From the NY Times:
Closed-door testimony reveals former White House Counsel Harriet Miers discussed firing a US Attorney who was investigating Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., last fall and may have forced her resignation, reports a New York Times editorial observer column.
US Attorney Debra Yang resigned in October to take a $1.5 million job offer from Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP, a well-connected Republican firm that is defending Lewis in the investigation. Yang insisted the timing was coincidental and she accepted the job after months of looking for a more lucrative private sector post because she is a single mother, according to The Hill.
Yang resigned just before the Justice Department fired eight US Attorneys, several of whom were leading investigations of high-profile Republicans. Congress is investigating whether the attorneys were fired for strictly political reasons, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been plagued by calls for his resignation over the scandal.
The new job that Ms. Yang landed raised more red flags. Press reports say she got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties. She was hired to be co-leader of the Crisis Management Practice Group with Theodore Olson, who was President Bush’s solicitor general and his Supreme Court lawyer in Bush v. Gore. Gibson, Dunn was defending Mr. Lewis in Ms. Yang’s investigation.
The new job that Ms. Yang landed raised more red flags. Press reports say she got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties. She was hired to be co-leader of the Crisis Management Practice Group with Theodore Olson, who was President Bush’s solicitor general and his Supreme Court lawyer in Bush v. Gore. Gibson, Dunn was defending Mr. Lewis in Ms. Yang’s investigation.
Several issues bear investigating. First, did Ms. Yang know or suspect that she might lose her job, and jump ship to avoid being fired? That is not hard to believe because Ms. Miers and Mr. Sampson were exchanging e-mail about dismissing her in mid-September, and she announced her departure in October. Ms. Yang served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which Mr. Gonzales has called “a small group of U.S. attorneys that I consult on policy matters.” That may have put her in a position to be tipped off in advance.
A second possibility is that Gibson, Dunn dangled a rich financial package before Ms. Yang to get her out, and to disrupt the investigation of Mr. Lewis. Ms. Yang, who says she left her job purely for personal reasons, may not have known she was being lured away by people with close ties to Mr. Lewis and the White House, who were hoping to replace her with a more partisan prosecutor.
FULL ARTICLE CAN BE READ HERE
FULL ARTICLE CAN BE READ HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment