McKay claims cover-up in firings

21 May 2007 // Fired U.S. Attorney John McKay said Sunday that he believes the Justice Department is covering up the real reason for his ouster.

“I can see why they would want to come up with an explanation other than the governor’s election for why I would be on such a list,” said McKay, the U.S. attorney for Western Washington until his firing in December.

McKay pointed to the revelation that he first appeared on the Bush administration firing list in 2005 during the heat of the furor over Washington state’s election for governor. Some Republicans were appalled that McKay didn’t bring charges of election fraud in the race won by Democrat Chris Gregoire.

“I still don’t know if the 2004 governor’s election was the principal reason I was asked to step down,” McKay said in a speech at the Mainstream Republicans of Washington’s Cascade Conference in Wenatchee.

“If it was, I think it is an entirely improper and perhaps illegal reason for my termination,” said McKay.

McKay said he led a federal investigation that found no evidence of a crime in the election. He made clear he still has huge concerns over the controversial election that resulted in a Gregoire victory on the second recount by 133 votes out of almost 3 million cast.

“There is no doubt in my mind there were a lot of stinky, nasty things about that election,” McKay said in an interview.

But prosecuting a federal crime requires proof of more than just mistakes and incompetence in the handling of ballots, he said.

McKay, a Republican appointed by President Bush, oversaw Justice Department offices in Tacoma and Seattle for five years. That’s before he was one of nine U.S. attorneys to lose their jobs in what has become a huge controversy for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

McKay’s Sunday speech at the Mainstream Republicans of Washington conference was his first appearance before a political group since he was fired. He sounded like a candidate at times, talking about the values of being a Republican and saying he wants to be involved somehow in politics.

But he denied speculation he’s planning a run for office. He said he hopes Dino Rossi, the Republican who lost to Gregoire, will run again in 2008.

McKay said he would support Rossi.

The Justice Department has offered a shifting set of explanations for McKay’s firing. Gonzales first said it was because of comments McKay made to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about budget cuts and because of how McKay pursued an information-sharing project. But both those happened after he was put on the firing list in March 2005.

Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ chief of staff, has raised the possibility that McKay made the list for pushing too hard for additional resources to investigate the Seattle murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales. Sampson kept the list of prosecutors to be fired.

McKay said Sunday that would be a “despicable” reason if that’s actually why he was fired. “I frankly don’t believe it,” he told the state mainstream Republican group. “I think they are trying to cover something up.”

Gonzales has acknowledged he was aware of a “great deal of concern” from Washington state Republicans over how McKay handled fraud allegations in the 2004 governor’s race. The attorney general told Congress earlier this month that he doesn’t know if that’s a reason Mc-Kay made the list.

“I never expected to have to look over my shoulder politically to see if many people back there wanted more voter fraud cases and I was missing the opportunity,” McKay said.

There are at least seven states where it appears U.S. attorneys were fired or considered for firing as Republicans urged investigations or prosecutions of possible Democratic voter fraud, McClatchy Newspapers has reported.

McKay spent much time at the Wenatchee conference laying out what he did to investigate allegations of election fraud in 2004. He said the Justice Department didn’t want to get involved in the governor’s race because it was a state election the state should police. But McKay said he insisted on looking into it. He said he used the rationale the president was on the ballot as well.

McKay said he chaired an inquiry that involved five federal prosecutors and several FBI agents. He said the work included looking into an allegation by Building Industry Association of Washington Executive Director Tom McCabe that he had evidence of forged signatures on absentee ballots cast for Gregoire.

“I will tell you now that, what he presented to us, I think it would be hard to put any other way than to tell you it was a joke from an evidentiary standpoint that a crime had been committed,” McKay said.

He said the BIAW provided $10 checks for those voters to sign so the conservative group could compare their signatures to those on the ballot affidavits. McKay said the FBI looked at it.

“That is extremely weak evidence. A number of things could have happened. Somebody else could have signed the check to get the $10. We can’t send agents out with badges to grill people over something that doesn’t look like a correct signature,” he said.

McCabe, who urged the White House to fire McKay, said in a Sunday interview he’s not surprised that McKay called the evidence a joke.

“That’s certainly how he treated it,” McCabe said.

He and BIAW general counsel Tim Harris said McKay should have investigated the discrepancy in those signatures. The FBI has the power to do that, they said, not the builder’s association. McCabe and Harris charged McKay instead ignored it.

McCabe said the builder’s group also obtained other evidence of fraud, including that of illegal felons voting. McKay said a federal task force looked into the felon voting issue and found no evidence of crime.

McKay said federal agents also paid close attention to the 2005 trial in Wenatchee in which the Republicans challenged Gregoire’s victory. He said they looked at all the evidence submitted in the trial and found no indication a federal crime had occurred.

McKay said federal agents are reluctant to get involved in a state election unless there is conclusive forensic evidence or an informant who admits conspiracy to rig an election.

Conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky met with McKay after his Wenatchee speech. Sharkansky said he’s gathered evidence of illegal votes in the 2004 election through public records requests over the past two years.

McKay said he should share that with the FBI.

“There is still a case on this election,” he said.