THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2010
KLMNO Associated Press Prosecutors have concluded
their two-year investigation into the Bush administration’s firing of U.S. attorneys and will file no charges, the Justice Department said Wednesday. The lawyers probed whether the Bush administration improp- erly dismissed nine U.S. attorneys to influence criminal cases. The scandal contributed to mounting criticism that the White House
ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
An aide to Chairman Michael Steele hid invoices and had staffers withhold information, the RNC’s treasurer said.
RNC failed to report $3 million in debt
Party amends filings as treasurer accuses Steele aide of obstruction
by T.W. Farnam The Republican National Com-
mittee filed amended financial reports Tuesday showing about $3 million in debt for April and May that was previously unre- ported.
RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen said in a memo to the party’s budget committee that he had discovered unpaid bills for tele- marketing, legal consulting and other services. Pullen accused RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele’s chief of staff of hiding in- voices and telling staff members to withhold information from Pullen.
A political party must report
an invoice as a debt to the Federal Election Commission if it’s undis- puted and remains unpaid for 60 days past the date the services were rendered. “The committee will continue to work very closely with our le- gal counsel and our treasurer to ensure that the RNC meets all FEC reporting requirements, as it has always done in the past,” RNC spokesman Doug Heye said. Heye rebutted Pullen’s claim
that RNC staff members were told not to give him information on the debt. “I don’t know where that comes from,” Heye said. “Staff is available to any member of the RNC, and we are available to them 24 hours a day.” The committee has also tapped
two outside lawyers and an ac- counting firm to review its pol- icies following earlier revelations about its bookkeeping. The financial reports filed
Tuesday night show that the money available for the Novem- ber elections has been shrinking over the past three months, Pul- len wrote in his memo, which also warned of other problems. “It has been clear to me and others at the RNC since early March that fundraising has been falling well short of budgeted numbers,” he wrote. “In addition, costs of fundraising for major do- nor and direct marketing have been well above that budgeted going back to last year.” The $3 million in debt was
paid off in May and June. The RNC reported $10.9million on hand and $2 million in debt at the end of June. That’s a slightly better financial position than the Democratic National Committee, which had $11million in cash and $3.9million in debt. The RNC’s finances have been a source of controversy recently, af- ter it was reported in March that the party paid a nearly $2,000 tab at a bondage-themed night club, and large donors have directed their contributions elsewhere. “Failure to disclose debt is a common violation, but the FEC is likely to take this very seriously,” said Brett Kappel, a campaign fi- nance lawyer with Arent Fox who has worked for candidates from both parties. “A failure to report a debt of that magnitude doesn’t let the public or the candidates or the opposing party know the true financial state of the committee.” The RNC is likely to face a civil
penalty for the amendment, but it should be well below $1 million, Kappel said. Last month, the National Re- publican Congressional Commit- tee paid a $10,000 fine after filing inaccurate financial reports, at- tributing the error to a former treasurer who has been accused of embezzling the committee’s money.
farnamt@washpost.com
Staff writer Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.
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had politicized the Justice De- partment, a charge that contrib- uted to the resignation of Attor- ney General Alberto Gonzales. The decision closes the books on one of the lingering political disputes from the Bush era, one that Democrats said was evidence of GOP politics run amok, while Republicans have always said it was a manufactured controversy. In 2008, the Justice Depart- ment assigned Nora Dannehy, a career prosecutor from Connecti- cut with a history of rooting out
government wrongdoing, to in- vestigate the firings. In particular, she looked into the dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and whether then-Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) or others should be prosecuted for it or for lying to Congress about it. Domenici’s push to have Igle-
sias fired was in part politically motivated, Dannehy determined, but did not violate the law. “The investigative team also determined that the evidence did
R
Politics & The Nation
not warrant expanding the scope of the investigation beyond the removal of Iglesias,” the Justice Department said in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday. Iglesias was fired after the head of New Mexico’s Republican Party complained to the White House that the U.S. attorney was soft on voter fraud. The GOP offi- cial asked that Iglesias be re- placed so that the state could “make some real progress in cleaning up a state notorious for crooked elections.” Harriet Miers,
A5 Justice Department won’t file charges on Bush-era attorney firings
then White House counsel, told lawmakers that presidential po- litical adviser Karl Rove was “very agitated” over Iglesias “and wanted something done about it.” Rove has said that he played no role in deciding whom to dismiss, that politics played no role in the firings and that he never sought to influence prosecutions. Dannehy faulted the Justice
Department for firing Iglesias without even bothering to figure out whether such complaints were true.
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