Too little, too late sums up CREW's reaction to the appointment of a special prosecutor to finally investigate the firings of U.S. Attorneys.  We first made that call on March 13, 2007. It took a new Attorney General and a long overdue report, compiled without subpoena authority, to get there. 

Here's our statement from Melanie Sloan:

Six more months have been wasted in getting to the truth behind the firings of the U.S. Attorneys. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility were not able to come to any firm conclusions given their lack of subpoena authority. After the top law enforcement officials in the nation lied with apparent impunity during congressional hearings, how could anyone reasonably expect that these officials would see the light, speak freely, and tell the truth now? CREW first called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the firings back in March of 2007; it is gratifying to see that 18 months later, the Justice Department finally has recognized the matter merits criminal investigation. Why the delay? The only feasible explanation: to ensure the Bush administration is long over before anyone could ever be held responsible for one of the most shameful episodes in the administration’s history.

As noted below, today, Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys.  The report issued by DOJ's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility has also implicated another member of Congress -- Senator Kit Bond (R-MO):

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsiblity and its Inspector General have released their long-awaited report on the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys -- including Todd Graves of the western district of Missouri.

The nearly 400-page report concludes Graves was one of the attorneys forced out -- and it blames Kit Bond's staff for the ouster.  

"Graves faced opposition from the staff of his home-state senator, Kit Bond, which we concluded likely led to his removal."

Major development in the on-going scandal surrounding the firings of the U.S. Attorneys:

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a special prosecutor to pursue possible criminal charges against Republicans involved in the controversial firings of U.S. attorneys.

The move is the top recommendation of a Justice Department investigation that harshly criticizes Bush administration officials, members of Congress and their aides.

Results of the investigation were made public Monday. The report singled out the removal of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias (ih-GLAY'-see-us) of New Mexico as the most troubling.

 Dan Froomkin, who writes the White House briefing at Washington Post.com, doesn't think the illegal actions cited in the DOJ report were originated at the DOJ.  After all, Monica Goodling was the White House liaison:

The big fish keep swimming away.

The latest investigation into the overt politicization of the Department of Justice has meticulously documented how a handful of young political appointees blatantly violated federal laws and Justice Department policies by hiring career employees based on the extent of their devotion to Republican dogma.

But the report doesn't address who is responsible for creating the culture of corruption in which these aides thrived.

Who asked them to behave this way? Or, barring an explicit request, how did they come to conclude that this was what their superiors expected of them? Who twisted the Justice Department, designed to operate with a large degree of independence, into a political adjunct of the White House?

And is it really just a coincidence that Monica Goodling, the central culprit of this latest report, held the title of White House liaison?

A June report by the same two Justice Department offices that produced yesterday's findings concluded that over a five year period, aides stocked a prestigious hiring program with young conservatives, intending to reshape the department's ranks. Two more internal reports are in the works, one about political interference with the Civil Rights Division and the other about the role of politics in the administration's controversial firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

Whether the eager, young politicos who carried out these policies are held accountable is one question. But who was pulling their strings is another.

It's unlikely that former absentee landlord Alberto Gonzales was a key player here. Not only did some of these practices pre-date him, but his primary task, which he bungled, appears to have been to conceal the fact that he wasn't the one calling the shots.

Indeed, it's hard to reach any conclusion other than that White House political operatives masterminded a plan to defile the Justice Department's mission in the short run and to seed its ranks with people who will be in a position to continue the corruption for a long time to come.

An editorial in today's New York Times challenges the Attorney General to prosecute the illegalities that occurred at the Department of Justice.  A report released yesterday by the department outlines the illegal actions taken by senior staffers.  If crimes were committed, punishment is warranted -- especially at the Department of Justice:

Mr. Mukasey’s response to the report focused on making sure that the improper and illegal activity “does not occur again.” He does not seem to understand that, as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, he has a duty to investigate crimes committed in his own department and to punish the offenders. The report’s authors could not interview Ms. Goodling because she no longer works at the Justice Department. Mr. Mukasey, who has subpoena power, presumably could get her to talk — as well as Mr. Rove, Ms. Miers and all of the others who need to testify under oath before this matter can be put to rest.

