White House Mulled Firing All Prosecutors (AP) [View All]

[Eugene]

White House Mulled Firing All Prosecutors

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; 4:19 AM

WASHINGTON -- The White House considered firing all 93 federal
prosecutors at the start of President Bush's second term, but
yielded to Justice Department objections and eventually agreed
to a smaller list of dismissals compiled by Justice officials,
a spokeswoman said Monday.

Dana Perino also said President Bush may have informally passed
on to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales complaints the White
House was receiving about the performance of some of the U.S.
attorneys.

She said then-White House counsel Harriet Miers raised the idea
with Gonzales aid Kyle Sampson of asking all 93 U.S. attorneys to
resign in 2004, wondering whether the start of a new White House
term marked a logical time to start with a new slate of U.S.
attorneys, who serve four-year terms at the pleasure of the
president.

Sampson disagreed, saying a wholesale firing would be disruptive.
Perino said deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, the president's top
political adviser, vaguely recalls telling Miers that he thought
firing all 93 was ill-advised.

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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031300140.html