Wednesday's symposium panel with the fired USAs in Seattle.

Former U.S. attorneys John McKay, left, Paul Charlton and David Iglesias, right, address a forum, Wednesday, May 9, 2007, at Seattle University in Seattle.

The forum at the Seattle University School of Law addressed controversy surrounding the recent replacement of eight U.S. attorneys.

Here are details of the forum:

Speaking at a public policy symposium in Seattle, former United States Attorney John McKay said "yes" when asked if he thought it was time for a special prosecutor to investigate the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys (USAs). "I think enough information has come out -- enough evidence has come out to suggest something inappropriate" happened. He said we need an independent look at whether a crime was committed.


When asked what they hoped to hear from Attorney General Gonzales on Thursday, McKay said, simply, "the truth." Iglesias, perhaps with a touch of cynicism, added: "I just hope I don't hear 'I don't recall' coming from his mouth very often."

During the press briefing afterwards, McKay backed away, slightly, from a call for a special prosecutor. "No one at the Department of Justice today will take responsibility for firing me or my colleagues. It's clear from all the testimony so far -- no one will say that they put any one of us on the list... I'm not saying that there is a criminal case, but it is possible."

Iglesias added that at the "highest levels" the DOJ seems to be in "disrepair. Either they don't know or they are passing the buck elsewhere."

During the symposium, panelists described a blurred boundary between the DOJ and the White House. When asked if this blurring might have been a function of AG Gonzales moving from the White House to Justice,

McKay agreed. In his first speech to USAs, McKay said, Gonzales "did not fully appreciate the difference between being AG and White House counsel. We hoped that this was something he would correct very soon."

However, McKay outlined extensive "points of contact" between the White House and the Department of Justice, including two DOJ employees at the center of this investigation: Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling.

Both worked in the White House before moving to Justice; both were intimately involved, it appears, in the firing of the eight USAs.

The Congressional investigation unearthed White House staff use of GOP Committee e-mail accounts while conducting official business. White House e-mails are automatically archived, as public records; the GOP e-mails were not. As many as 5 million e-mails are reportedly "lost."

Iglesias said that the use of these e-mail accounts was "problematic" if the "intent was to subvert the law" on records. "I hope that at the end of the day that this was not set up to skirt the law."

Non Prosecutors Calling The Shots

During the symposium, Paul Charlton expressed frustration with the lack of prosecutorial experience at Justice. He detailed the Arizona murder case, involving a meth dealer, that was cited by AG Gonzales as the reason Charlton was fired.

"We had one piece of forensic evidence: the body. We knew where it was: in a landfill." The cost to exhume was $0.5 - 1.0 million, but Washington denied the request to exhume the body. Charlton continued: "The body could prove the defendant was guilty -- or it might show a story inconsistent with the testimony provided by cooperative witnesses."

Based on the lack of forensic evidence, Charlton said it was "inappropriate" to seek the death penalty.

However, the DOJ death penalty review committee "told us to seek death." So did the AG. Charlton tried a last ditch appeal: he asked to speak to the Attorney General. Request denied.

Adding insult to injury, e-mails unearthed during the Congressional investigation characterized Charlton's request like this, Charlton said: "In the you won't believe it category, Paul Charlton wants to speak to the attorney general." Charlton, a USA sworn to uphold the laws of the United States, was too low on the totem pole to speak to the US Attorney General about said law.