The Billings Gazette today reports on Jon Tester's call for Mercer to resign as U.S. Attorney for Montana, after it became clear that Mercer changed a law requiring residency to create an exception for people working multiple DOJ jobs.
Here's what a DOJ flack has to say:
"Assistant U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Attorneys have been asked to assume significant roles in Iraq, DOJ headquarters, and elsewhere away from their official duty stations. This amendment clarifies that the statutory residency requirement does not preclude department personnel from working in two places if authorized by an order from the attorney general."
Look -- there are reasons why DOJ personnel should be dispatched on various assignments. But an assignment, even a significant assignment, is different from a second job.
Patrick Fitzgerald ended up acting as a special prosecutor, a temporary position overseeing a certain investigation and prosecution.
Bill Mercer is theoretically doing two full-time jobs, overseeing Montana federal law enforcement and serving as number 3 for the entire U.S. law enforcement. Meanwhile, he's in Montana three days a month.
Is this really historically a standard operating procedure? And, if so, why would Mercer leave the U.S. Attorney position if he got Senate confirmation for the D.C. position? Is it because it would be better to have two people handling these jobs?
Of course they're not getting two salaries -- they're each working a single full-time job, just with a wide array of distinct responsibilities that regularly require travel. The question is whether they're getting their housing and other expenses subsidized. DOJ has two different set-ups for employees on "detail" from one position to another: some have their housing, etc., paid for in the secondary location on the condition that they continue to maintain a primary residence ( i.e., they pay for a house/apartment as usual in their home city, and the government pays for housing in Washington, along with a generous per diem allowance for food that assumes the person is eating every meal in a restaurant); others don't get that treatment, on the assumption that they spend such a large majority of time in one city or the other that they don't need to maintain two residences. The first is a much sweeter deal, for obvious reasons -- it would be interesting to know which kind Mercer and the others are getting. Saying that they're not getting double salary may be a dodge to hide the fact that their total compensation is in fact much higher than it would be if they were staying at home and attending to their duties as US Attorneys on a full-time basis.
Good questions. How much in total compensation is Bill Mercer getting for his dual roles?
Hot on the heels of the reporting this morning that Bill Mercer changed the law retroactively to legalize his working only 3 days a month as Montana's U.S. Attorney, Jon Tester is calling for his resignation.
Fresh in my inbox:
This morning, the Washington Post reported that William Mercer was violating federal law by serving both as Montana's U.S. Attorney and as a high-ranking official at the Department of Justice. Instead of abiding by federal law, Mercer had the law changed.
Today, Sen. Jon Tester issued the following statement:
"For months, I gave Bill Mercer the benefit of the doubt that he was shooting straight with me and with the people of Montana. Mr. Mercer has been given every opportunity to do right by the people he represents; he has passed on that chance too many times. Mr. Mercer was operating outside federal law, so he had the law changed. That might work in Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department, but it's not how we do business in Montana. He should resign his post as Montana's U.S. Attorney immediately."
They made it legal after the fact. See, you don't have to be a resident of Montana to be U.S. Attorney of Montana if the AG wants to put you on another assignment as well.
Theoretically, then, Bill Mercer could be U.S. Attorney for every district in the country -- that might solve the Bush Justice Department's loyalty problems. We'll just have three prosecutors focusing solely on BS vote fraud cases.
By the way, I think it's damn impressive that Bill Mercer actually shepherded legislation to retroactively legalize his own activities while working as the acting number 3 in a Department whose entire mission is to enforce the law of the United States of America.
Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester are telling Bill Mercer, now facing a Congressional subpoena in purgegate, that it's time to end the double dipping. This comes a while after Judge Don Molloy urged Attorney General Gonzales to remove Bill Mercer from his position as U.S. Attorney for Montana.
Both DOJ and Rep. Rehberg, predictably, are saying that it isn't Mercer's fault that he hasn't been confirmed by the Senate for his role as the #3 at Justice. Strangely, though, that's what happens when you're in the leadership of a Department coming under Congressional scrutiny for abusing discretion.
The easiest way out of this is for Bill Mercer to withdraw his name for the #3 role at Justice. My guess is that the Senate won't confirm anyone tainted by this scandal -- especially since AG Gonazales' replacement (since I do think he will be replaced) will probably want a new team. With less than two years until a new U.S. Attorney gets appointed for Montana anyways, this route promises the fewest headaches and the most work actually getting accomplished.
Of course, that hasn't exactly been DOJ's goal as of late, has it?
Talking Points Memo is enlisting grassroots support to comb through 1000s of pages of DOJ material.
What are they finding about our U.S. Attorney?
