Gonzales Deputy, in Crossfire,
rc...@mailinator.com
Looks for Quiet Exit
McNulty Seeks Job
In Private Sector;
Scrutiny Intensifies
By EVAN PEREZ
April 16, 2007; Page A5
WASHINGTON -- With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the ropes over
the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, is
quietly testing the waters for a new job.
He may need one, if critics have their way. Some Democrats and
conservative Republicans argue that the deputy attorney general, who
so far has been relatively unscathed, should shoulder more
responsibility for the mishandling of the firings, which has
devastated morale at the Justice Department and embarrassed the Bush
administration.
At a Judiciary Committee hearing in February, Mr. McNulty said the
Bush-appointed prosecutors were dismissed for "performance-related"
reasons. When the fired prosecutors spoke out in defense of their
reputations, it triggered widespread media coverage and fueled a new
round of congressional questions. Mr. McNulty also said Bud Cummins, a
U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., was fired to make way for a former
aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove.
Still, the focus remains Mr. McNulty's boss, Mr. Gonzales, who is to
testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow. Mr. Gonzales,
in prepared remarks he plans to deliver to the panel, says of the
eight fired prosecutors: "I apologize to them and to their families
for allowing this matter to become an unfortunate and undignified
public spectacle, and I am sorry for my missteps that have helped to
fuel the controversy."
If the political and public pressure on Mr. Gonzales leads to his
resignation, Mr. McNulty could be first in line to assume his duties
until a successor is appointed.
Even before the controversy erupted, Mr. McNulty, 49 years old, had
been making plans to join the private sector after 24 years in
government, which included a term as U.S. attorney in Virginia's
Eastern District, people familiar with his plans said. Knowing he
would like to take a higher-paying job, partly to cover tuition for
his four college-age children, well before the end of the
administration, his friends recently have sent out feelers on his
behalf for possible corporate and law-firm jobs, the people said.
[Paul McNulty]
Mr. McNulty says future plans aren't his focus now. "I am fully
focused on doing my job and haven't given much thought to what comes
next," he said Friday. "To be honest, there hasn't been much time for
that."
Mr. McNulty's supporters say he doesn't deserve any more blame than he
already has received. William Barr, general counsel at Verizon
Communications Inc., served as U.S. attorney general under the first
President Bush and chose Mr. McNulty to work as a close aide at the
Justice Department. "This doesn't seem to be a stink bomb of his
making." Mr. Barr said. "...I'd hate to see him made the scapegoat;
the main screwups were not his."
Some critics argue the deputy attorney general should get more of the
blame. "What got [the Justice Department] in trouble was this hatchet
job and trashing of the reputations of these people," said Mark
Carollo, who ran the Justice Department's public affairs office under
John Ashcroft and now works as a consultant in Washington. "Paul
McNulty does have to take some responsibility for that."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said in a Senate speech
last month that she felt misled by Mr. Gonzales' Jan. 18 testimony to
the Senate Judiciary Committee and by a private briefing by Mr.
McNulty to some members of the panel a week after his Feb. 6 public
testimony. "It turned out that the performance reports of the very
people he [Mr. McNulty] was saying were being terminated on the basis
of performance were all excellent," she said.
Mr. Gonzales's supporters at the Justice Department say Mr. McNulty
went off-script during the congressional hearing when he cited
performance as a reason for the dismissals. In Mr. McNulty's defense,
people close to him said that in a Feb. 5 preparatory session before
his testimony, it was agreed that if pressed, he would have to cite
"performance." Mr. Gonzales had made a passing reference to
performance as a factor in his own Senate testimony in January.
Another reason some conservatives believe Mr. McNulty deserves more
scrutiny is that he has been spared much public criticism from Sen.
Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat who has led the investigation
of the firings. People close to the two men said they have a warm
relationship that dates to when they both worked on the House
Judiciary Committee's crime subcommittee in the early 1990s, with Mr.
Schumer chairing the panel and Mr. McNulty serving as a counsel for
the Republican minority.
Sen. Schumer says he isn't sparing Mr. McNulty of scrutiny, but he
notes, "No one has said McNulty was at the center of this." Sen.
Schumer says he credits Mr. McNulty for being "the first to come
forward. He said he knew nothing about it. He said he was misled by
others. What you logically do is ask questions of those others, and
then come back to McNulty."
At the private briefing for some Judiciary panel members on Feb. 14,
people familiar with the meeting said, Mr. Schumer peppered Mr.
McNulty with questions, interrupting him frequently.
Mr. McNulty's return to the hot seat may come soon, congressional
aides say. Following a week of interviews of Justice staffers by the
committee, congressional staff expect to interview Mr. McNulty perhaps
as early as Friday.
Write to Evan Perez at evan....@wsj.com
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