 2007.
• Dan Eggen, "White House Backs Off on Miers Scenario," Washington Post, March 16, 2007.
• Tabassum Zakaria, "W. House: Undecided on Rove testimony on attorneys," Reuters (ABC News), March 16, 2007.
• Mark Silva, "Rove, Gonzales implicated in plan to fire U.S. attorneys," KRT Wire/Chicago Tribune (KansasCity.com), March 16, 2007.
• Ann Woolner, "Bush Cynicism on Law Shows Up in Firings: Ann Woolner (Update1)," Bloomberg News, March 16, 2007.
• Nico Pitney, "Bush 'Pugnacious,' 'In Deep Denial,' As White House Allies Press For Gonzales Resignation," Think Progress, March 16, 2007.
• "Prosecutor purge dogs White House," Agence France Presse (The Raw Story), March 16, 2007.
• "CBS Says Gonzales Will Exit Soon -- As McClatchy Reports His Apology to Attorneys," Editor & Publisher, March 16, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 16, 2007:

• "Today's Must Read"
• "Behold! TPM's U.S. Attorney Scandal Timeline"
• "LAT: Ousted U.S.A. Wonders Whether GOPer Probe Led to Firing"
• "Senate Committee Requests Testimony of Rove Aide"
• "Snow: 'It's Performance'"
• "Cummins: GOPer Probe Didn't Lead to Firing"
• "Snow: Loyalty to Bush Means 'To Do Our Jobs'"
• "Ousted USA: DoJ Smeared USAs with 'Fabricated Assertions'"
• "White House to Dems: No Documents for You This Week"

March 17, 2007

• Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "With Shifting Explanations, White House Adds to Storm," New York Times, March 17, 2007.
• Mike Carter, "U.S. attorney candidate can't practice law," The Seattle Times, March 17, 2007.
• Libby Spencer, "Arizona US Attorney fired for failed porn case?" The Impolitic Blogspot, March 17, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 17, 2007:

• "Sampson: I Failed to Organize 'Political Response'"
• "NPR: Gonzales Wanted Fallback Gig for Sampson"
• "Gonzales Apologizes to USAs"

March 18, 2007

• SilentPatriot, "Sen. Schumer: 'We do have evidence' Gonzales lied under oath," Crooks and Liars, March 18, 2007.
• Michael Isikoff, Richard Wolffe And Evan Thomas, "Disorder in King George's Court," Newsweek (MSNBC), March 18, 2007 (online); March 26, 2007 (issue).
• Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor, "U.S. attorney's firing may be connected to CIA corruption probe," McClatchy Newspapers, March 18, 2007.
• Doyle McManus, "Gonzales' plight puts Bush at risk. Aides focus on keeping the controversy at Justice from spreading," Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2007.
• "Transcript: Massachusetts Senator John Kerry on 'FOX News Sunday'," Fox News, March 18, 2007. re John Kerry
• Amanda Terkel, "Iglesias: My Firing Was A 'Political Hit'," Think Progress, March 18, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 18, 2007:

• "DoJ Officials Point to Sampson, Sampson Points Back"
• "U.S. Attorney Purge Scandal: The Week Ahead"
• "Leahy: 'I Am Sick and Tired of Getting Half-Truths'"

March 19, 2007

• Dan Eggen, "Prosecutor's Firing Was Urged During Probe," Washington Post, March 19, 2007.
• Richard A. Serrano, "Democrats turn up heat on firing of U.S. attorney. They allege Carol Lam was ousted in San Diego because she was investigating Republican politicians in Southern California," Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2007.
• Bob Geiger, "Senate Debate On Revoking Gonzales's Appointment Authority Begins," BobGeiger Blogspot, March 19, 2007. re Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007 (S.214)
• Carl Hulse, "Congress: On Prosecutors and the War," The Caucus Blog/Washington Post, March 19, 2007.
• Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Senator Insists Bush Aides Testify Publicly," New York Times, March 19, 2007.
• Hope Yen, "GOP wants answers on prosecutor firings," Associated Press (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), March 19, 2007.
• Jill Zuckman, "Pelosi calls for new attorney general," Associated Press (Chicago Tribune), March 19, 2007.
• "Paralysis Sets In as DOJ Faces Crisis," The News Desk Blog/U.S. News & World Report, March 19, 2007.
• Ron Hutcheson and Greg Gordon, "White House searching for Gonzales' replacement, source says," McClatchy Newspapers, March 19, 2007.
• David Corn, "Did GOP Lawyer Mislead Congress About Plame Case?" The Nation, March 19, 2007. re Victoria Toensing
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 19, 2007:

