Justice Dept. Lawyers Join Chorus Criticizing Gonzales (WAPO)

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Justice Dept. Lawyers Join Chorus Criticizing Gonzales

By PHILIP SHENON and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: July 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 27 — Daniel J. Metcalfe, a lawyer who began his government career in the Nixon administration and retired from the Justice Department last winter, said morale at the department was worse under Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales than during Watergate.

Under a Microscope John S. Koppel, who continues to work at the department as a civil appellate lawyer in Washington, wrote this month that he was “ashamed” of the department and that if Mr. Gonzales told the truth in recent Congressional testimony, “he has been derelict in the performance of his duties and is not up to the job.”

Even though they worry that it may hinder their career prospects, a few current and former Justice Department lawyers have begun to add to the chorus of Mr. Gonzales’s critics who say that the furor over his performance as attorney general, and questions about his truthfulness under oath, could do lasting damage to the department’s work.

It is a view that is widely shared on Capitol Hill, even more so after the grueling questioning of Mr. Gonzales on Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which his credibility was repeatedly challenged. After the hearing, several Democratic senators called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether he committed perjury on Tuesday.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/washington/28gonzales.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1185628656-oqH5pNQi+2TuCRX0tza95g&oref=slogin