SEATTLE – U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified Thursday that concerns about the judgment of former Seattle U.S. Attorney John McKay led to his firing, a suggestion McKay called “absurd.”
In particular, Gonzales cited McKay’s authorship of a letter criticizing delays in implementing a law enforcement information-sharing program, as well as comments he made to a Seattle newspaper last fall about the staffing levels in his office.
“Generally I recollect there being serious concerns about his judgment,” Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “What I’ve since learned is it related to an information-sharing program.”
“It’s a sad day for the Department of Justice because the attorney general missed an opportunity to testify with honor,” McKay responded after watching the testimony.
McKay’s letter to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty last August was co-signed by 16 other U.S. attorneys from around the country, and McKay spoke with McNulty ahead of time to get permission to send the letter. The newspaper interview was published Sept. 22 – eight days after McKay’s name appeared on a list of prosecutors to be fired.
McKay was one of seven U.S. attorneys ordered to resign last Dec. 7. Several months earlier, his office had received a glowing evaluation. He was given no explanation and told of no performance problems, giving rise to speculation that his firing may have been motivated by political reasons.
Some Republicans in Washington state had complained to the Bush administration that McKay, a Republican appointed by Bush in 2001, did not diligently investigate claims of voter fraud during the 2004 gubernatorial election. McKay says there was absolutely no evidence of such fraud.
In response to questioning, Gonzales said Thursday he did not know where then-White House Counsel Harriett Miers might have got the notion that McKay mishandled the voter fraud investigation. McKay has said that when he met last August with Miers about a vacancy on the federal bench in Seattle, he was asked to explain why Republicans in the state would be angry at him – an apparent reference to the vote fraud concerns.
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