Report: US Attorney replacements were picked prior to firings
 Replacements for several of the fired U.S. Attorneys were picked prior to their dismissals, with the White House identifying Bush insiders for the positions, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
"The Justice Department identified five Bush administration insiders as replacement U.S. attorneys almost a year before most of the prosecutors were fired," writes Dan Eggen for the Post, "contrary to repeated claims that no such list had ever been drawn up."
Eggen reports that Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' then chief of staff, sent emails to the White House in early 2006 that listed possible replacements for attorneys in regions such as California's Southern District and the Eastern District of Arkansas.
"The replacements on the list were all high-level administration insiders, including two who have gone on to different U.S. attorney postings," says Eggen, naming the two as Jeff Taylor (District of Columbia) and Deborah Rhodes (Alabama).
Officials in the Justice Department have previously indicated that only one U.S. Attorney, Tim Griffin (Little Rock), was identified specifically as a possible replacement candidate for the fired lawyers, Eggen writes.
RAW STORY reported earlier that Sampson, in an email contained in the Justice documents release, expressed his belief that he and his staffers could ward off a major investigation into the Attorney firings by "talking some sense" into Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Excerpts from the Post article, available in full at this link, follow...
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Sampson, who has resigned as Gonzales's chief aide, also submitted prepared testimony to the Senate last month saying that, with the exception of the prosecutor in Little Rock, "none of the U.S. attorneys was asked to resign in favor of a particular individual who had already been identified to take the vacant spot."
During the same March 29 hearing, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked Sampson whether he had specific replacements in mind for seven of the prosecutors before they were fired on Dec. 7.
"I personally did not," Sampson replied. "On December 7th, I did not have in mind any replacements for any of the seven who were asked to resign."
The potential replacements are the latest contradiction to emerge from thousands of pages of Justice Department documents that have been turned over to the House and Senate, including a new batch of more than 2,000 pages delivered to Capitol Hill this morning.
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