From the AP via CBS News:
Former W.Va. Prosecutor Says He Has 'Concerns' About Firing By Bush Administration
A former West Virginia federal prosecutor said Friday the White House fired him in 2005 in the middle of a corruption and vote-buying investigation but never told him why.Karl K. "Kasey" Warner said he has "concerns" and sees parallels between himself and eight other ousted U.S. attorneys. Congress and an internal Justice Department agency are investigating whether those firings were politically motivated.
The Justice Department rejected any suggestion of politics in Warner's dismissal.
"The notion that the termination was political is absolutely false," spokesman Dean Boyd said. "We encourage Mr. Warner to provide the department with a written privacy waiver and we will be happy to provide you with the reason for his removal.
"Warner would not elaborate on what concerned him about his August 2005 firing but rejected the idea that he was fired over his performance.
"The facts speak for themselves. Look into how I ran my office. See how I managed the office," Warner said. "If they want to look at the cases I had and the corruption cases we have now, people can come to their own conclusions about why I was let go.
"Warner said he refused to resign when asked by the Justice Department, responding that he took his direction from President Bush."Next thing I know, I get a letter from the president's counsel, Harriet Miers, saying I'd been fired, no reason given," Warner recounted in a telephone interview.
A state legislative audit later revealed e-mails in which Warner had offered to secretly contribute to a 2004 county political campaign.
"Let me try to steer some contributions your way (gently) and perhaps use a family member with a different last name to make my contribution," Warner wrote in one July 2003 e-mail, according to the audit.
Warner said he never followed through on the offer and discounted that as a reason behind his departure.
Warner was nominated by Bush in 2001 to serve as the top federal prosecutor in southern West Virginia. The heavily Democratic district is the center of the state's coal industry. Bush carried the state in both 2000 and 2004.
Almost immediately Warner made public corruption and vote-buying cases a priority, sometimes to the ire of Democrats who accused him of targeting them for political purposes. Warner's brother Kris was the Republican state party chairman, and his brother Monty ran for governor.
Further in the story Warner says he didn't want to get involved with the investigation but would cooperate if asked to testify.
This has brought Miers back in the picture. What will tomorrow bring? More on Rove? I hope so!!
To refresh your memory, number nine:
Number nine. Todd Graves, US attorney from Kansas City, Mo., was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006, months before eight other federal prosecutors would be fired by the Bush administration.
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