Posted by Orin Kerr:
Were Mass Resignations Planned at DOJ?:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_05_27-2007_06_02.shtml#1180291204
We have known for a while that friction between DOJ and the White
House over some kind of secret surveillance system led a number of top
DOJ officials to come close to resigning back in 2004. [1]Newsweek has
a piece suggesting that the threatened resignations may have been
broader than originally thought. Here is the picture Newsweek
portrays, as told in a present-tense reconstruction:
Appalled by the White House's heavy-handed attempt to coerce the
gravely ill attorney general, virtually the entire top leadership
of the Justice Department is threatening to resign. The group
includes the director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, Associate
Attorney General Robert McCallum and the chief of the Criminal
Division, Chris Wray. Some of them gather in the conference room of
Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who describes Ashcroft's
bravely turning away the president's men from his hospital bed. The
mood that night in the conference room was tense�and sober. "This
was a showdown," says a former senior Justice Department official
who was there. "Everybody understood the choice they were making
and the gravity of the situation. Everybody knew what the stakes
were." A different source estimated that as many as 30 top DOJ
officials would have resigned. . . . "This was not ideological,"
recalled a former Ashcroft aide. "This was about the difference
between pushing the limits to the edge of the line and crossing the
line."
Thanks to [2]Josh Marshall for the link.
References
1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18881810/site/newsweek/
2. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/
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