Sheldon Whitehouse: “the remarks the Senator from California and the Senator from New York have made today are very well taken, and I rise to…”

“the remarks the Senator from California and the Senator from New York have made today are very well taken, and I rise to express my shared concern with them and my support for their initiative to get to the bottom of what took place. In May of 1994 I had the honor to be sworn in as Rhode Island's U.S. attorney. It was one of the great honors of my life, equivalent to the great honor of being sworn in with you, Mr. President, into this extraordinary body. I knew when I took that oath that I would be forced to make very hard decisions and that my independence and my integrity would be my strongest allies as I discharged the extraordinarily difficult and powerful responsibilities of a U.S. attorney. Last December, seven U.S. attorneys were fired by the Department of Justice, all on the very same day. That is unprecedented. Never, to my knowledge, in the history of the Department have so many heads of U.S. attorneys rolled all on the same day. These men and women had been confirmed in this great Chamber. By all indications, they were well qualified and performing well in their jobs. Several of them were involved in ongoing public corruption investigations. Yet in this unprecedented step, this administration showed them all the door. It suggests to us all the question: why might such an extraordinary act have taken place; why were they told their services were no longer required?”