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Letters to the Editor
By Avern Cohn
In his column in the May issue (“Don’t Put Politics Ahead of the Law”),
President Pinales errs in describing the resignations of the nine U.S.
attorneys, which have so embarrassed the Bush Administration, as
“firings.” He also errs in saying that President Clinton “dismissed” all
93 U.S. attorneys when he took office. This loose use of language
obscures what really took place.
What really took place was that the U.S. attorneys were asked to resign
and did so without knowing whether if they refused President Bush would
have removed them, which is the only way they could lose their jobs. The
real question, which has not been asked or answered, is whether or not
President Bush had any knowledge of what was going on and whether or not
he stood ready to remove them if they did not agree to resign.
As far as I can tell, only four U.S. attorneys in history have actually
been removed from office by a president: President Cleveland removed the
U.S. attorney for the N
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