Rove coached DoJ aides on how to testify before Congress about firings

Two weeks ago, associate deputy attorney general William Moscella and deputy attorney general Paul McNulty were interviewed by congressional investigators behind closed doors.  Word leaked out to Newsweek that Moscella was coached by Karl Rove on March 5th, one day before testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee about the U.S. attorney firings:

Although the existence of the White Housemeeting had been previously disclosed by the Justice Department, Rove’sattendance at the strategy session was not—until both Moscella anddeputy attorney general Paul McNulty talked about it in confidentialtestimony with congressional investigators last week. Portions of theirtestimony were read to Newsweek by a Democratic aide who asked not tobe identified talking about private matters.

Accordingto McNulty’s account, Rove came late to the meeting and left early. Butwhile he was there he spoke up and echoed a point that was made by theother White House aides: The Justice Department needed to providespecific reasons why it terminated the eight prosecutors in order torebut Democratic charges that the firings were politically motivated.The point Rove and other White House officials made is “you all need toexplain what you did and why you did it,” McNulty told theinvestigators.

Theproblem, according to the Democratic aide, is that Rove and Kelleynever told Moscella about the White House’s own role in pushing to havesome U.S. attorneys fired in the first place.  Moscella followed thecoaching by Rove and others—and made no mention of White Houseinvolvement in the firings during his March 6, 2007 testimony to HouseJudiciary. “They let Moscella come up here without telling him the fullstory,” said the Democratic staffer.

All of this is fairly complicating, so let me break it down a bit.

Moscelle and McNulty, the two Justice Department deputies, were coached by Karl Rove.  The problem was that in the meeting Karl Rove selectively decided not to inform these deputies about the White House's involvement in the firings.  In other words, these officials were hung out to dry by Mr. Rove.  The White House made sure they were unprepared for their testimony.

It is the White House's job to brief other executive officials about its own role in policy before testimony is given to Congress.  Unfortunately, these deputies were coached into covering Karl Rove's tracks by telling Congress that the Justice Department, not the White House, was responsible for the firings.  Deceptively clever on the part of Karl Rove, if you ask me!

This is PRECISELY why the judiciary committees in both chambers of Congress want those emails from Karl Rove.  Not only will the revelation of those emails force Rove to testify under oath, but they might point to Mr. Rove's involvement in the firings, which would force him to resign.

A lot is at stake here.