Paul Charlton
Paul Charlton's Arizona office had been honored with the Federal Service Award and hailed by the Justice Department as a "model program" for its protection of crime victims. Charlton ranked in the top third among the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys in contributing to an overall 106,188 federal prosecutions filed in 2006; scored in the top third in number of convictions; oversaw a district in the top five highest in number of immigration-related prosecutions; ranked among the top 20 offices for drug prosecutions; and, unlike in the other seven cases, ranked high in weapons cases, prosecuting 199 of the United States' 9,313 such cases in 2006, the tenth-highest in the country and up fourfold from 2002.
In February 2005, Charlton had been on the "retain" list of Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's chief of staff, but in September 2006 Sampson included the Arizona prosecutor on another list of U.S. attorneys 'we now should consider pushing out.'" Some have insinuated that the change in the status of Charlton might have been related to Charlton's launching an investigation of Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz after his previous "retain" ranking in February 2005, but there is no direct evidence of this relation. Sampson made the comment in a September 13, 2006, letter to then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Charlton announced his resignation on December 19, 2006.
On March 19, 2007, the White House released 3,000 pages of records connected to the controversy, including e-mails sent by Charlton to the Justice Department about his dismissal. On December 21, 2006, Charlton sent a message to William W. Mercer, the third-ranking official in the department, writing, "Media now asking if I was asked to resign over leak in Congressman Renzi investigation." Charlton never received a response.
A second motivation for removing Charlton may have been the suggestions of Justice official Brent Ward, who said in a September 20, 2006, e-mail that Charlton was "unwilling to take good cases." Ward's reason for discounting Charlton appeared to be the U.S. attorney's reluctance to pursue obscenity charges against adult video manufacturers in connection to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's Obscenity Prosecution Task Force.
Charlton had clashed with the Bush Administration over the death penalty; in at least two cases he did not seek capital punishment but was overruled from Washington.
After a disagreement over tape-recording interviews and confessions by the FBI on American Indian reservations, which Charlton supported and the Justice Department opposed, Charlton offered to resign. In his congressional testimony on March 6, 2007, Charlton said he found "no small amount of irony" in the fact that he was eventually fired.
Read more about this topic: Dismissed U.S. Attorneys Summary