Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is avoiding heading back to Washington like a cat avoids the neighborhood dog.

He continues his cross-country travels to U.S. Attorneys offices, speaking about the DOJ’s new campaign against child predators, Project Safe Childhood.

The unspoken component of these visits, however, is likely to be his attempts to gauge support for his remaining in office, and do a litmus test of how the DOJ’s frontline U.S. Attorneys view the nation’s top federal prosecutor.  And as this blog suggested earlier this week, speaking about protecting America’s kids from child predators is not something that the public, or Congress, will be able to poke criticism at lightly.

Gonzales has visited, or will be visiting, the following U.S. Attorneys’ offices as part of his latest campaign:

• St. Loui, MO (U.S. Attorneys Catherine Hanaway - Eastern District, Bradley Schlozman - Western District)
• Denver, CO (U.S. Attorney Troy Eid)
• Chicago, IL (U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald)
• Cincinnati, OH (U.S. Attorney Gregory G. Lockhart)

Fitzgerald and Gonzales are likely to have had a ’sit-down’ to discuss the unkind mention of the U.S. Attorney / Special Prosecutor’s performance by higher ups in DOJ e-mails.

The list of senior Justice Department employees being investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee is out.

The Committee is concerned that Gonzales and his employees could be making an end-run around promised cooperation with Congress designed to ward off subpoenas. Leahy reminded the Attorney General that on March 8th, he “agreed…that the five Justice Department employees would cooperate with us in our investigation and that there would be no need for the Committee to utilize its subpoena authority.”

One of those employees quit, former Chief of Staff to Gonzales, Kyle Sampson.

Another employee, DOJ Counsel Monica Goodling, is presently “on an indefinite leave of absence from Gonzales’s office,” lawyered up, and is invoking her Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify out of fear that Congress might then file criminal charges against her.

That leaves three other senior DOJ officials and aides to Gonzales working away, unless they too have lawyered up and are refusing to testify publicly, following in Goodling’s footsteps.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (Dem. - Vt.) asked Gonzales today to clarify the employment status of the following DOJ insiders:

• Monica Goodling (Counsel to Gonzales)
• Michael Battle (former U.S. Attorney, W.D. New York)
• Michael Elston (DOJ, Deputy Attorney’s Chief of Staff)
• William Mercer (Acting Associate Attorney General)

Leahy’s request is time sensitive: in big, bold strokes he asks Gonzales: “Can I have an answer before Thursday’s hearing?”

Here is the text of Leahy’s official request:

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March 27, 2007Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.

Dear Attorney General Gonzales:On March 8 you met with me and other Senators in my Capitol office about the mass firings of United States attorneys. You agreed at that time that the five Justice Department employees would cooperate with us in our investigation and that there would be no need for the Committee to utilize its subpoena authority. Soon thereafter, D. Kyle Sampson resigned as your chief of staff. A few days later, we were told that he was no longer employed at the Department of Justice and had hired an attorney. Now we have learned that Monica Goodling has taken a personal leave of absence from the Department and we have been informed by her counsel that she will invoke the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination in a criminal matter.

Is Ms. Goodling still employed by the Department of Justice? What is the employment status of Michael Battle, Michael Elston and William Mercer with the Department of Justice? Please inform the Committee of those employees who have separate counsel.

Sincerely,

PATRICK LEAHY
Chairman

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Technorati: Alberto Gonzales, Monica Goodling, Michael Battle, Michael Elston, William Mercer, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Attorney Firings