Biskupic admits he was on list of questioned U.S. attorneys
(Published Monday, April 16, 2007 10:21:47 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Carrie Antlfinger Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic admitted Saturday that his performance and loyalty to President Bush had been questioned, but said it had nothing to do with his prosecution of a former state worker whose bid-rigging conviction was recently overturned.
The Milwaukee U.S. attorney said he hasn't seen the list but he first suspected he was on it after news arose of the eight U.S. attorneys being fired last year.
No one from the Bush administration has contacted him, he said, but others who saw the list after the firings told him his name was on a ranking of U.S. attorneys that questioned his performance and loyalty to Bush.
Biskupic said in a statement that he believes the list has no credibility, since the list also characterized "esteemed" Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as mediocre. His listing had nothing to do with his prosecution of Georgia Thompson, who was convicted last June of steering a travel contract to a company that donated to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign, Biskupic said.
"The decision to charge Thompson was based solely on the facts, and was not made with any consideration of my job status," he said. "To my knowledge at the time, my job status was entirely secure."
Congressional Democrats are trying to uncover whether political pressure was put on Biskupic to indict Thompson, whose conviction was vacated April 5 by a federal appeals court for a lack of evidence. She was ordered freed from prison immediately and is expected to get her civil service job back soon.
Last week, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Wisconsin Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to provide documents in connection with the case, saying they were "concerned whether or not politics may have played a role" in the case against Thompson.
The senators also asked for communications between the Justice Department and the White House or outside parties regarding possible voter fraud in Wisconsin and how Biskupic handled it.
House Democrats also asked the Republican National Committee to hand over e-mails about Biskupic prior to his decision to indict Thompson. The letter asks for all RNC e-mails that discuss the performance of any U.S. attorney, including whether to retain, dismiss or seek resignations, among other things.
Gonzales is expected to testify Tuesday before the Senate committee on the U.S. attorneys' firings.
In a statement, Kohl said he has not seen the document yet with Biskupic's name on it and intended to question Gonzales about it Tuesday.
In an interview, Biskupic said Gonzales did not mention the list when they met recently in Chicago.
He said he takes the Thompson case seriously.
"That case is important to me personally because we won on trial and lost on appeal and whether it was her or any of the other public corruption cases I'd be really concerned," he said. "It just happens that that one came up against the backdrop of this controversy."
Biskupic said the decision to charge Thompson was made in consultation with then-Democatic state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, also a Democrat. He said that since 2002 he has brought at least 12 cases against people who donated money to Republican candidates or were aligned with the Republican Party.
Wisconsin Democrats have long questioned whether Biskupic's prosecution of Thompson was an attempt to go after Doyle, who faced a tough run against Republican Mark Green, a former congressman. Her conviction became a major issue last year in Doyle's campaign for re-election.
Also, reports of voter fraud in the 2004 presidential election had prompted a federal investigation, but Biskupic reported in 2005 that the probe found no evidence of partisan efforts to sway the outcome. Democratic candidate John Kerry narrowly carried the state.
Doyle spokesman Matt Canter wouldn't comment about Biskupic's name being on the list, other than to say, "Others are going to have to answer those questions."
"But there is no question that Georgia Thompson was used as political fodder during a hard-fought election," he said.
