"After several more hours of testimony by the Attorney General, over 6,000 pages of documents released to Congress, an additional thousand pages made available for Congressional review, and many hours of interviews and testimony from other senior DOJ officials, it is again clear that the Attorney General did not ask for the resignation of any individual in order to interfere with or influence a particular prosecution for partisan political gain. Most of the focus of today’s hearing was, again, not on whether the decisions were improper, but rather on the management of this process and misstatements the Attorney General has acknowledged he made. The Attorney General accepted full responsibility for his actions and again reiterated that this process was not as rigorous as it should have been and that he is taking steps to institute better management practices with respect to U.S. Attorneys. Today, he also reaffirmed his commitment to focusing on the important issues that the American people expect him to address: securing our country from terrorism, protecting our neighborhoods from gangs and drugs, shielding our children from predators and pedophiles, and protecting the public trust by prosecuting public corruption."
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07-341