• "Today's Must Read"
• "The Timeline Grows Longer"
• "Snow on Gonzales: 'We Hope He Stays'"
• "Fight over Rove Testimony 'Murky'"
• "Salon: Document Dump Gives 'Misleading Rationale' to U.S. Attorney Firings"
• "'The Phone Calls Would Have Been Flying'"
• "Pelosi: 'We Need a New Attorney General.'"
• "Rove's Talking Point"
• "The Document Dump To End All Document Dumps"
• "Politico: White House on Gonzales Replacement Hunt"
• "U.S. News: Email Shows Gonzales 'Unhappy' with Deputy Testimony"

March 20, 2007

• Carl Hulse and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Senate revokes Bush's authority to replace attorneys," International Herald Tribune, March 20, 2007.
• Robert Schmidt and James Rowley, "Bush Gives Gonzales Support, Mounts Counterattack (Update3)," Bloomberg News, March 20, 2007.
• Howard Schneider, "Bush Affirms Support for Gonzales," Washington Post, March 20, 2007.
• "Bush stands behind Gonzales in prosecutor firings," CNN, March 20, 2007.
• Dan Eggen and John Solomon, "Fitzgerald Ranked During Leak Case. Justice Dept. Fired 2 With Same Rating," Washington Post, March 20, 2007.
• Richard A. Serrano and Richard B. Schmitt, "Justice Dept. worked to contain U.S. attorney fallout. Documents show that officials scrambled to curb bad publicity over the widening scandal," Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2007.
• "Justice Dept reviewed CIA leak prosecutor: paper," Reuters (Washington Post), March 20, 2007.
• Staff and Associated Press, "Press Picks Through Latest 'Document Dump' on Firing of U.S. Attorneys," Editor & Publisher, March 20, 2007.
• Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey, "A 'Reasonable' Man. Bush's latest efforts at damage control are extraordinarily fair-minded and cooperative. Or so the president says. Reading between the lines at the White House press conference," Newsweek (MSNBC), March 20, 2007.
• Pete Yost and Lara Jakes Jordan, "White House Offers Interview With Rove," Associated Press (ABC News), March 20, 2007.
• Thomas Ferraro and Tabassum Zakaria, "Rove offered for unsworn testimony," Reuters, March 20, 2007.
• James Wolcott, "Tiger by the Tail," James Wolcott's Blog/Vanity Fair, March 20, 2007.
• Max Blumenthal, "The Porn Plot Against Prosecutors," The Nation, March 20, 2007.
• Mike Allen and John Bresnahan, "GOP Braces For Testimony Fight, Likely Gonzales Exit," The Politico, March 20, 2007.
• Jonathan Martin, "The Gonzo-gate Connection Was Closer Than I Realized," The Politico, March 20, 2007. re connections with Mitt Romney
• Jesse Lee, "Judiary Committee to Meet on Subpoenas for White House and Justice Department Officials. Conyers, Sànchez to Issue Subpoenas for White House Officials," The Gavel, March 20, 2007.
• Mark Silva, "Around the Swamp," The Swamp Blog/Chicago Tribune, March 20, 2007.
• "Tancredo: Time For Gonzales To 'Move On'. Tancredo Calls On Gonzales To Step Down For His Role In A Series Of 'Leadership Failures'," Associated Press (CBS News), March 20, 2007.
• Will Thomas, "The Daily Muck," TPMmuckraker, March 20, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 20, 2007:

• "3000 Pages of Purge"
• "TPM Needs YOU to Comb Through Thousands of Pages"
• "Today's Must Read"
• "Bush 'Reaffirms' Support for Gonzales"
• "Cunningham, Under Investigation, Signed Letter Criticizing Prosecutor"
• "Docs Show DoJ Brainstorm on Firing Justifications"
• "House Committee to Meet Tomorrow to Vote on White House Subpoenas"
• "Senate Passes U.S Attorney Bill"
• "White House to Meet with Dems at 2 PM"
• "Former Rove Aide in on Senate Bypass Scheme?"
• "Ousted Hispanic Prosecutor Was 'Diverse Up-and-Comer'"
• "White House Makes An Offer Dems Can Refuse"
• "Snow: 'Let's See Where It Goes'"
• "Bush to Make Statement on Purge at 5:45"
• "White House Offer Withholds White House Documents"
• "AP: Feinstein Wants Answers on Departed Prosecutor"
• "Reid: Rove Should Testify under Oath"
• "Leahy: You Do Your Job, I'll Do Mine"
• "Bush Will Fight Subpoenas"

