Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton told House investigators this week that the top aide to Rep. Rick Renze (R-Ariz.) called his office about six weeks before Charlton was canned in USA-gate. This echoes what happened to former U.S. Attorneys John McKay and David Iglesias. When something happens twice, they can still try to say it was a coincidence. When something happens three times, it's a pattern.
A definite pattern has emerged now in the U.S. Attorney scandal. Here's what it looks like:
Republican Members of Congress call a U.S. Attorney's Office--prior to or following close elections--to ask about and pressure an ongoing federal criminal investigation, usually involving public corruption that would hurt a Democrat and/or benefit a Republican. When the Member of Congress does not get the answer he or she wants to hear, the U.S. Attorney is put on the hit list and fired.
This week, former U.S. Attorney Paul K. Charlton, one of those fired in USA-gate, told House investigators that he received a call from Rep. Rick Renzi's (R-Ariz.) chief-of-staff, Brian Murray, asking about a federal investigation into the Congressman's role in a land deal that benefited a former business partner and political patron. This sounds shockingly similar to ousted U.S. Attorney John McKay's account that he received a call from Rep. Doc Hastings' (R-Wash) chief-of-staff, Ed Cassidy, asking about an investigation into voter fraud charges in Washington state's contested gubernatorial election in 2004. It also sounds a lot like former U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias' congressional testimony that he received phone calls from Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) pressuring him to accelerate a probe--stemming from allegations involving construction contracts and a prominent Democratic former state senator--just before the November elections. At the time, Wilson was in a tight re-election race.
Unlike Iglesias and McKay, who Republicans tried to criticize for not reporting the improper contact, Charlton did tell Main Justice about it, which begs the question why the Justice Department did not tell Congress about this!
Firing U.S. Attorneys in order to promote partisan law enforcement by the Department of Justice, or to obstruct justice by preventing, accelerating or aborting criminal investigations of selected partisans, is not okay. Members of Congress seeking information about open, ongoing and politically-sensitive federal investigations is improper.
When something happens twice, you can still claim it was a coincidence. When it happens three times, it's a pattern.