Milwaukee US Attorney had been on firing list--why was he removed?

Posted by Joshua Holland at 8:04 AM on April 16, 2007.

Editor's note: This is a guest post from The Faithful Progressive.

Okay, this is getting very disturbing. Steven M. Biskupic, the Wisconsin US Attorney who prosecuted what turned out to be a "beyond thin" case against an offcial associated with the Democratic Gov. of Wisconsin, had been on the Gonzales "fire him" list, but Mr. Biskupic's name was mysteriously taken off at some point. This story is now a page one HEADLINE in today's statewide Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

As the Journal Sentinel and McClatchey Report: Steven M. Biskupic, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, was once targeted for firing by the U.S. Justice Department but given a reprieve for reasons that remain unclear, McClatchy News Service reported Friday.

Biskupic on firing list, source says: U.S. attorney received a reprieve that saved his position, though Congressional investigators looking into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys saw Biskupic's name on a list of attorneys targeted for removal when they were inspecting a department document not yet made public, an attorney for a lawmaker involved in the investigation told McClatchy. The attorney asked for anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the investigation.

It wasn't clear when Biskupic was added to a department hit list of prosecutors, or when he was taken off, or whether those developments were connected to a just-overturned corruption case.

Nevertheless, McClatchy reported that the disclosure aroused investigators' suspicion that Biskupic, who is based in Milwaukee, might have been retained in his job because he agreed to prosecute Democrats. Such politicization of the administration of justice is at the heart of congressional Democrats' concerns over the Bush administration's firings of the U.S. attorneys.

Last year, Biskupic prosecuted Wisconsin state purchasing supervisor Georgia Thompson on corruption charges. A federal appeals court last week threw out Thompson's conviction, saying the evidence was "beyond thin."

Mr Biskupic issued a statement in which he noted that he consulted with Democratic prosecutors on the case. I'll be back with more on this later.

Tagged as: attorney firings, gonzalez

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.