Former "direct supervisor" of U.S. attorneys says he "will not sit by and watch good people smeared," and has high praise for most Purge-Gate victims

A couple of months ago, thanks to a tip from Michael Froomkin of Discourse.net, I paid tribute to former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey as the man who brought "Prosecutor Pat" Fitzgerald in to investigate the leak of Valerie Wilson's CIA identity. In mattters of law we place great stock in Discourse, who argued that Comey, in his capacity as acting attorney general with the recusal of his boss, AG John Ashcroft,

selected Patrick Fitzgerald because Comey believed Fitzgerald was the best US Attorney in the nation, and thus the best person for the job. (Comey behaved with similar rectitude when he took a principled stand against unfettered domestic surveillance.) And in due course, naturally, Comey got punished for his honesty, being passed over for the top job at Justice [when Ashcroft moved on].

Froomkin called Comey "an honest man" and a "patriot." Now the former No. 2 man in the Justice Department has resurfaced. Yesterday he offered a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee his perspective on the Bush regime's purge of U.S. attorneys. The Washington Post's Dan Eggen begins his report:

A former deputy attorney general lavished praise yesterday on most of the eight U.S. attorneys who were fired after he left the job, testifying that only one of them had serious performance problems.

James B. Comey, the Justice Department's second in command from 2003 until August 2005, also told a House Judiciary subcommittee that although he was the "direct supervisor" of all U.S attorneys, he was never informed about an effort by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his aides to remove a large group of prosecutors that began in early 2005.

"My experience with the U.S. attorneys just listed was very positive," Comey said, referring to six of the former prosecutors who testified in Congress in March. He added that the reasons given for their firings "have not been consistent with my experience" and that "I had very positive encounters with these folks."

The former deputy AG commented specifically on the fired U.S. attorneys:

Comey was effusive in his praise of several of the fired prosecutors, saying that only [Kevin V.] Ryan [of San Francisco] had serious management difficulties.

He described Paul K. Charlton of Arizona as "one of the best," said he had a "very positive view" of David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, and called Daniel G. Bogden of Las Vegas "straight as a Nevada highway and a fired-up guy." Of John McKay of Seattle, Comey said: "I was inspired by him."

Perhaps most damaging to the Justice Department was Comey's description of Carol C. Lam of San Diego as "a fine U.S. attorney." He acknowledged that he was concerned about Lam's record on firearms cases but said he had discussed the issue with her and did not see it as a firing offense.

Comey said that while he was deputy attorney general he did not have much interaction with fired prosecutor Bud Cummins of Little Rock. But he called Cummins a "good man" in a recent e-mail exchange released yesterday, adding that he "will not sit by and watch good people smeared."

Comey's comments made clear that the claims by the nitwit hacks put in positions of staggering authority, claims that Comey had been involved in the screening of U.S. attorneys for removal, are the usual Bush regime bullshit.

Comey testified that he had a 15-minute conversation with [Kyle] Sampson [then chief of staff to AG Idiot Al "The Torture Guy" Gonzales, and the stupefyingly unqualified thug apparently--and incredibly--given the power to fire U.S. attorneys] in February 2005 about prosecutors Comey considered weak performers. He said he had no idea until recently that the conversation was related to an effort by Sampson and the White House to identify and remove prosecutors considered insufficiently loyal.

With regard to the new allegations that Bush regime Justice bimbo Monica "Miss Fifth Amendment" Goodling illegally screened candidates for assistant U.S. attorney positions for political loyalty,

Comey said it was "very troubling" to hear allegations that political considerations may have been taken into account in the hiring of assistant U.S. attorneys, or AUSAs.

"I don't know how you would put that genie back in the bottle, if people started to believe we were hiring our AUSAs for political reasons," he said.