March 21, 2007

• Al Kamen, "The Ritual Dance of the Prosecutors," Washington Post, March 21, 2007.
• Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Bush Clashes With Congress on Prosecutors," New York Times, March 21, 2007.
• Editorial: "What People Really Need," New York Times, March 21, 2007: "Congress has the right and the duty to fully investigate the firings, which may have been illegal, and Justice Department officials’ statements to Congress, which may have been untrue."
• Will Thomas, "The Daily Muck," TPMmuckraker, March 21, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 21, 2007:

• "Today's Must Read"
• "DoJ Document Diving, Day Two"
• "House Committee Authorizes Subpoenas for White House Officials"
• "3000 Pages And The Missing Paper Trail"
• "Watchdog Asks, What about Abramoff?"
• "Paper: GOPer Investigation at Issue in Prosecutor Firing"
• "Lam Worked with DoJ on PR Damage Control"
• "Snow on Lack of Paper Trail to Firings: 'That's a Great Question'"
• "An Email in The Gap"

March 22, 2007

• Lara Jakes Jordan, "Gonzales Leaves Attorneys Furor Behind," Associated Press (Forbes), March 22, 2007.
• Rob Davis, "How 41 Pages Helped Unseat Lam," voicesofsandiego.org, March 22, 2007.
• Carol D. Leonnig, "Prosecutor Says Bush Appointees Interfered With Tobacco Case," Washington Post, March 22, 2007.
• Howard Beale, "Whistling Past the Grave(s') Yard? The US Attorney Questions No One Is Asking," Fired Up Missouri!, March 22, 2007. (See March 21, 2007, Salon article above.)
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 22, 2007:

• "Today's Must Read"
• "Senate Committee Votes to Authorize Subpoenas for WH Officials"
• "Gonzales: I'm Staying for 'The Kids'"
• "Senate Committee Asks to Hear from Gonzales Deputy"
• "White House Fight Might Turn on Bush's Role"
• "The Gap or 'Lull' Defined"

March 23, 2007

• Robert Schmidt and James Rowley, "Gonzales Was Briefed on Prosecutors Before Firings (Update2)," Bloomberg News, March 23, 2007.
• "Former Gonzales Aide Kyle Sampson To Testify In Senate Probe Of Prosecutor Firings," Associated Press (CBS News), March 23, 2007.
• "Read the e-mails that raise the question of Bush's involvement in U.S. Attorneys scandal," CREW, March 23, 2007.
• Eric Lipton, "U.S. Attorney in Michigan Disputes Reason for Removal," New York Times, March 23, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 23, 2007:

• "Clinton Did It Too! Talking Point Came from Justice Dept"
• "Gonzales Aide to Senate Staff: Nothing to See Here"
• "3000 Pages and Counting"
• "Senate Dems: Let's Talk"
• "Sampson: It's A Date!"
• "Gonzales: Don't Blame Me, Blame Bush"
• "McClatchy: Bush Admin Pushes Partisan 'Voter Fraud' Cases"

• Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel), The Next Hurrah Blog, March 23, 2007:

• "Interesting Timing"
• "Fall Guy IV"

March 24, 2007

• Richard B. Schmitt, Tom Hamburger and Richard A. Serrano, "Files put Gonzales at meeting before prosecutors' firing," Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2007.
• Lara Jakes Jordan, "Documents show Gonzales approved firings," Associated Press (USA TODAY), March 24, 2007.
• Josh Marshall, "Document Dump Research Thread," TPMmuckraker, March 24, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 24, 2007:

• "Document Dump Research Thread"
• "DoJ Docs: AG Met with Aides before Purge, DoJ Flack Brainstormed on Dismissals"
• "DoJ Official Conferred with Others on Law Change"
• "Senators to Gonzales: Really? Tell Us More"

March 25, 2007

• Mario Parker, "Three Republican Senators Question Gonzales's Candor on Firings," Bloomberg News, March 25, 2007.
• Frank Rich "When Will Afredo Get Whacked?" New York Times, March 25, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 25, 2007:

• "Bush Reaffirms Support for Gonzales"
• "DoJ Launches Internal USA Purge Investigation"
• "Hatch: No 'Clear Evidence' Gonzales 'Deliberately' Lied to Congress"

