Fired Prosecutor Disputes Justice Dept. Allegation

The House Judiciary Committee plans to hold hearings on similar legislation next month. They may include testimony from some of the fired prosecutors.

The leader of the House Democratic caucus, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), has called on Gonzales to appoint one of the fired prosecutors, Carol S. Lam of San Diego, as an outside counsel to continue the corruption investigation related to former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), who pleaded guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes in 2005 and is serving a sentence of as much as eight years. Scolinos said career prosecutors will be able to continue handling the case while a replacement is chosen.

In addition to Lam, McKay and Bogden, three other U.S. attorneys were told on Dec. 7 to resign: Paul K. Charlton in Arizona; David C. Iglesias in New Mexico; and Kevin Ryan in San Francisco. A seventh U.S. attorney, Bud Cummins in Little Rock, was notified he was being removed last summer.

McKay said he was called Dec. 7 by Michael A. Battle, head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, who only months before had sent him a congratulatory letter for the laudatory report issued by the Justice Department audit team. He said Battle told him to resign by the end of January.

"When I was composed enough to ask him why, he told me he couldn't answer any of my questions," said McKay, who has accepted a teaching position at Seattle University Law School. "I was immediately so surprised. He said nothing about performance issues or management or anything else."

McKay said that four days after Battle's call, the White House counsel's office also informed him that he was not among a group of three finalists for a federal judgeship in Washington state. He declined to say whether he believed political considerations went into his dismissal.

McKay angered other Republicans when he declined to intervene in a ballot dispute in the 2004 Washington governor's race. His brother, Mike McKay, served as U.S. attorney in Seattle under President George H.W. Bush.

In a highly unusual move, the chief judge of the federal court in Seattle publicly came to John McKay's defense.

"We were dismayed to see that the Justice Department was suggesting there was something wrong with his performance as a United States attorney," said Judge Robert Lasnik, a Clinton-era appointee who said he was speaking for all the judges on the Seattle court. "We unanimously agreed that he was absolutely superb."

Scolinos declined to comment on McKay's remarks.