Reference.com

Bud Cummins

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Harry Earnest "Bud" Cummins III, was born in Enid, Oklahoma. He is a former United States Attorney of five years in the Eastern District of Arkansas.

After moving to Little Rock, and working in the construction business, Cummins obtained a law degree from the William H. Bowen School of Law. Subsequently, he was a law clerk for United States Magistrate Judge John F. Forster, Jr., and later was a clerk to Chief United States District Judge Stephen M. Reasoner. Soon after Cummins set up his own private law practice.

In 1996 he ran as a Republican for the U.S. Congress, losing the vote, 52% to 48%, to Democrat Vic Snyder in a race noted for personal attacks. He later served as Governor Mike Huckabee's Chief Legal Counsel.

In November 2001 George W. Bush appointed him as a United States Attorney.

Controversy over dismissal

Cummins received national attention when he was dismissed by the US Attorney General despite having received positive job reviews. Cummins had been informed in June 2006 that his resignation would be desired, and as part of the transition, his replacement, Tim Griffin worked for Cummins's office as a special assistant attorney from September, 2006 onward. Cummins that day resigned effective December 20, 2006. He has been called "one of the most distinguished lawyers in Arkansas".

Early in the Congressional investigations of the firings, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified that Cummins was removed for no reason except to install a former aide to Karl Rove: 37-year-old Timothy Griffin, a former Republican National Committee opposition research director. Cummins, apparently, "was ousted after Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, intervened on behalf of Griffin. Cummins told the Senate Judiciary Committee "that Mike Elston, the deputy attorney general's top aide, threatened him with retaliation in a phone call [in February 2007] if he went public. Emails show that Cummins passed on the warning to some of the other Attorneys who were fired.

Reportedly Monica Goodling "took a leading role in making sure that Tim Griffin, a protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove, replaced H.E. "Bud" Cummins as the U.S. attorney in Arkansas. Documents released to Congress include communications between Goodling and Scott Jennings, Rove's deputy."

Cummins answered a House Judiciary Committee interrogatory about the experience:

...On the other hand, as long as the President who appointed you was in office, there was no precedent for removal of you absent misconduct even after the four year mark came and went. Dismissal for misconduct had occurred in a very few cases of obvious misconduct, i.e. political activities within the office, assaulting a woman, etc. Of course, many USA’s leave short of two terms to become judges or return to private practice. My wife would tell you that if DOJ intends to start making it a practice to remove folks at the four year mark, out of fairness they ought to tell you that on the front end because a lot of people would not choose to take a job you have to fill out thousands of forms for, submit to a background check by the FBI, submit to a Senate confirmation process that might be randomly delayed at the fancy of one or more Senators, and probably go without income in the process, and generally put your family through hell to take a job that might be taken away even if you are performing well.

Investigations

Cummins had been investigating Missouri Governor Matt Blunt's Administration in regard to allegations that certain individuals that worked for Blunt had violated the law in the awarding of fee offices. On Oct. 4, 2006, Cummins himself announced that the investigation had concluded and that no charges were filed against anyone. "Cummins' statement at the time included a specific reference to Blunt, which he acknowledged was unusual, but was consistent with department policies and justified in light of leaks and erroneous reporting. The statement made clear that 'at no time was Governor Blunt a target, subject, or witness in the investigation, nor was he implicated in any allegation being investigated. Any allegations or inferences to the contrary are uninformed and erroneous.'" Cummins has stated on more than one occasion that he does not believe the Missouri investigation had anything to do with his dismissal.

References

Links

Cummins, Bud. Gonzales Resignation Washington Post, August 27, 2007. Transcript of Bud Cummins's responses to questions, the day Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation from office.

Salon.com Q & A http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/27/cummins/index.html?source=rss&aim=yahoo-salon

NPR interview re AG resignation http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13975454

NPR interview (different) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13973097

Cummins on CBS Evening News http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3210125n

Cummins on Arkansas ABC affiliate news http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0807/450720.html

Cummins on Arkansas CBS affiliate news http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=51913

Cummins on Arkansas Fox affiliate news http://www.fox16.com/mediacenter/local.aspx

Cummins on Arkansas NBC affiliate news http://www.arkansasmatters.com/media_player.php?media_id=13834

Washington Post Online Chat http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/08/27/DI2007082700837.html

Arkansas local news radio http://www.karnnewsradio.com/article.asp?id=176612&spid=

Arkansas local news radio http://www.920karn.com/Article.asp?id=155645

Talking Points Memo (tpmmuckraker blog—best comprehensive resource on USA firings): http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/cats/us_attorneys/

Harvard panel summary and useful links: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/clinicalwiki/US_Attorney_Firings

Harvard panel podcast (audio): http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/03/17/harvard-law-school-discussion-on-us-attorney-firings/

NPR interview (audio): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7872658

PBS interview (audio): http://www.pbs.org/now/news/311.html

CNN (transcript): http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/14/cnna.cummins/index.html

Hardball (video)(click on “Fired US Attorneys Talk”): www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/

Saturday Night Live (video)(not particularly funny): http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=82523



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 07:00:59 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation