At least nine Bush administration officials refused to cooperate with various Justice
Department investigations during the final days of the Bush presidency, according to public records and interviews with federal
law enforcement officials and many of the officials and their attorneys. In addition, two U.S. senators, a congresswoman,
and the chief of staff to one of them, also refused to cooperate with the same investigations.
In large part
because of that noncooperation, Justice Department officials sought criminal prosecutors in at least two cases so far to take
over their investigations so that they can compel the testimony of many of those officials to testify through the use of a
federal grand jury.
With the stakes now escalating for both sides -- the possibility of grand jury subpoenas
for recalcitrant witnesses and the specter of senior government officials invoking their Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination
-- it remains unclear whether and how many of them will continue to defy investigators.
In one instance, an attorney
for former Bush White House chief political strategist Karl Rove recently told TPMmuckraker that even though Rove had refused
to cooperate with an earlier Justice Department inquiry into the firings by the Bush administration of nine U.S. attorneys,
he would now fully cooperate with a federal grand jury that has been empanelled to hear evidence in the case. But most of the other former senior White
House officials, as well as members of Congress and their staffs, declined to say for this article whether they have or will
cooperate with the various federal criminal investigations.
Previously, two Justice Department watchdog offices, the
Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility conducted investigations of the firings of the U.S. attorneys
and the politicization by the Bush administration of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. But those two offices
do not have the power to compel the testimony of witnesses outside the department itself or to initiate criminal prosecutions.
The Inspector General and OPR successfully sought the naming of a criminal prosecutor to take over their probes.
A federal grand jury probe of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration
is focusing on the role played by recently retired Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and former senior Bush White House aides in the
2006 dismissal of David Iglesias as U.S. attorney for New Mexico, according to legal sources familiar with the inquiry.
The federal grand jury is investigating whether Domenici and other political figures attempted to improperly press
Iglesias to bring a criminal prosecution against New Mexico Democrats just prior to the 2006 congressional midterm elections,
according to legal sources close to the investigation and private attorneys representing officials who prosecutors want to
question. Investigators appear to be scrutinizing Iglesias' firing in the context of whether he was fired in retaliation
because Domenici and others believed that he would not manipulate the timing of prosecutions to help Republicans.
Previously,
Domenici was severely criticized by two internal Justice Department watchdog offices, the Department's Inspector General
and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), for refusing to cooperate with their earlier probe of the firings of the U.S. attorneys. In part because of their frustration that Domenici and his
chief of staff, Steve Bell, as well as several senior White House officials, would not cooperate with them, the Inspector
General and OPR sought that a criminal prosecutor take over their probe. It is unclear whether Domenici will now cooperate
with the criminal probe. Domenici's attorney, Lee Blalack, in an interview, declined to say what Domenici will do when
he is contacted by investigators.
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