Mar 20, 2007 · Come to think of it, Fred Thompson may be the only prospective replacement for Gonzales who – aside from an off night on TV — has not been directly involved in …
Aug 28, 2007 · Bill of Rights Supporter Must Replace Attorney-General Gonzales. After a tenure marked by assaults on the US Constitutional guarantees of liberty, controversy and partisanship by both himself and his hypocritical Democrat party critics, Bush appointee Alberto Gonzales has resigned as US Attorney-General. Goodbye and good riddance.
Aug 27, 2007 · According to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Gonzales, 51, will be temporarily replaced by Paul Clement, …
Aug 27, 2007 · U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces his resignation during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington August 27, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES) Jim Bourg / X90054
Alberto R. Gonzales was sworn in as the nation's 80th Attorney General on February 3, 2005. In his initial remarks to Department of Justice employees, Attorney General Gonzales reminded them of their mission and noted they have "a special obligation to protect America against future acts of terrorism. We will continue to make that our top ...
The change in the law undermined the confirmation authority of the Senate and gave the Attorney General greater appointment powers than the President, since the President's U.S. Attorney appointees are required to be confirmed by the Senate and those of the Attorney General did not require confirmation.
Attorney General Gonzales, in a confidential memorandum dated March 1, 2006, delegated authority to senior DOJ staff Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson to hire and dismiss political appointees and some civil service positions.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel stated that some of the emails that had involved official correspondence relating to the firing of attorneys may have been lost because they were conducted on Republican party accounts and not stored properly. "Some official e-mails have potentially been lost and that is a mistake the White House is aggressively working to correct." said Stanzel, a White House spokesman. Stonzel said that they could not rule out the possibility that some of the lost emails dealt with the firing of U.S. attorneys. For example, J. Scott Jennings, an aide to Karl Rove communicated with Justice Department officials "concerning the appointment of Tim Griffin, a former Rove aide, as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, according to e-mails released in March, 2007. For that exchange, Jennings, although working at the White House, used an e-mail account registered to the Republican National Committee, where Griffin had worked as a political opposition researcher."
On September 29, 2008 the Justice Department's Inspector General (IG) released a report on the matter that found most of the firings were politically motivated and improper.
A subsequent report by the Justice Department Inspector General in October 2008 found that the process used to fire the first seven attorneys and two others dismissed around the same time was "arbitrary", "fundamentally flawed" and "raised doubts about the integrity of Department prosecution decisions".
Allegations were that some of the attorneys were targeted for dismissal to impede investigations of Republican politicians or that some were targeted for their failure to initiate investigations that would damage Democratic politicians or hamper Democratic-leaning voters.
The IG's report contained "substantial evidence" that party politics drove a number of the firings, and IG Glenn Fine said in a statement that Gonzales had "abdicated his responsibility to safeguard the integrity and independence of the department.".
Gonzales resigns as U.S. attorney general. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ resignation Monday after months of draining controversy drew expressions of relief from Republicans and a vow from Democrats to pursue their investigation into fired federal prosecutors. [!]
Gonzales was White House counsel during the president’s first term, then replaced Ashcroft as attorney general soon after the beginning of the second.
As counsel, Gonzales helped get Bush excused from jury duty in 1996, which kept him from having to disclose a drunken driving arrest in Maine in 1976.
Comey described the events as “an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general.”. Gonzales subsequently denied that the dispute was about the terrorist surveillance program, but his credibility was undercut when FBI Director Robert S. Mueller contradicted him.
Gonzales also has struggled in recent months to explain his involvement in a 2004 meeting at the hospital bedside of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who had refused to certify the legality of Bush’s no-warrant wiretapping program. Ashcroft was in intensive care at the time. More broadly, the attorney general’s personal credibility has been ...
Leahy soon began investigating the firing of federal prosecutors. Testifying on April 19 before the Judiciary Committee, Gonzales answered “I don’t know” and “I can’t recall” scores of times when asked about events surrounding the firings.
Science News. Science News Da Vinci’s DNA traced through living relatives to understand his genius. Recent Bush administration departures. Gonzales was one of the longest-serving members of a group of Texans who came to Washington with Bush more than six years ago at the dawn of a new administration.
Gonzales served in the United States Air Force between 1973 and 1975, and attended the United States Air Force Academy between 1975 and 1977.
Gonzales was recognized as the 1999 Latino Lawyer of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association, and he received a Presidential Citation from the State Bar of Texas in 1997 for his dedication to addressing basic legal needs of the indigent.
In his initial remarks to Department of Justice employees, Attorney General Gonzales reminded them of their mission and noted they have "a special obligation to protect America against future acts of terrorism.
Gonzales was honored by the United Way in 1993 with a Commitment to Leadership Award, and received the Hispanic Salute Award in 1989 from the Houston Metro Ford Dealers for his work in the field of education. Gonzales was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Houston.
There is wide speculation surrounding Gonzales' potential replacement. Justice Department Solicitor General Paul Clement has been chosen to fill the role temporarily, until the Senate confirms a new attorney general. Clement is the highest-ranking official at the department who is not involved in the fired U.S. attorneys controversy.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow defended Gonzales' statements in a July 27 press briefing, saying, "I understand it's difficult to parse because what you have involved here are matters of classification — attempts to discuss those in an open congressional setting."
In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 24, the attorney general dismissed then-Acting Attorney General James Comey's statement that a March 10, 2004, White House briefing with congressional leaders specifically addressed the Terrorist Surveillance Program, which allowed the government to use wiretaps without court authorization. A still-classified program, possibly related to TSP, was set to expire the next day.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's senior Republican, Penns ylvania's Arlen Specter, has publicly called for the attorney general's resignation. He also alluded to the possibility that the panel would examine whether Gonzales had lied to Congress, telling Gonzales at the July 24 hearing, "My suggestion to you is that you review your testimony very carefully."
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., issued a statement Monday, saying that under the leadership of Gonzales, the Justice Department has "suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence."
Describing why he and Card urgently needed to talk to Ashcroft, Gonzales testified July 24 that the attorney general could have reclaimed his powers. "And he could always reclaim that. There are no rules" against it, he said.
Alberto Gonzales was born to poor Mexican immigrants on August 4, 1955, in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up in Houston as the second child of Pablo and Maria Gonzales. He had seven other siblings in the family. Gonzales was raised up under strict Roman Catholic rules as all the children within the family. Living in a two bedroomed house, the family crammed in the small house without running water.
Alberto Gonzales came from the ashes so to speak. With nothing but education, determination, and ambition, He climbed up the ladder in society. He became the first Hispanic to serve in high offices both in Texas and the US.