The Gonzales Eleven

By Scott Horton

At this point it seems reasonably clear that the total number of U.S. attorneys who were sacked in connection with the Karl Rove-directed purge plan to politicize the prosecutorial process exceeds the eight originally identified. Sen. Feinstein has already identified facts and documents surrounding the turnover in Los Angeles that strongly suggest it was part of the same scheme. And we have previously discussed the changes in Minneapolis which led to the meltdown in that office, as well as the remarkable bogus prosecution of Georgia Thompson in Milwaukee that appears to have salvaged the job of Steven Biskupic even as it destroyed his reputation—that brings us to eleven. The question is: how many other cases are out there lurking just under the surface? These facts, coupled with the Justice Department’s practice of relentless deception and evasion in the face of scrutiny have placed a cloud over the totality of the U.S. attorney’s service which is not going to be dispelled, even by the resignation of the trio at the helm of the Justice Department#8212;Gonzales, McNulty and Moschella. They make the case for a deeper, independent probe of Rove’s attempted coup.