Meanwhile, the hearings also featured much more on the pressure placed on the fired prosecutors not to speak publicly. Talking Points Memo has the full email former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins sent to five of the other fired prosecutors. According to a Bloomberg account:
"They feel like they are taking unnecessary flak to avoid trashing each of us specifically or further, but if they feel like any of us intend to continue to offer quotes to the press, or to organize behind-the-scenes congressional pressure, then they would feel forced to somehow pull their gloves off," Cummins wrote in an e-mail to the other fired prosecutors that was released by the committee today.
The Justice Department's response did nothing to alleviate the notion that their response to the prosecutors going public with the political nature of their firings would include smears.
"A private and collegial conversation between Mike Elston and Bud Cummins is now somehow being twisted into a perceived threat by former disgruntled employees grandstanding before Congress,'' Roehrkasse said.
As David Kurtz writes over at TPM (which is really owning this story, as you'll note from the links in this post)
As I watch the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the fired U.S. Attorneys, I'm reminded of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings. I don't think any congressional hearings have been as riveting since then, nor have any generated as much news as this one. A seminal moment.
This week has actually provided some competition on that front, with yesterday's hearings on the conditions at Walter Reed, but any time that's the league you're playing in, it's a big deal.
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