Mike Thompson: “The secretaries were a part of the unit and the assistant U.S. attorneys wanted to be organized. I am not familiar with…”

“The secretaries were a part of the unit and the assistant U.S. attorneys wanted to be organized. I am not familiar with that concept. When I was assistant U.S. attorney, when I was brought in. I stayed as long as they wanted me or I wanted to stay. When they elected another President, I was gone. Nowadays we have a civil service system and folks there were trying to take it one step further and unionize. In light of what is going on in the world, the determination was made it is not a good idea to have people prosecuting terrorists, bogged down with negotiating some of these things, some of which are quite foolish, we have been describing. For better or for worse, that decision was made. The secretaries were incorporated because the President's authority only goes to taking action with regard to agencies or subdivisions of the agencies. So the suggestion was made to the union representatives at that time, as I understand it, in talking to the OPM people, let's change the law so we can carve out secretaries. And they said: Oh, no, no, no. We don't want to do that. We do not like the issue framed just the way it is. That created some controversy with regard to the only time this President has exercised authority there. But as far as I know, historically, all Presidents have exercised it. It happens to be controversial. I simply do not understand.…”