AG Michael Mukasey has appointed Nora Dannehy as a special prosecutor in the investigation of possible criminal violations in the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys. This appointment follows close on the heels of a report, released today, by DoJ Inspector General Glenn Fine and H. Marshall Jarrett, counsel for DoJ's Office of Professional Responsibility.
Mukasey's statement says,
The report makes plain that, at a minimum, the process by which nine U.S. attorneys were removed in 2006 was haphazard, arbitrary and unprofessional, and the way in which the Justice Department handled those removals and the resulting public controversy was profoundly lacking.
The report criticizes the firings as "unsystematic and arbitrary, with little oversight by the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, or any other senior Department official."
Fine and Jarrett wrote that:
their investigation remains incomplete because of the refusal of certain key witnesses to be interviewed, including Karl Rove, the president’s former chief political adviser; Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel; Monica Goodling, the department’s former White House liaison; Senator Pete Domenici, Republican of New Mexico; and Mr. Domenici’s chief of staff, Steven Bell. (NYT)
Other Republican legislators named in the report include Heather A. Wilson (R-NM), connected with the firing of U.S. Atty David C. Iglesias, and Missouri Senator Christopher S. Bond. (WaPo)
Special prosecutor Dannehy, a graduate of Harvard Law School, is an acting U.S. Attorney in Connecticut.
NY Times article here. WaPo article here. Full 392 page DoJ report here(pdf).