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‘Loyalty’ to Bush and Gonzales Was Factor in Prosecutors’ Firings, E-Mail Shows

by KEARNEY | March 13, 2007 at 08:16 pm | 280 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

Thank God Harriet Miers isn't on the Supreme Court.

By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LIPTON

Published: March 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, March 13 — Late in the afternoon on Dec. 4, a deputy to Harriet E. Miers, then the White House counsel and one of President Bush’s most trusted aides, sent a two-line e-mail message to a top Justice Department aide. “We’re a go,” it said, approving a long-brewing plan to remove seven federal prosecutors considered weak or not team players.

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Related

Documents Released by the Department of Justice

Part 1 (pdf)

Part 2 (pdf)

Part 3 (pdf)

Part 4 (pdf)

Documents Regarding the Department of Justice Firings From the House Judiciary Committee Web Site

The message, from William K. Kelley of the White House counsel’s office to D. Kyle Sampson, the chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, put in motion a plan to fire United States attorneys that had been hatched 22 months earlier by Ms. Miers. Three days later, the seven prosecutors were summarily dismissed. An eighth had been forced out in the summer.