Attorneygate: Bill Clinton's 1993 Purge of U.S. Attorneys

TheVanguard.org ^ | April 14, 2007 | Richard Poe

[Richard Poe]

I hope this list inspires others to take the research to the next level. Many questions cry out for exploration. For instance, what cases were the fired U.S. Attorneys working on? Why did so many of their Clinton-appointed replacements serve such a short time, before being replaced in turn? And so forth.

[Richard Poe]

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF of my Hillary ping list.

[potlatch]

93 U.S. Attorneys whose resignations the Clinton administration demanded

Excellent list Richard and I have it bookmarked. Thanks for the post and ping!

[fanfan]

Hi.

Please remove me from this ping list.

Thanks.
:-)

[M Kehoe]

Good afternoon, and good work.

I have an answer for this question: "For instance, what cases were the fired U.S. Attorneys working on? "

And the answer is numbers 6 and 7 on your list.

[Queue Carson] Karnak: give me the envelop Ed, the question: What is Whitewater, and why are so many people associated with it in prison or dead?"

Not to mention Castle Grande (sp) or cattle futures...

5.56mm

[the_Watchman]

I visited the site for the District of Connecticut. Your list says that the Clinton appointee served to “present”. The DOJ site lists a Bush appointee who began service in 2002.

Do you know the pedigree of your list? When was it prepared? Prior to 2002?

Are any of the Clinton appointees still serving?

[conservative in nyc]

Not all 93 USAs were fired by Clinton. Some USA seats were already being held by temporary appointments, and as your chart suggests, some Bush-appointed USAs were ultimately allowed to serve past that day in March 1993. In fact, as your chart shows, John Raley from the Eastern District of Oklahoma was reappointed to his post by President Clinton.

The number of Clinton-fired Bush appointees was likely about 70.

Thoughts at the time were that all were fired so that the U.S. Attorneys investigating Rostenkowski and Whitewater could be canned without causing a major uproar.

[processing please hold]

Thanks for the ping and your post.

Different rules apply to dims.

[DakotaRed]

More impotant than this list, what of the other 30 or so he let go during his administration? Why were they discharged? What were they working on?

[Richard Poe]

Not all 93 USAs were fired by Clinton. ... The number of Clinton-fired Bush appointees was likely about 70.

As I understand it, Janet Reno demanded resignations from all 93 U.S. Attorneys, but did not accept every resignation tendered, in obedience to her order. Some U.S. Attorneys were left in place -- on a probationary basis, one might say.

[Liberty Wins]

From the NY Times of March 26, 1992: "Any hope that the Clinton Administration would operate a Justice Department free of political taint -- or even the appearance of political taint -- grew dim yesterday when the White House confirmed that it would dismiss the U.S. Attorney investigating one of its chief Congressional allies." (Rostenkowski)

And by the way, when is Congress looking into cases where partisan politics played a role in false indictments, say, that of Majority Leader Tom DeLay?

[GiovannaNicoletta]

bookmark

[conservative in nyc]

As best I can tell, 35 Clinton-appointed U.S. Attorneys left office during the Clinton years (including one Clinton re-appointee from the Bush I administration). Of the 35:

7 left to become federal judges;
2 left for other jobs in the Clinton administration;
1 left to become an immigration judge (N.D.CA USA Yamaguchi - under circumstances very similar to Bush N.D.CA USA Ryan);
7 left to run for elective office (including 1 who ultimately ran for NYS judge);
13 left to go into private practice or non-elected public service;
2 retired;
1 joined the office of special counsel investigating Waco; and
2 left because they assaulted someone (Colleton/Coffey).

6 of the Clinton Appointees resigned in August-October of 1997 to retire or enter private practice. These included:

1) Frederick W. Thieman (W.D.PA) (8/1/97). He had just indicted some bigwig Democrat donors on 7/18/97;
2) Kent B. Alexander (N.D.GA) (8/15/97). He was responsible for prosecuting the Centennial Olympic Bombing case;
3) John W. Raley, Jr. (E.D.OK) (8/15/97). Raley was a George H.W. Bush appointee who was reappointed by Clinton. He supposedly retired;
4) James B. Burns (N.D.IL) (8/20/97);
5) Patrick H. NeMoyer (9/26/97). He ultimately ended up running for NYS Supreme Court - in 1998 (which, despite the name, is our lowest state court, one step above city and town courts); and
6) Gaynelle Griffin Jones (10/10/97). According to some reports, she may have been subject to an internal DOJ probe regarding her handling of local investigations.

I have no proof that any of the six were forced out, but isn't it a bit strange that they all left about the same time, which also happened to be around the time some of their terms were going to expire?

[Richard Poe]

"I visited the site for the District of Connecticut. Your list says that the Clinton appointee served to “present”. The DOJ site lists a Bush appointee who began service in 2002.

"Do you know the pedigree of your list? When was it prepared? Prior to 2002?

You're right. The list is old, and does not always include recent appointees. It is mainly of interest to see what happened during the Clinton years.

The list was provided to the House Judiciary Committee on March 5, 2007, by one Richard A. Hertling, Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice's Office of Legislative Affairs.

However, Hertling notes that the list was taken from an older publication titled, The Bicentennial Celebration of the United States (he gives no date).

You can download a copy of the list, along with Hertling's correspondence, from this link.

[hosepipe]

Yoemans and worthy work.. thanks..

[conservative in nyc]

As I understand it, Janet Reno demanded resignations from all 93 U.S. Attorneys, but did not accept every resignation tendered, in obedience to her order. Some U.S. Attorneys were left in place -- on a probationary basis, one might say.

Some of the U.S. Attorneys were court-appointed temporary replacements whose resignations probably couldn't be forced. Not every USA position was filled with a political appointee in March 1993.

And of the Carter/Reagan/Bush USA appointees in office, John Raley, James Wilson (M.D.AL), Karen Caldwell (E.D.KY), Raymond LaMonica (M.D.LA), Michael Chertoff (D.NJ), Ernest Williams (M.D.TN), Richard Stacy (D.WY), John Smietanka (W.D.MI), George Phillips (S.D.MS) and Frederick Black (D. Guam) likely served past the March 1993 firing date.

[Richard Poe]

Good analysis.

I suppose this may have some relevance as well:

---

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

July 29, 1993

The President nominated eight individuals to be U.S. Attorneys today:

Eric H. Holder, Jr., for the District of Columbia
Michael Joseph Yamaguchi for the Northern District of
California
Randall K. Rathbun for the District of Kansas
Thomas Justin Monaghan for the District of Nebraska
Stephen Charles Lewis for the Northern District of Oklahoma
Vicki Miles-LaGrange for the Western District of Oklahoma
John W. Raley, Jr. for the Eastern District of Oklahoma
Frederick W. Theiman for the Western District of
Pennsylvania

Read more »

[HardStarboard]

It is my understanding that, after replacing all 93 US Attorneys in March '93, Clinton then proceeded to replace 30 of those over the rest of his tenure.

It would be interesting to know the circumstances of those 30 firings replacements.

[JessieHelmsJr]

bm for later