Terms Expire Today For 11 Of Gonzales’ Handpicked Interim U.S. Attorneys

[CatWoman]

In 2006, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took advantage of a little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act to appoint 11 interim U.S. attorneys. But because the Senate revised the legislation in June, those attorneys’ terms expire today.

These 11 prosecutors now “find themselves at the mercy of the same U.S. district courts that the Justice Department saw fit to cut out of the U.S. Attorney appointment process last year.” The courts today will decide whether to reappoint these prosecutors who were handpicked by Gonzales and the White House.

Many judges and former U.S. attorneys believe that the federal courts today will be “less inclined than they have been in the past to rubber-stamping the attorney general’s interim picks.” As the Legal Times notes, “Some have served without Senate confirmation or court scrutiny for more than a year, inviting credibility questions.” A look at a couple of these prosecutors:

Nelson Cohen: Although the Attorney General is supposed to work with the state’s senators to find a U.S. attorney, Gonzales appointed Cohen as the U.S. attorney in Alaska over the objections of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). Stevens said he was “furious at the way the Attorney General handled the matter” and resented that Cohen was from Pennsylvania, not Alaska.

Daniel Knauss: As in the case of Cohen in Alaska, the Justice Department “dodg recommendations from Arizona’s two U.S. senators” in order to appoint Knauss.

Rosa Rodriguez-Velez: Rodriguez-Velez is allegedly “leading a politically motivated investigation” into possibly illegal campaign contributions by Puerto Rico’s Democratic governor. Several senators have expressed reservations about Rodriguez-Velez.

Jeffrey Taylor: In May, Taylor, the U.S. attorney in DC, caved to the requests of four Justice Department officials to hire Jay Apperson. As an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia in the 1990s, Apperson “infuriated fellow prosecutors when he facetiously suggested a White History Month to complement Black History Month.” Taylor allowed him to “skip the rigorous vetting process that the vast majority of career federal prosecutors face.”

One of the 11 U.S. attorneys, James Dedrick, was confirmed by the Senate earlier this month. The U.S. attorney in San Francisco, Scott Schools, was recently reappointed by San Francisco’s federal judges for up to another four months. U.S. attorneys Jeffrey Sullivan in Washington and Karen Hewitt in California have also been reappointed by the district’s federal judges. Rodriguez-Velez cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, but Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has put a hold on her nomination.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/12/attorneys-expire/