Montana's US attorney involved in firings

The Great Falls Tribune reports that the US attorney for Montana, who is now the acting number three official at the Justice Department as well, had a role in the US attorney firings.

Bill Mercer, U.S. Attorney for Montana, was involved in efforts by Justice Department officials to push eight of his colleagues out the door, according to dozens of e-mails and memos.

--snip---

But the records also show Mercer played a prominent role.

During the first half of 2006, Mercer exchanged e-mails with other Justice Department officials regarding complaints against U.S. Attorneys John McKay of Seattle and Paul Charlton of Phoenix. McKay ran afoul of his superiors for backing an interagency information sharing system that they did not like but that the Navy had endorsed, documents state. Charlton had fallen out of favor for creating a new policy that required FBI agents in his state to tape confessions whenever possible, the documents show.

From March 2006 until July, when he returned to Montana for two months, Mercer was in on e-mails and reports that were critical of Carol Lam of San Diego, who prosecuted former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., on bribery charges. Cunningham was convicted and sentenced to prison.

According to the article, Kyle Sampson, the top assistant to Alberto Gonzalez who resigned after this scandal came to light, is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Should be interesting.

It seems as if the Justice Department's only defense is to claim that McKay's advocacy for the intelligence sharing system was the reason he was fired. They can and probably will have to make that argument, but it's kind of a tough one to make when a Republican Congressman from the area says McKay deserves to be reinstated.