SInce the budget has taken over the media cycle this story has been overlooked. This was on Page A-3 of the Lexington Herald Leader. I would have put it on the front page.
Probe of U.S. attorney firings to get prosecutorBy Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers
Lexington Herald LeaderWASHINGTON — After the Justice Department's watchdog found "substantial" evidence that partisan politics played a role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, Attorney General Michael Mukasey agreed Monday to appoint a prosecutor to investigate..
Inspector General Glenn Fine concluded that White House officials were more involved in the firings than the administration first admitted. But Fine's investigators were hampered because former and current Bush aides refused to cooperate.
Fine recommended that Mukasey appoint a prosecutor with authority to demand more evidence.
Mukasey said that the report dispelled "the most disturbing allegations," but he acknowledged that unanswered questions remained.
"The Justice Department has an obligation to the American people to pursue this case wherever the facts and the law require," said Mukasey.
The controversy rose after the 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys and a little-noticed change in the Patriot Act that allowed the Justice Department to install replacements without congressional approval.
Congressional Democrats launched an investigation into the firings after becoming suspicious that the prosecutors had been ousted for investigating sensitive voter-fraud allegations or politicians on corruption charges.
The former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, David Iglesias, contended he had been pressured by Sen. Pete Domenici to speed up an indictment against local Democrats before the 2006 congressional election, which Domenici denied.
Fine said Domenici and GOP officials appeared to have improperly influenced the Justice Department's decisions.