UPDATED

By DAVE HELLING and STEVE KRASKE

The Kansas City Star 

   Sen. Kit Bond’s staff, worried about a potential scandal over Missouri’s fee offices, suggested two years ago that the Bush administration should consider replacing then-U.S. attorney Todd Graves.

    Bond’s office told The Kansas City Star that staff members were concerned about the political impact of Graves’ participation in the controversial patronage system. In February 2005, Graves’ wife, Tracy, was given a no-bid contract to run a lucrative fee office, where Missourians get car licenses and conduct other state business. 

    Such contracts, awarded by Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration, led to fierce criticism from Democrats in Missouri. Eventually an investigation, conducted by a Republican U.S. attorney in Arkansas, found no wrongdoing.

    Despite their concerns in 2005, Bond’s office now says it has no evidence that the communication, or the fee office system, played any role in Graves’ departure from the U.S. attorney’s office.

    Today, in an interview and a statement, Graves flatly rejected the suggestion that his wife’s involvement with a fee office led, directly or indirectly, to his departure.

   “This would be humorous if we were not talking about the United States Department of Justice,” Graves said.

    Graves abruptly resigned in March 2006, roughly one year after Bond’s office communicated its concerns. His departure has now been linked to the firing of several other U.S. attorneys and the resulting explosive controversy that threatens U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

    Bond spokeswoman Shana Marchio said in a statement to The Star that the communication was recently discovered.

   “We have learned that staff in 2005, out of concern at the time over the fee office controversy, contacted the administration to determine whether they would be replacing U.S. attorneys at the end of their initial four year terms,” her statement said. The staff, she said, suggested “there might be an interest in doing something different in this (Graves’) position.”

   Marchio’s statement said this happened without Bond’s knowledge. “The Senator had no knowledge of this staff action, did not approve it, would not have approved it,” she said.

   But, Bond’s office said, the senator did become directly involved with Graves’ tenure in early 2006, when Graves’ departure was imminent. 

   “Senator Bond … upon (Graves’) request personally called the White House to gain Todd extra time to wrap up case work before his departure,” Marchio’s statement said.

   Graves’ unexpected resignation as U.S. attorney for the western district of Missouri is now under congressional scrutiny, along with the other U.S. attorney evictions. At the time he said his departure was voluntary so he could begin a private law practice.

McClatchy Newspapers has reported that Graves was one of at least 12 U.S. attorneys targeted by the Justice Department. The communication from Bond’s office could help explain, at least in part, why Graves ended up on the removal list.

   Other explanations include Graves’ alleged reluctance to pursue voter fraud cases and the possibility that Graves, like the other dispatched prosecutors, was not, in the words of one Justice official’s e-mail, a “loyal Bushie.”

    While he doesn’t think the communication or fee office scandal were directly responsible for Graves’ departure, Bond said he doesn’t know why Graves was pushed out. “I really couldn’t speculate about any administration list,” he said. “You would have to ask them about that.”

   The Justice Department declined to comment.

   Graves said he doesn’t know why he would have been a target for removal, but he suggested his “independence” may have played a role.

    “When I first interviewed (with the Department)…I was asked to give the panel one attribute that describes me,” Graves said. “I said independent. Apparently, that was the wrong attribute.”

   Missouri Democrats have long argued that the state’s fee offices, under the Blunt administration, were closely linked to campaign contributions. Tuesday they said news that Bond’s office was worried about Graves’ link to the fee office system may add to their suspicions.

   “It’s alarming that there is now a connection between Todd Graves being pushed out of his job as U.S. Attorney and his involvement in Matt Blunt’s fee office scheme,” said Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the Missouri Democratic Party. 

    Bond’s office stressed that it had no evidence that Graves had been involved in anything improper with Missouri’s fee offices, only that it was a potential political problem in the state.

   A person in Bond’s office who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the discussions said the White House rejected Bond’s efforts on Graves’ behalf because of “performance” concerns. E-mails from the Justice Department and the White House have used similar language in discussing the other U.S. attorneys who were fired.

   Graves was replaced by Brad Schlozman, who left the Kansas City office after the Senate confirmed John Wood to the post. Wood is Bond’s cousin.

   The Senate Judiciary Committee has invited Schlozman, now in the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys in Washington, to testify.

   The fee office system has been a source of dispute for decades, involving both Republican and Democratic administrations. Critics call it a last vestige of patronage that allows governors to reward supporters with lucrative appointments that pay $200,000 to more than $400,000 a year.

   Democrats were particularly critical of Blunt for not only continuing the system, but expanding it to include a series of state-run offices, including the one in downtown Kansas City. 

    At the time Graves left, the Justice Department was investigating the system. That investigation, first revealed by The Star, was conducted by the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas, Bud Cummins.

   Cummins also turned up on the administration’s list of attorneys to be replaced. He says he was notified in June 2006 that he would be removed, but his firing did not become official until December 2006.

   In October 2006, Cummins issued a press release that no wrongdoing in the fee office system was found. “The matter has been closed with no indictments sought or returned,” Cummins said.

   In an earlier interview, Cummins said he knew of no link between his dismissal and his fee office investigation, which turned up no wrongdoing.

   “By the time I had gotten that call in June, the preliminary conclusions had been reached in that (fee office) case,” Cummins said.

____________

From 3:25 p.m.:

   More than two years ago, staff members for Missouri Sen. Kit Bond told the administration that then-U.S. attorney Todd Graves should be considered for replacement, Prime Buzz has learned.

   Why? Because of Graves' involvement with the state's controversial fee office system.

   Bond's office confirms the contact, made in early 2005, to Prime Buzz.

   The communication from Bond to the executive branch may explain, in part, why Graves was added to a list of potential U.S. attorney replacement candidates in 2005 and 2006.

    It's also the first direct link between the fee office controversy and the apparent dismissal of a U.S. attorney.

    In 2005 Democrats were hammering Missouri Republicans for the way Gov. Matt Blunt awarded the lucrative fee offices, where Missourians get licenses and conduct other state business.  Tracy Graves, Todd Graves' wife, got one of the no-bid contracts.

   Bond's staffers communicated their concerns about the fee office controversy to the administration, a Bond spokeswoman said in a statement; and they suggested Graves might be a candidate for removal because of those worries.

   Graves resigned abruptly about a year after the Bond office communication. He was out of town and couldn't comment.

    Bond's staff insists the senator did not know about the communication, didn't approve it, and wouldn't have approved it had he known it was made.

   His staff also insists the fee office communication and the controversy itself did not play a role in Graves' departure.

   As we've discussed in earlier posts, speculation is rampant concerning the motives for the Graves dismissal.  Among the possible reasons:  Graves' alleged reluctance to pursue voter fraud cases; his alleged reluctance to pursue cases against Democrats; and the desire to put his replacement, Brad Schlozman, in a U.S. attorney's post.

   Democrats have long suggested a link between the fee office system and the U.S. attorney firings, although they have never offered evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.

   A fee office investigation by U.S. attorney Bud Cummins of Arkansas, who was also fired by the Justice Department, turned up no evidence of wrongdoing, Cummins has said.  He has also denied any link between his firing and the fee office scrutiny.