A Side Effect of the US Attorneys Firing?

In the Minneapolis office of the US attorney, Rachael Paulose, 3 of her staff have decided to quit. Now, while the Atty General's office is up for grabs and Gonzales is fighting for his job, these 3 have decided to return to prosecuting cases.

Here's the rest from AP:

3 U.S. attorney's lawyers resign posts
By PATRICK CONDON, Associated
Press Writer

Three lawyers in the U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis resigned their management posts and will return to prosecuting cases, the office said Friday. The moves come as the U.S. Justice Department is under fire for its replacement of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Jeanne Cooney, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose, confirmed that John Marti, a first assistant U.S. attorney, Erika Mozangue, head of the office's civil division, and James Lackner, who heads the office's criminal division, have "decided to go back to being prosecutors," Cooney said.

She said she didn't have any further information about their decisions. Paulose wasn't immediately available for comment.

Paulose, 34, had replaced former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger after he resigned in early 2006. Prior to her appointment, she had served as senior counsel to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

The three resignations come as Congress investigates the U.S. Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year and whether the moves were politically motivated. Its findings so far have torpedoed morale at Justice Department headquarters in Washington and in U.S. attorneys' offices nationwide.

Heffelfinger, who has said he left of his own accord, was not among those eight. However, Paulose was one of 15 federal prosecutors appointed after Congress changed the USA Patriot Act to let the Justice Department fill vacant U.S. attorney jobs without judicial review. She was confirmed by the Senate in December 2006.

Every day there is something new! What will happen next?

Here's even more from Think Progress:

The Justice Department has faced criticism not only for firing well-respected U.S. attorneys, but also for replacing them with loyal Bushies.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota demonstrates the havoc that ensues when the Bush administration places politics over justice. Four top staffers to Rachel Paulose, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, have voluntarily demoted themselves in protest of Paulose’s “highly dictatorial style” of managing. Paulose has also “earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.”

According to news reports, the staffers’ dramatic moves were “intended to send a message to Washington — that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head.” The Bush administration tried to prevent the resignations by sending a “top justice official to Minneapolis Thursday to mediate the situation. The mediation failed.”

A look at Paulose’s background indicates that she was handpicked by the Justice Department because of her personal connections, rather than her professional qualifications:

She was a special assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is best buds with Monica Goodling — the assistant U.S. Attorney who recently took the Fifth rather than testify before Congress.

Add to the suspicions the fact that Minnesota’s former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger stepped down just as the White House was developing its hit list.

And it all goes back to the White House.