K.C.'s Todd Graves labels himself 'bit player' in AG ouster

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, Dec 24, 2007 by Scott Lauck

Last year, Todd Graves, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, announced that he was leaving office. At the time, no one, including Graves, knew that his departure was linked to high-level Department of Justice shenanigans that would lead to an attorney general's downfall.

"I was a bit player in a national story. I didn't have a concept of so much of what was going on until the news started coming out," Graves said in a recent interview. "I've been as surprised as anybody with what I saw."

As it turned out, Graves was the first of nine U.S. attorneys the Bush administration asked to resign in 2006. The firings caused a scandal that lead to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation in September.

Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of contempt charges for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former Bush aide Karl Rove for refusing to cooperate in the committee's ongoing investigation of the attorney firings.

The story seems to be winding down. After Gonzales' resignation, Bush appointed former federal Judge Michael Mukasey to replace Gonzales, hoping to quell criticism of the office. Although Mukasey has not been uncontroversial -- Senate Democrats grilled him during confirmation hearings on his stance on the legality of torture -- talk of the attorney firings has mostly fallen out of the headlines.

Graves testified before Congress in June, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that Department of Justice officials asked him to step down. News reports at the time said Graves may have been removed for his refusal to prosecute a voter-fraud lawsuit against Missouri, though Graves testified that he didn't know the reasons.

Bradley Schlozman, Graves' interim replacement, did file such a suit, alleging that the state had failed to purge its voter files of people who had died, moved or changed address. The lawsuit, which had political implications because it came on the eve of the 2006 midterm election, was dismissed in April 2007. A federal judge said the government hadn't produced evidence that any Missouri residents had been denied a vote.

Schlozman stepped down about the time of the dismissal to return to work at the Department of Justice. A few months later he resigned and works for the Hinkle Elkouri Law Firm in Wichita, Kan. U.S. Attorney John Wood now leads the Western District of Missouri office.

Graves said the matter is "long over" for him because he had been close to resigning as U.S. attorney anyway.

"It mattered about 60 days to me one way or the other," he said. "So on a personal level, it didn't have a big impact."

He said the news of the department shakeup didn't break until after he left and had established himself in private practice. He is now a partner with Graves Bartle & Marcus in Kansas City.

Graves said he thinks although political scandals are nothing new in the Department of Justice, the "system needed to purge itself."

"I think this will be a context for the next 10 to 15 years," he said.

And in the end, he said, everyone got their just desserts.

"The eight or nine United States attorneys that were involved in that seem to be doing very well and seem to be coming out in a positive light as the truth came out," Graves said. "All the 30- somethings and other bureaucrats in the Department of Justice who were wielding that power inappropriately, I don't think their careers are going that well, and I don't think they're cast in a very positive light at this point."