John McKay was the US Attorney for Western Washington until last month, one of seven nationwide. The Bush administration used an obscure provision of the Patriot Act to remove them and install appointees who would not be approved by the Senate. Yesterday, a Justice Department spokesman stated the US Attorneys were asked to resign due to performance related issues. Today, John McKay called BS:
"I was ordered to resign as U.S. attorney on Dec. 7 by the Justice Department...I was given no explanation. I certainly was told of no performance issues."
He has other supporters as well:
"John McKay has worked diligently for our region and it is deeply disconcerting that he could have been let go for political reasons," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "Congress and the American people have no tolerance for the politicization of the U.S. attorney's office."
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Robert Lasnik, the chief U.S. District Court judge for the Western District of Washington, said he and his fellow judges could not understand the firing and were dismayed that the Justice Department implied there was anything wrong with McKay's performance.
"This is unanimous among the judges: John McKay was a superb U.S. attorney," Lasnik said. "For the Justice Department to suggest otherwise is just not fair."
"By every measure, the performance of his office improved during his tenure," Lasnik added. "If you talk to local prosecutors, or local sheriffs, or the FBI or the ATF, they never had the kind of service from the U.S. attorney's office in terms of service, cooperation and aggressive handling of cases that they had under John McKay's leadership. We're busier than ever before because they're bringing more cases."
This is such a hallmark of Bush management: do your best to fuck up a working government institution, one that may actually have a strong role in preventing terrorism from both domestic and foreign sources.
Even Republican Norm Maleng, King County Prosecutor, doesn't understand what's going on:
King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, who is heading a committee to help select McKay's permanent replacement, said McKay's pursuit of terror suspects, from Ressam to a local group that sought to establish a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore., was a hallmark of his tenure, as was improving communication between state and federal law enforcement.
"That statement that it was 'performance-related,' no one can understand what was meant by that," Maleng said. "It isn't just that he did a good job. He did an outstanding job."
Just another day in Bushworld...
Update [2007-2-8 10:1:11 by lapin]:From this morning's Seattle Times:
McKay got good review 7 months before ouster
Seven months before he was forced to resign as U.S. attorney for the western district of Washington, John McKay received a glowing performance review from Justice Department evaluators.
"McKay is an effective, well-regarded and capable leader of the [U.S. attorney's office] and the District's law enforcement community," the team of 27 Justice Department officials concluded, according to a copy of their final report obtained by The Seattle Times.
Performance issues? Why didn't they show up in his evaluation?