Many U.S. attorney posts go to insiders

WASHINGTON — About one-third of the nearly four dozen U.S. attorney's jobs that have changed hands since President Bush began his second term have been filled by the White House and Justice Department with trusted administration insiders.

The people chosen as chief federal prosecutors on a temporary or permanent basis since early 2005 include 10 senior aides to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, according to an analysis of government records. Several came from the White House or other government agencies. Some lacked experience as prosecutors or had no connection to districts in which they were sent to work, records and biographical information show.

The new U.S. attorneys filled vacancies created through natural turnover in addition to the firings of eight prosecutors that have prompted a political uproar and congressional investigations.

No other administration in contemporary times has had such a clear pattern of filling chief prosecutors' jobs with its own staff members, said experts on U.S. attorney's offices. Those experts said the emphasis in appointments traditionally has been on local roots and deference to home-state senators, whose support has been crucial to win confirmation of the nominees.

The pattern from Bush's second term suggests that the dismissals were half of a two-pronged approach: While getting rid of prosecutors who did not adhere closely to administration priorities, such as rigorous enforcement of immigration violations and GOP allegations of voter fraud, White House and Justice officials also have seeded federal prosecutors' offices with people on whom they can depend to carry out the administration's agenda.

The interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., Bradley Schlozman, for example, was a deputy in Justice's civil-rights division who helped overrule career government lawyers in approving a Texas redistricting plan pushed by Tom DeLay, R-Texas, then House majority leader. In January, the White House nominated a permanent replacement, John Wood, who is counselor to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. Neither Schlozman nor Wood has been a prosecutor before.

Justice officials defend their record of U.S. attorney selections, saying that a larger share of Bush's choices since the start of his first term have had experience as federal prosecutors than those of President Clinton. One Justice official acknowledged that a number of administration insiders have been chosen but said there was no concerted effort to do so.

As Congress pursues its investigation, some Democrats have indicated they want to explore who has been hired, in addition to the firings that have been the focal point of hearings on Capitol Hill — and of calls from both parties for Gonzales to resign.

"If we have eight U.S. attorneys dismissed because they were not 'loyal Bushies,' then how many of the remaining U.S. attorneys are?" said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., borrowing a phrase that Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, used in an internal e-mail to describe criteria by which prosecutors were chosen to be fired.

Choosing insiders as U.S. attorneys is not improper, given the wide latitude the law provides presidents in selecting federal prosecutors, and all administrations tend to choose those who share their basic legal outlook and party affiliation.

Still, academics and other experts say, the appointments appear to alter a long-standing culture of autonomy for the nation's chief prosecutors. James Eisenstein, a Pennsylvania State University political scientist who has written a book on U.S. attorneys, said that federal prosecutors historically have regarded operating "in a politically neutral, nonpartisan manner" as a cornerstone of their roles. Hiring people from Justice, Eisenstein said, "was very unusual."

Jamie Gorelick, deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, said it was uncommon during her tenure to dispatch aides from Justice to become U.S. attorneys, except in urgent circumstances, such as when Robert Mueller, now the FBI director, was named U.S. attorney in San Francisco to shore up that troubled office.

"These jobs are serious prosecutorial jobs that require judgment and an understanding of the laws that are to be enforced," she said. "They are not meant to be steppingstones."