The strength of American democracy depends on our ability to be shocked by abuses like these — and to punish them appropriately.

Newly released report finds illegalities in Department of Justice hiring practices.  We'll have more as it develops:

A new Justice Department report concludes that politics illegally influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges, and largely lays the blame on top aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Monday's report singles out the department's former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, for violating federal law and Justice Department policy by discriminating against job applicants who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists.

The 140-page report does not indicate whether Goodling or former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson could face any charges. None of those involved in the discriminatory hiring still work at Justice, meaning they will avoid any department penalties.

However, Justice investigators said that Goodling, at least, may lose her license to practice law as a result of the findings.

Gonzales was largely unaware of the hiring decisions by two of his most trusted aides. The report said his aides' decisions weeded out Democrats and that Goodling also rejected at least one lesbian job applicant.

AFP has a report on today's hearing: 

US Senators on Wednesday grilled Veterans Affairs Administration (VA) officials over an email branding soldiers as "compensation-seekers" and urging staff to make fewer diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

"Citing 'compensation-seeking veterans,' the email in question encourages VA practitioners to avoid diagnosing veterans with PTSD in order to save time and money," Senator Patty Murray told a hearing of the Senate Veterans' Affairs committee.

"This email is a sad reminder that this administration's attempt to hide the true cost of war has begun to affect the way VA employees view their work," Murray said.

Mental health specialist Norma Perez sent out the email in March to staff at the VA medical center in Texas, where she was a coordinator of the PTSD clinical team.

Senators at the hearing cited the email as saying: "Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I would like to see you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out."

Perez said the aim of her email was to urge staff to be "more sensitive to what the veterans are going through." She did not explain how the email was intended to achieve that.

Other VA officials praised the veterans' agency in their testimonies and highlighted the enormous workload that is weighing it down as claims for PTSD snowball.

Yet another of the central figures in the US Attorneys scandal is resigning.  Paul Kiel at TPMmuckraker broke the news last night:

Bradley Schlozman, a former Justice Department official who was at the center of the U.S. attorneys scandal and is under investigation by the Departments inspector general for his alleged efforts to politicize the Civil Rights Division, has finally left his post at the Department.

After he left his position as the U.S. attorney in Kansas City this April, Schlozman moved to the Justice Department office that oversees all U.S. attorneys. Reached on his cell phone today, Schlozman confirmed that he'd left the Department last week, but refused to say anything more and then hung up.

That makes Schlozman the latest in a long line of Department officials to leave in the wake of the firings scandal, including former White House liaison Monica Goodling, chief of staff Kyle Sampson, Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, and his chief of staff Michael Elston.

For some reason, the United States Department of Justice is not pursuing cases brought under the False Claims Act that could be worth very large sums of money.  Congress is trying to figure out why the DOJ has chosen not to participate in these cases relating to Iraq:

The Justice Department has opted out of at least 10 whistle-blower lawsuits alleging fraud and corruption in government reconstruction and security contracts in Iraq, and has spent years investigating additional fraud cases but has yet to try to recover any money.

A congressional subcommittee heard testimony on the matter yesterday, as lawmakers sought to determine why the federal government has not done more to recover tens of millions of dollars that allegedly have been misused or misspent in Iraq.

"I would expect, given the talent that the Justice Department has available to it, . . . that they could have done more," Representative William D. Delahunt, Democrat of Quincy, said at the hearing. "I have the uneasy feeling like we're missing something here, a potential substantial recovery."

The government's reluctance to join in any of the civil suits has sparked allegations of political interference.

If there's one thing we've seen about the current Department of Justice, it's that it is political interference plays a role, unfortunately.