by emptywheel
Hey, big surprise, in all the 4000 pages of document dump DOJ has given us so far, it hasn't turned over the smoking guns. Turns out the Judiciary Committee staffers working on USA purge learned of a "new batch" of documents in the last two weeks (thanks to Mauimom for the heads up).
QUOTE
Senate Democrats now want all Justice Department documents related to the firings, including the previously unreleased ones deemed too sensitive for release by the agency. Democratic investigators were upset to learn about the additional batch of records in recent visits to the department, according to a Senate aide who requested anonymity to talk freely about the standoff.
The aide said the Senate Judiciary Committee "has lodged objections several times" about not being given the new documents. They were discovered over the past two weeks as staff investigators for the House and Senate judiciary panels, working in a special office inside the Justice Department, reviewed the censored portions of e-mails and other records that had already been sent to Capitol Hill in redacted form, according to Justice Department and Senate aides.
And apparently, DOJ doesn't want to turn these documents over. "You can look, but don't touch." Or take notes. Or do anything to collect evidence about why they really fired 8 USAs (and considered firing three more).The aide said the Senate Judiciary Committee "has lodged objections several times" about not being given the new documents. They were discovered over the past two weeks as staff investigators for the House and Senate judiciary panels, working in a special office inside the Justice Department, reviewed the censored portions of e-mails and other records that had already been sent to Capitol Hill in redacted form, according to Justice Department and Senate aides.
So Congress is going to subpoena the documents. Not only that, they're not going to let AGAG come in to ask for more money until he turns over the documents.
QUOTE
...Senate Democrats postponed a long-planned budgetary appearance by Gonzales that had been scheduled for next week. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee panel overseeing the Justice Department budget, blamed Gonzales's "leadership failures" yesterday for the postponement and demanded that the prosecutor controversy be settled before he makes his plea for a budget increase.
Now, keep in mind, when Chuck Schumer demanded that Kyle Sampson give him the names of those who weren't fired (though he had agreed he wouldn't ask for this information publicly), he had presumably already learned of those documents and what they included. So I'm guessing that, in addition to more specious justifications for firing the USAs, Congress is fighting for these documents as a way to reveal the names of the other USAs considered for firing. Any guesses as to why Schumer is fighting to make those names public?
Who knows--maybe DOJ is willing to work on last year's budget in order to avoid turning over that information. Because it seems like Congress is now using the power of the purse, as well as subpoenas, to get that information.
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