Prosecutors Scandal E-Mails Reveal Sniping
By CBS News Justice Department reporter Stephanie Lambidakis
The latest batch of e-mails turned over to congressional investigators about the U.S. Attorney firings still doesn't answer the million-dollar question of who created the hit list. But they're filled with back-channel sniping and juicy new tidbits.
White House Political Director Sara Taylor, the most recent official to head out the administration's door, slams Arkansas U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins as "lazy... which is why we got rid of him in the first place." Taylor used a Republican National Committee e-mail account, "@gwb43.com" to bang out a furious e-mail about Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who is leaving this summer, for telling investigators behind closed doors that the White House was more involved than it admitted.
"Why would McNulty say this? This has been so poorly handled on the part o [sic] DOJ", Taylor complained to Gonzales' Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, who quit in March.
There is also a tantalizing new clue from White House Counsel Harriet Miers, who resigned in January. In e-mail exchanges with her deputy after the controversy erupted, Miers strongly advised against trashing the reputations of the U.S. Attorneys, even though the counsel's office is "convinced the prosecutors have disloyally stirred up the senators."
"We can see what the Chief thinks," she cryptically declared.
Might she have asked the president for his opinion on how to handle the firings?
The release of the e-mails followed weeks of protracted negotiations between Capitol Hill and the Justice Department. Amid all the legal wrangling over what's privileged material, and what's not, the fight was also about keeping embarrassing — and snarky — private talk out of the public domain.