Another Specious U.S. Attorney Firing?

O.K., wait a minute.

After awhile, one might get suspisious that some of these Bush appointees might be plants, to help sink the investigation. Isn't that a favorite Rove tactic?

Perhaps paranoia is contagious, but we are just saying.....

Ex-U.S. attorney questions own firing
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 11, 7:53 PM ET

A former West Virginia federal prosecutor said Friday the White House fired him in 2005 in the middle of a corruption and vote-buying investigation but never told him why.

Karl K. "Kasey" Warner said he has "concerns" and sees parallels between himself and eight other ousted U.S. attorneys. Congress and an internal Justice Department agency are investigating whether those firings were politically motivated.

The Justice Department rejected any suggestion of politics in Warner's dismissal.

"The notion that the termination was political is absolutely false," spokesman Dean Boyd said. "We encourage Mr. Warner to provide the department with a written privacy waiver and we will be happy to provide you with the reason for his removal."

Warner would not elaborate on what concerned him about his August 2005 firing but rejected the idea that he was fired over his performance.

"The facts speak for themselves. Look into how I ran my office. See how I managed the office," Warner said. "If they want to look at the cases I had and the corruption cases we have now, people can come to their own conclusions about why I was let go."

Warner said he refused to resign when asked by the Justice Department, responding that he took his direction from President Bush.

"Next thing I know, I get a letter from the president's counsel, Harriet Miers, saying I'd been fired, no reason given," Warner recounted in a telephone interview.

A state legislative audit later revealed e-mails in which Warner had offered to secretly contribute to a 2004 county political campaign.

"Let me try to steer some contributions your way (gently) and perhaps use a family member with a different last name to make my contribution," Warner wrote in one July 2003 e-mail, according to the audit.

Warner said he never followed through on the offer and discounted that as a reason behind his departure.

Warner was nominated by Bush in 2001 to serve as the top federal prosecutor in southern West Virginia. The heavily Democratic district is the center of the state's coal industry. Bush carried the state in both 2000 and 2004.

Almost immediately Warner made public corruption and vote-buying cases a priority, sometimes to the ire of Democrats who accused him of targeting them for political purposes. Warner's brother Kris was the Republican state party chairman, and his brother Monty ran for governor.

Some former U.S. attorneys such as New Mexico's David Iglesias said Republican politicians pressured them to rush public corruption investigations in election years. Warner would not comment on whether he received any such pressure and would not say who was being investigated when he was fired.

"Speaking generally," he said, "in my mind, if you want a good justice system, you don't remove U.S. attorneys to thwart ongoing criminal investigations."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has denied that politics influenced hiring and firing decisions. And though Gonzales has apologized for mishandling the controversy, he has rejected calls from lawmakers to step down.

The Justice Department has also said it never tried to influence an investigation for political reasons. An internal probe is under way.

Warner's statements came on the heels of those by former western Missouri U.S. Attorney Todd Graves, who said he was forced out in March 2006. Graves said he fell out of favor with the Justice Department after refusing to cooperate with the filing of a Missouri voter fraud lawsuit a year before the 2006 election.

Congress is holding hearings on the eight other firings, and former Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling is shaping up to be a main witness. A federal judge approved an immunity deal for her Friday, allowing her to testify without fear of prosecution.

Warner's statements echo those by former Maryland U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio, who in March said he believed he was fired for investigating corruption in a Republican governor's administration.

The Justice Department said DiBiagio was fired for writing e-mails calling for "front-page" corruption indictments before Election Day.

Warner said that, if asked, he would cooperate with any investigation. But he said he has made peace with his termination and is not trying to become part of the Capitol Hill story line. That's why the former Army officer said he has not approached investigators.

"Sometimes soldiers catch a bullet. If you're truly out there doing your job, if you're truly a leader, sometimes you catch a bullet," he said. "It might not be fair, it might not be right, it might be sad, but that's part of what you do. I caught a bullet. It's not something you cry about or complain about."
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Associated Press writers Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington and Lawrence Messina in Charleston, W.Va., contributed to this report.

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The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.