Spring Break
Kelley part of attorney removals
ND law professor serves as deputy to White House counsel
Maddie Hanna
Issue date: 3/28/07 Section: News
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As controversy continues to brew around Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' handling of the recent U.S. attorney firings, a Notre Dame law professor has quietly found his way to the center of the investigation.
"Late in the afternoon on Dec. 4, a deputy to Harriet E. Miers, then the White House counsel and one of President Bush's most trusted aides, sent a two-line e-mail message to a top Justice Department aide," begins a March 14 article in The New York Times. "'We're a go,' it said, approving a long-brewing plan to remove seven federal prosecutors considered weak or not team players."
That deputy is William K. Kelley, who left the Law School in the spring of 2005 to take a presidential appointment. Since then, he has served as White House deputy counsel in what Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett called "a position of great responsibility."
"We're good friends," Garnett, who is at the University of Chicago this semester as a visiting professor, said Tuesday. "He has not, as you can imagine, said a word to me about this stuff."
This "stuff" is the escalating Congressional investigation of Gonzales, who is accused of covering up his role in last year's dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Criminal charges haven't come into play, since "the U.S. attorneys are appointed by the president. They serve at the will of the president," Notre Dame law professor Jay Tidmarsh said Tuesday.
That means "it's not a mystery" that when a president comes into power, he replaces the attorneys as he chooses, Tidmarsh said - it's legal, and expected. But while political considerations may play into the initial appointments, the recent firings have raised questions.
"There's potential taint involved in someone replaced for political, rather than performance considerations," said Tidmarsh, who explained that Gonzales' denial of involvement in the situation has generated concern. "This is always true: It's the cover-up, not the actions, that get someone in trouble."
"Late in the afternoon on Dec. 4, a deputy to Harriet E. Miers, then the White House counsel and one of President Bush's most trusted aides, sent a two-line e-mail message to a top Justice Department aide," begins a March 14 article in The New York Times. "'We're a go,' it said, approving a long-brewing plan to remove seven federal prosecutors considered weak or not team players."
That deputy is William K. Kelley, who left the Law School in the spring of 2005 to take a presidential appointment. Since then, he has served as White House deputy counsel in what Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett called "a position of great responsibility."
"We're good friends," Garnett, who is at the University of Chicago this semester as a visiting professor, said Tuesday. "He has not, as you can imagine, said a word to me about this stuff."
This "stuff" is the escalating Congressional investigation of Gonzales, who is accused of covering up his role in last year's dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Criminal charges haven't come into play, since "the U.S. attorneys are appointed by the president. They serve at the will of the president," Notre Dame law professor Jay Tidmarsh said Tuesday.
That means "it's not a mystery" that when a president comes into power, he replaces the attorneys as he chooses, Tidmarsh said - it's legal, and expected. But while political considerations may play into the initial appointments, the recent firings have raised questions.
"There's potential taint involved in someone replaced for political, rather than performance considerations," said Tidmarsh, who explained that Gonzales' denial of involvement in the situation has generated concern. "This is always true: It's the cover-up, not the actions, that get someone in trouble."