Rachel Paulose, a beneficiary of the political pogrom that cost the last attorney general his job, will be relieved of her duties as U.S. attorney for Minnesota amid charges of mismanagement and misconduct lodged by her subordinates. Paulose, the youngest lawyer ever appointed to the post of U.S. attorney, lasted less than two years in the job, having risen quickly through the political ranks to replace Thomas Heffelfinger, forced out because he didn't make sufficient use of his prosecutorial powers to benefit the Republican party.
Paulose's predecessor is believed to have been one of at least nine U.S. attorneys whose names appeared on a list compiled for the president, who has the sole authority to remove these officers. Heffelfinger resigned, but eight others were removed involuntarily after the 2006 election, leading to hearings before both houses of Congress that uncovered the corruption of the federal prosecutorial function by political racketeers, including the president and attorney general. The attorney general quit and was replaced by another racketeer, with the full acquiescence of the Democratic senate, but the president has never been called to account for his part in the scandal.
Unlike many of the young zealots recruited to work at Bush's Justice Department, Paulose has impressive credentials. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota and Phi Beta Kappa inductee, she got her law degree at Yale and clerked for a federal appellate judge before taking a job in the Justice Department under Janet Reno. She spent a few years in private practice before returning to Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department. When Heffelfinger left the U.S. attorney's office in early 2006, Paulose was appointed to an interim post without senate approval. Just after the 2006 election, she was approved by the Republican senate on a voice vote without debate.
She caused a stir when she took the oath of office in a ceremony that was so grandiose a local TV station compared it to a coronation. She eventually alienated most of the professional prosecutors on her staff, three of whom took voluntary demotions earlier this year from administrative positions to regular trial work in protest. Paulose was known for quoting scripture to her subordinates, many of whom complained about her brutal management practices. One of her first official acts was to fire Rob Lewis, a close associate of her predecessor, reportedly because of some concerns he'd expressed about the voting rights of Indians in Minnesota.
Paulose will wait out the remainder of Bush's term at Justice Deparment headquarters in Washington in a job whose precise character has yet to be described publicly. Michael Mukasey, the incoming attorney general, has all but promised to cover up the crimes of his predecessor and his superiors, and Paulose is likely to have intimate knowledge of some of them, so she will have to be protected for as long as Mukasey remains in office.
