Justice Inspector General: Rove needs to answer to prosecutor

Nick Juliano and David Edwards
Published: Friday October 3, 2008

While he was able to compile a nearly 400-page report exposing the fundamentally flawed, politically motivated processes that led to the unjustified firings of nine US Attorneys, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine says more details of the scandal remain unknown.

Officials like Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, who have refused to cooperate with separate investigations from the IG and Congress, should be compelled to answer to a federal prosecutor, Fine told lawmakers Friday.

Rove, Miers and several other White House officials refused to cooperate making it impossible "to fully investigate all of the reasons for the removal of the US attorneys," Fine told the House Judiciary Committee, responding to questions about his lengthy report released Monday.

"We were not able to uncover all the facts," he said, "and we believe the prosecutor ought to look at them."

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a special prosecutor to follow up on Fine's report.