It’s been a little while, but the last time we checked in with the purge scandal, about a month ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked the AG how many U.S. Attorneys he’d fired during his tenure. He said he didn’t know.
After acknowledging the nine we know about from the purge, Gonzales said, “I’m not aware, sitting here today, of any other U.S. Attorney who was asked to leave — except there were some instances people were asked to leave, quite frankly, because there was legitimate cause.” (Given that he’d just named nine other U.S. Attorneys who’d been fired, it sounded like he was conceding that they’d been fired for illegitimate causes.)
He added, “Senator, there may have been others [fired prosecutors]. I would be happy to get back to you with that kind of information about who has left. But I don’t know the answer to your question. But I can certainly find out.”
The good news is, Feinstein has finally heard back from the Justice Department. The bad news is, DoJ officials have decided not to cooperate with the request.