From: Sampson, Kyle
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 5:25 PM
To: Mercer, Bill (ODAG)
Cc: Elston, Michael (ODAG)
Subject: San Diego Immigration Enforcement
Importance: High
Bill, this relates (certainly in the AG's mind) to the email I just sent to Elston (cc to you) re our pressing need to, in the very short-term, generate some deliverables on immigration enforcement, and in the long-term, insulate the Department from criticism by improving our numbers. AG has given additional thoughts to the SD situation and now believes that we should adopt a plan -- something like the following:
- Have a heart-to-heart with Lam about the urgent need to improve immigration enforcement in SD;
- Work with her to develop a plan for addressing the problem -- to include alteration of prosecution thresholds; additional DOJ prosecutors; additional DHS SAUSA resources; etc.
- Put her on a very short leash;
- If she balks on any of the foregoing or otherwise does not perform in a measurable way by July 15 [my date], remove her.
- AG then appoints new USA from outside the office.
[...]
Also, on page 48 there is a mail from Mercer to Sampson about the replacement of USA's, mentioning a plan pushed by "WHCO" in 2004.
[...]
E-mail from Paul Charlton to Bill Mercer:
"Bill - media now asking if I was asked to resign over leak in Congressman Renzi investigation. -Paul"
[...]
Internal emails from Paul Charlton to Bill Mercer (from 12/13-20/2007 about what to say to media and the "way forward." (No discussion, just references to talking by phone.) Dan Bogden instructed to call Bill Mercer at Las Vegas office on 12/19/2006. (Lots of duplicate messages.)
[...]
Two internal emails asking Bill Mercer to call Dan Bogden (January 3 & 5 2007)
[...]
Internal email from Regina Schofield to Bill Mercer asking for advice on how to keep Margaret Chiara from calling. Item 2 is redatcted. (January 9, 2007)
[...]
Bill Mercer asks Linda E. Long to print out David Iglesias's extremely gracious good-bye letter. Iglesias's letter gives his new email address DCIGLESIAS@earthlink.com (internal email)
Page 19
Bill Mercer's appt. book for June 5, 2006, showing only a meeting between Mercer, Kyle Sampson, and Jeff Taylor with the title (Immigration Enforcement/San Diego USAO
Page 20
Totally unidentified printed notes
Goals for Mercer's firing calls to Bogden and Charlton (basically, be nice to them but let them know it's now someone else's turn), critique of the effect of the calls (basically, we were too nice).
[...]
1-1
Page 41, in an email (June 8, 2006) from Bill Mercer to Michael Elston, Mercer seems to be making a joke about firing Lam for incompetence: "What that Carol Lam can't meet a deadline or that you'll need to interact with her in the coming weeks or that she won't just say, "O.K. You got me. You're right. I've ignored national priorities and obvious local needs." Etc. Mercer says something about "these humorous missives."
[...]
Part 11-5 page 5 in an e-mail between Bill Mercer and Kyle Sampson. Responding to Sampson's suggestion that somebody "woodshed" Carol Lamb, or that the AG order 20 attorneys dedicated to only immigration cases, Mercer says, "There are good reasons not to provide extensive resources to SD Ca."
Does the whole performance hand-waving tie into them trying to strangle C.Lam's corruption investigation?
That's where his name shows up from what I can tell.
The Associated Press picked up the story of Bill Mercer and the troubles at Justice. A Justice Department spokesperson says that Mercer didn't actually oversee the U.S. Attorneys and that any conversations he had with the booted ones was to offer sympathy:
Mercer does not oversee U.S. attorney matters and was in Montana while some decisions were being made, Roehrkasse said. As for Mercer's conversations with the attorneys, Roehrkasse said, he was just being supportive.
"Because he did not supervise the U.S. attorneys, he had no basis to discuss with them their specific reasons for their dismissal, and he focused on being sympathetic," Roehrkasse said.
Let's just remember, as the AP notes in this story, that two former U.S. Attorneys told Congress that Mercer did discuss reasons for dismissal and specifically told them that they were being removed to open up seats for young Republicans to pad their resumes.
Now, I suppose it is possible that these U.S. Attorneys committed a felony and lied to Congress, but I have a tough time buying that, absent any real evidence.
Fortunately, all three of our members of Congress are keeping their eyes open for law-breaking.
Here's my guess -- if Gonzales fall, as seems likely, the odds of Mercer being confirmed as #3 at Justice become very slim. Even if Gonzales doesn't leave the AG office, Mercer remains another potential fall guy for having "inappropriate" conversations.
And if he is refused Senate appointment to the #3 spot, how likely is he to stay in his current role?
A Senate denial over a hiring scandal is probably going to be a pretty big black mark over Mercer's career. If it happens, he might as well cash in and head to the private sector.
I'm not seeing a whole lot about Bill Mercer's role in this whole U.S. Attorneys scandal in the local papers, which is too bad, because it's a good story, it has a local hook, and frankly, I don't have the time to look into it.
