Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, indirectly threatened to resign if President Bush ordered them to return the documents seized from Congressman Jefferson's offices.

All three strongly believed that the documents were obtained legally, and a meeting between McNulty and aides to House Speaker Dennis Hastert resulted in both sides digging in and holding their ground. The White House was involved in the negotiations between the House and the Justice Department, and so was aware of a threat from the House to cut the Justice Department's budget if the documents were not returned.

Consequently Bush sensibly shutdown the issue quickly to give time for a proper solution to be developed. It still remains unclear whether the search was legal or not (different advisors within the White House have different opinions on the matter), and so hopefully this will be resolved before the 45 days expire.

Posted by Dave Bryant at 6:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)