Vermont's senior U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Middlesex) vigorously condemned the Bush Administration Monday after a Justice Department report revealed that top officials failed to supervise subordinates who dismissed some department employees based on their partisan leanings.

The report, issued Monday by the Justice Department's Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, concludes that high-ranking officials "abdicated their responsibility to safeguard the integrity and independence of the Department" and that the investigators uncovered "significant evidence" that political ideology played a role in the 2006 firings.

Leahy, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, attacked former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who presided at the time of the firings as well as the Bush Administration for their role in the firings, as well as the administration's "refusal to cooperate."

"This report might have told us even more if the investigation had not been impeded by the Bush administration's refusal to cooperate and provide documents and witnesses, just as they remain in contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee's investigation," Leahy said.  "In this debacle as in others, the Bush administration's self-serving secrecy has shrouded many of their most controversial policies Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}  - from torture, to investigating the causes of 9/11, to wiretapping."

Leahy added that the report revealed that officials used tactics "corrosive to the very foundations of our system of justice" and promised to look into Gonzales' testimony during Congressional hearings about the dismissals.

"The report also raises questions that are not yet resolved about the reasons for the firing and ‘inconsistent, misleading, and inaccurate' statements to Congress and the press from Attorney General Gonzales and others at the Department," Leahy said. "I will look carefully at the report's recommendation that a prosecutor continue to explore these troubling facts, including inaccurate testimony to Congress, whether Attorney General Gonzales tried to shape the testimony of other Department officials, and the extent of White House involvement."

*http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0809a/final.pdf