At least in some way, one of those heads is Bill Mercer, I would think. He's #3 at Justice, but he hasn't been confirmed for that position by the Senate yet. Prosecutors are on record saying that he fired them in order to pad the resumes of political appointees. The public justifications being used to fire other U.S. Attorneys have actually been leveled at Mercer by none other than a federal judge in his jurisdiction, who has called for Mercer to resign (a rather unusual step, I might add).
Here's the thing, if the Senate confirms him to the more senior Justice position, I think he has to leave his current (second) job as U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana. Call me crazy, but with the Senate up in arms over the DOJ's handling of this, I don't see him getting confirmed. So that's probably not his way out of being U.S. Attorney here in Montana. More seriously, though, as the digging goes deeper, Mercer might be an easy person for the Bush Administration to cut loose in an effort to protect Gonzales and Miers. He might also end up getting ousted as part of a larger purging at the top of DOJ to finally get past this.
Or, if Gonzales resigns or is (imagine this) impeached, a new A.G. may clean out the department and ask others involved in this escapade to tender their resignations.
Predicting the Bush Administration is never easy. They may simply lock up again. Unfortunately for them, Dems have Congress now and locking up will be tougher than it was before.
Interestingly, it appears at least part of the frustration by the Republicans who moved to purge was that the prosecutors in question weren't doing "enough" to "fight" voter "fraud." Why all the "scare quotes"? Because, as Josh Marshall explains, voter fraud is basically a specter, a rightwing talking point that rarely has even a tenuous connection in reality. The lack of prosecution, in fact, might just be a sign of a lack of evidence.
I raise this because some similar arguments are now being made for changing state law in Montana, especially regarding Election Day registration.
What's the problem here? Well, the big problem is that a lot of the people on the right have come to believe their own bullshit. That's a dangerous place to be.
Two of the fired U.S. attorneys, Daniel Bogden of Las Vegas and Paul K. Charlton of Phoenix, testified before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that Mercer told them they were dismissed to make room for others and not because of performance problems.
Bogden testified that Mercer told him the administration had a "very short, two-year window of opportunity concerning the United States attorney positions" and that "this would be an opportunity to put others into those positions so they could build their résumés and get experience as a United States attorney so that for future possibilities of being federal judges or other political type positions, they could better enhanced to do so."
Mercer, Charlton testified, told him he was being asked to resign so other individuals would have the opportunity to "touch base" as U.S. attorney before the end of the president's term.
Let's be clear. The position of U.S. Attorney is not some place to throw folks to build resumes. The U.S. Attorney is the chief federal prosecutor for their district. In other words, they are the people responsible for the prosecution of terrorists, drug traffickers, and various other very serious crimes.
Not so much for the Bush Administration, though. See, they've got two years, so now the Department of Justice's job is resume padding for the Young Republicans.
Sen. Arlen Specter is saying that it may be time for a new Attorney General. I think it is time for Bill Mercer's jobs performance (yeah, that's supposed to be jobs plural) to be reviewed.
The New York Timesreports that none other than Montana's own (OK, OK, we share him with D.C.) Bill Mercer is being subpoenad by the Senate over the brewing U.S. Attorney scandal:
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday took the first step toward issuing subpoenas to five Justice Department officials whose names have surfaced in Congressional testimony about the dismissals of eight United States attorneys.
[...]
In addition, the committee asked to interview Michael A. Battle, the outgoing director of the Executive Office of United States Attorneys, who told the prosecutors that they were being removed, and William Mercer, the acting associate attorney general who told one of the ousted prosecutors that he was being dismissed to make room for a replacement.
Mercer finds himself in the spotlight after two removed U.S. Attorneys testified that he told them point blank that they were being removed so their jobs could be given to other people.
Interestingly, David Iglesias, the (former) U.S. Attorney for N.M. who kicked up a storm by saying that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) pressured him to use his office for political reasons, was allegedly removed from his office because "The district was in need of greater leadership. ... Mr. Iglesias had delegated to his first assistant the overall running of his office. U.S. attorneys are hired to run the office."
Why is that so interesting?
Well, the senior federal judge in Montana has actually asked the A.G. to remove Bill Mercer for being an incompetent U.S. Attorney, since he spends too much time in D.C. to manage his own office.
In November 2005, Molloy implored U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to replace Mercer as Montana's U.S. attorney. In a letter, Molloy said Mercer was violating a residency law and shrugging off his work in Montana while holding a Justice Department job in Washington, D.C.
Mercer maintains a home in Montana but does not live here.
Gonzales disagreed with Molloy, and said Mercer complies with the residency law, which says a person can have two or more residences.
But on Tuesday, Molloy again charged Mercer with neglecting his duties in Montana while on dual assignment.
"Your lawyers are not getting their briefs in on time," Molloy said. "You're in Washington, D.C., and you ought to be here in Montana doing your work. Your office is a mess."
