Prosecutor Purge: The One Who Deserved It

Ever since the prosecutor purge story first surfaced, I've been wondering where San Francisco's U.S. Attorney fit in. He's the only one who didn't seem to fit the pattern--no loyalty issues, no investigations of top Republicans, no failure to investigate Democrats.

Finally, we get the story on Ryan:

The only U.S. attorney fired by the administration in December who undeniably had performance issues was begrudingly added to the list at the last minute -- and only then because of a federal judge's threat that he would go to Congress with complaints about the prosecutor's performance.

The L.A. Times adds more detail:

Unlike seven other fired federal prosecutors who may have run afoul of the administration for political reasons, San Francisco U.S. Atty. Kevin Ryan was a team player for Bush and had influential Republican support. A friend of the president even went to bat for Ryan after his firing.
"You would have to know Kevin," said UC Hastings College of the Law professor Rory Little. "You can't find a stronger supporter of the Bush administration agenda."

His tenure, however, was plagued by morale problems and accusations that he was a bad manager. A number of the office's most experienced lawyers left.

Despite his problems, which were well documented in legal newspapers, Justice officials wanted to keep Ryan on, even as they plotted the firings of other U.S. attorneys....

In an e-mail from D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, to Harriet Miers in March 2005, Ryan was in a category described as "strong U.S. Attorneys who have produced, managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the President and Attorney General."

So the one guy who had legitimate performance problems is the one they didn't want to fire. Internal e-mails show that in the end, they threw Ryan over the side to "avoid the release of documents" showing his terrible performance.

In 2005, Deputy Attorney General James Comey--the guy who appointed Fitzgerald as special prosecutor, the one DAG whose integrity seems to have been beyond dispute--drew up a list of U.S. Attorneys to fire for incompetence. The list is almost completely different from the list Kyle Sampson came up with.

Kevin Ryan is the only name on both lists.