William Moschella

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William Moschella
William Moschella.jpg
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs
In office
May 2003 October 2006

Moschella was directly involved in making changes to the Patriot Act that allowed interim US Attorneys to serve indefinitely. [6]

On March 6, 2007, Moschella testified to the House Judiciary Committee that all the US attorneys were fired for performance-related reasons, although he acknowledged that none of the attorneys were originally told why they had been fired. He also testified that the White House had no involvement in the firings of US Attorneys, testimony that was later shown to be incorrect by emails that were subsequently released. [7]

However, the Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Justice, after an exhaustive investigation, found that "Moschella did not know that his testimony . . . was inaccurate. Moschella only reiterated publicly what he had been told about these issues and what [Deputy Attorney General] McNulty had previously told the Senate Judiciary Committee." The IG stated on page 356 of its report: "Under these circumstances, we concluded that Moschella's inaccurate testminony was not his fault and that he should not be criticized for it." [8]

References

  1. Office of Legislative Affairs
  2. 1 2 3 4 Moschella Testimony
  3. "Patriot Act 2005, Panelist Biographis".
  4. 1 2 "Justice Department Announces William E. Moschella as New Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General". October 2, 2006.
  5. "Presidential Nominations".
  6. Ron Hutcheson; Marisa Taylor; Margaret Talev (March 23, 2007). "Documents highlight Gonzales' role in the firings". McClatchy Newspapers.
  7. Michael Isikoff; Richard Wolffe; Evan Thomas (March 26, 2007). "Disorder in King George's Court". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 20, 2007.
  8. An Investigation into the Removal of Nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, 356, (September 2008) (http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s0809a/final.pdf).