WASHINGTON – Two House committee chairmen called today for the congressional probe into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys to be widened to include the case of an acting U.S. Attorney demoted in 2002 after he began investigating the now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his dealings with Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the Education and Labor Committee chairman, and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the Natural Resources Committee chairman, have repeatedly pressed for a full investigation of Abramoff’s dealings with the CNMI and its sweatshop industry and of the demotion of Fred Black, the then-acting U.S. Attorney for Guam and the CNMI.

Miller and Rahall said that what looked initially to them as another example of Abramoff’s excesses as a corrupt lobbyist exploiting his deep ties to the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress might in fact be part of a widespread pattern of tampering with the work of U.S. Attorneys.

Press reports and leaked emails indicated that the Bush Administration may have replaced Black because he was conducting a criminal investigation of Abramoff and his clients, and because he favored insular area policies that Abramoff and his clients opposed. Abramoff also reportedly helped to quash a classified Justice Department report that Black requested on security threats posed by CNMI’s immigration policy.

At the lawmakers’ request, the Justice Department’s Inspector General investigated the case and found numerous political contacts between Abramoff and Administration officials but reported that Black’s replacement had not been improper. Miller and Rahall believe it is now appropriate to revisit the case.

“We want to know whether high level Bush Administration officials tampered with a U.S. Attorney’s investigation of a corrupt lobbyist,” said Miller. “Black was trying to secure our borders and root out corruption while Abramoff was wining and dining the Justice Department. We need to know what happened in this case.”

In their letter to the House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairs, Miller and Rahall asked for their current probe to be expanded to include the case of Fred Black.

“In light of more recent revelations about political interference with the work of other U.S. Attorneys… it is necessary now to re-examine the case as it may represent the beginning of a pattern of behavior by some members of Congress and officials in the Bush Administration to politicize the work of U.S. Attorneys and to quash their independence.”

For additional information, see: www.house.gov/georgemiller/press/rel12606b.html

The full text of the letter is below.

Dear Chairman Conyers, Chairman Leahy, Chairwoman Sánchez, and Chairman Schumer:

The recent questions that you have been diligently investigating regarding the treatment of U.S. Attorneys recall an earlier episode that was never properly resolved. As you conduct your important oversight regarding political interference at the Department of Justice, we write to bring this related matter to your attention.

Specifically, we urge you to include in your ongoing investigation the potential political manipulation by Jack Abramoff and his allies in Congress and the Administration in criminal and immigration matters overseen by then Acting U.S. Attorney for Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Fred Black.

In October 2005, and again in January 2006, we and others asked the Attorney General to appoint an outside counsel to determine whether Black was replaced by the Bush Administration in November 2002 because he was conducting a criminal investigation of Abramoff and his clients, and because he favored insular area policies that Abramoff and his clients opposed.

As we wrote to Attorney General Gonzales, it is clear that Abramoff was given ample and, in our view, improper opportunity to weigh in with the Justice Department, and that the White House sought his counsel. Newspaper reports and leaked emails indicated that Abramoff had used his influence in the Justice Department to remove the Acting U.S. Attorney, and had worked to gain knowledge of and attempt to prevent the release of a classified review of Guam and CNMI immigration laws commissioned by Black. In one email, Abramoff explained that he had found out about the classified immigration report when “we had the COS of the Justice Department in our box at today’s Redskins game.”

In response to our request, the Department’s Inspector General reported on the breadth of Abramoff’s influence, including the fact that former White House Political Director Ken Mehlman had “recommended or suggested that [the White House Office of Political Affairs] reach out to make Jack aware” of potential nominees for the U.S. Attorney position.

The Inspector General’s June 2006 report found that Abramoff – who described the Acting U.S. Attorney as a “total commie” and told his colleagues that “We need to get this guy sniped out of there” – had weighed in and attempted to influence the process of replacing the U.S. Attorney. However, the report concluded that the replacement of the Acting U.S. Attorney had not been improper.

At the time, we viewed the replacement of the Acting U.S. Attorney as an example of the overly zealous and improper, if not illegal, conduct by the now disgraced and convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

In light of more recent revelations about political interference with the work of other U.S. Attorneys, however, it is necessary now to re-examine the case as it may represent the beginning of a pattern of behavior by some members of Congress and officials in the Bush Administration to politicize the work of U.S. Attorneys and to quash their independence.

We encourage you to include this earlier incident in your ongoing work. As you know, Jack Abramoff worked closely with the Bush Administration and Congress to distort insular area policy; that matter was never appropriately investigated by this body.

We stand ready to work with you to determine potential wrongdoing in this matter, and help to finally close the books on the Abramoff scandal that has so damaged the public trust.

Sincerely,

GEORGE MILLER	NICK J. RAHALL, II
Chairman	Chairman
Committee on Education and Labor	Committee on Natural Resources

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