March 26, 2007

• Lara Jakes Jordan, "Support for Gonzales Erodes on the Hill," Associated Press (Washington Post), March 26, 2007.
• Mark Silva, "'A question of credibility'. Senators demand explanation from attorney general," Baltimore Sun, March 26, 2007.
• Bryan Bender, "Key GOP senators criticize Gonzales. Doubt credibility on role in firings," Boston Globe, March 26, 2007.
• David G. Savage, "Gonzales feels heat from GOP senators," Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2007.
• Jan Crawford Greenburg, "EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Official Ignored White House," ABC News, March 26, 2007.
• Ron Hutcheson, "Who is Monica Goodling?" McClatchy Newspapers, March 26, 2007. See comments at Think Progress.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 26, 2007:

• "McKay: 'First Question' was about Republican Criticism"
• "AP: Justice Aide to Take the Fifth"
• "Justice Aide: All Fingers Point My Way"
• "The Record: Lam and Immigration"
• "Lawyer to Leahy: There You Go Again"
• "Sampson: Nothing Can Stop Me Now"
• "Gonzales: I Did Nothing Wrong, But My Staff..."

• Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel), The Next Hurrah Blog, March 26, 2007:

• "Why Are We Surprised?"
• "Waxman Gets Busy"
• "Did I Say 'Eating Their Own'?"

March 27, 2007

• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 27, 2007:

• "The Fifth Made Simple"
• "Fitzgerald, Gonzales to Rub Shoulders on Roundtable"
• "DoJ Official Argued against Sending 'Extensive Resources' to Lam"
• "Reason for Suspicion"
• "Gonzales Runs Away"

• Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel), The Next Hurrah Blog, March 27, 2007:

• "What If Monica Isn't Shopping for Immunity?"
• "Gonzales Knows a Shiny Object When He Sees One"

March 28, 2007

• Documents released by U.S. Department of Justice, March 28, 2007.
• "A new Justice Dept. document dump," Think Progress, March 28, 2007.
• Michael Roston, "Congressman's letter to US Attorney said to violate House ethics rules," The Raw Story, March 28, 2007.
• James Gordon Meek, "Gonzo keeps on gettin' hit," New York Daily News, March 28, 2007.
• Sridhar Pappu, "On the Firing Line. D. Kyle Sampson was a team player. Tomorrow, Alberto Gonzales's former chief of staff will tell a Senate panel who called the shots," Washington Post, March 28, 2007.
• Michael Roston, "Sampson has close relationship with GOP senators on committee that will question him," The Raw Story, March 28, 2007.
• John Aravosis, "Every decade has its Monica. And Alberto Gonzales' 'Fifth-Amendment Monica' has ties to Pat Robertson," AMERICAblog, March 28, 2007.
• Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker, March 28, 2007:

• "DoJ Stories Clash"
• "Dems to White House: C'mon, Let's Talk"
• "New Docs Show Sampson Behind Misleading Statement to Congress"
• "AP: Sampson to Ask, What's Political Mean, Anyway?"
• "White House OK'ed Sampson Statement on Rove"

March 29, 2007

• Daniel Politi, "Fighting Like It's 1995," Slate, March 29, 2007.
• Kelly Thornton, "Chastised head of local FBI office anounces retirement," San Diego Union-Tribune, March 29, 2007.
• Ari Berman, "Attorneygate in Guam," The Nation, March 29, 2007 (April 16, 2007, issue). re Jack Abramoff
• Jason Horowitz, "Schumer Office: Subpoenas Ready for Rove, Miers. Paperwork authorized; Chuck 'Can't believe' Gonzales will make it. First up: D. Kyle Sampson," New York Observer, posted March 29, 2007; April 2, 2007, edition.

• For Congressional Testimony by Kyle Sampson, former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, see March 2007 - Part 3.

• Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel), "Richard Hertling Strikes Again," The Next Hurrah Blog, March 29, 2007. re Richard Hertling

March 30, 2007

• Dan Eggen and Paul Kane, "Ex-Aide Contradicts Gonzales on Firings," Washington Post, March 30, 2007.
• Dana Milbank, "Taking One for the Team, When He Could Remember," Washington Post, March 30, 2007.
• Alan Cooperman, "Bush Loyalist Rose Quickly at Justice," Washington Post, March 30, 2007.
• Al Kamen, "A Slow Leak in the Senate Judiciary Committee," Washington Post, March 30, 2007.