Responding to the Inspector General's report detailing the inappropriate actions surrounding the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2005, People For the American Way President Kathryn Kolbert issued the following statement:
"This report reemphasizes just how much the Department of Justice was allowed to decay under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Dedicated United States attorneys were shoved aside simply to further the political aims of the Bush Administration. That is as unacceptable today as it ever was.
"Attorney General Mukasey still has a lot of work to do to clean up the mess made by his predecessor, and this report is by no means the final step in the process. The investigation going forward needs to be aggressive and those who were involved in the firings need to be held accountable. The American people deserve no less."
# # #