Fired U.S. Attorneys: Justice 'declined' under Gonzales

[maddezmom]

Source: Indian Country

Posted: June 12, 2007
by: Kara Briggs / Today correspondent


ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Three former U.S. Attorneys fired by the U.S. Justice Department last December told tribal leaders attending the National Congress of the American Indian convention that the potential for justice in Indian country had declined under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

''Alberto Gonzales doesn't know anything about crime in Indian country,'' Paul Charlton, the former U.S. Attorney from Arizona, told leaders. ''And the Justice Department doesn't care.''

Speaking as on the same day in which Gonzales survived a no confidence vote the U.S. Senate, Charlton, former U.S. Attorney from the Western District of Michigan Margaret Chiara and former U.S. Attorney for Nevada Dan Bogden stopped short of saying that they were fired because of their attention to crime on reservation land.

Yet five of the eight fired attorneys, including Charlton, Chiara and Bogden, were appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Attorneys' Subcommittee on Native American Issues in 2001. Another attorney, Tom Heffelfinger, former U.S. Attorney from Minnesota, was chairman of the subcommittee for five years until he quit last year. Only later did he learn that he was on the list slated for firing.



Read more: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415203

[Supersedeas]

1. nothing to see here -- Corp Media has Fred Thompson & Paris Hilton to focus on