U. S. Attorneys Quotes

U.S. Attorneys are appointed by the President but are supposed to be non political in the way they execute their offices. Some officials of some administrations try to involve the U. S. Attorneys in partisan conduct of their office and Ashcroft, who was a very conservative Republican was also one of the more ethical members of an administration that tended to put partisan advantage over ethics. He himself not only refused to politicize the Justice Department bud advised his subordinates to do the same. Ironically, Inglesias, also very ethical, took Ashcroft’s advice and after Ashcroft left office was fired by the administration for not using his office in the interests of the party.

He had been fired by the George W. Bush White House because he would not rush an indictment against a democratic politician to make the newspapers before the election that year. Unfortunately, many prosecutors will file a questionable case without sufficient evidence for a conviction. They get the newspaper headlines and TV coverage when they file the indictment, and little negative press when they person is found not guilty months or years later. The best prosecutors never will allow politics to influence their prosecution decisions, but there are still many who do.

In 2007 Inglesias was fired by the same George W. Bush Administration because they were unhappy that he was not prosecuting cases for which he claimed that there was no legal justification for but had potential political advantage for the administration.

He was fired so that a crony of the President’s political advisor could be appointed. However, the Attorney General, covering for the White House, tried to maintain that there was a performance assessment of all the U. S. Attorneys and 8 were found to be “weak.” However, the written record of memos, e-mails, and congressional testimony failed to have any reference to an evaluation of the U. S. Attorneys on merit.

The Republican leadership wanted him to hasten to file a political corruption case before election day so that a Republican Congresswoman, in a tight fight, could criticize her opponent, the state attorney general, for being soft on corruption. Inglesias would not disclose the confidential information regarding his investigation to his Republican colleagues. Shortly thereafter he was fired and there was no reason given nor was there any record of inadequate performance. When the Congress investigated the case, the Republican Attorney General could not give a reason that he fired Inglesias.