Reid says prosecutors not lax on voter fraud

“This is all Karl Rove-generated,” Reid said, referring to the White House political adviser who complained last year to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about election-related investigations in several districts.

The White House deputy passed on concerns about Albuquerque, Philadelphia and Milwaukee amidst a push by the Bush administration for prosecutors to pursue voter fraud aggressively.

In an ongoing investigation by House and Senate Judiciary committees, nothing has been uncovered so far to indicate that Rove complained about Nevada specifically.

But documents and interviews made public in the investigation this week for the first time tie Nevada to a concern within the Justice Department about prosecutions of voter fraud cases.

Administration critics have charged the focus on voter fraud was a red herring intended to suppress Democrats, and also was connected to the firing of U.S. attorneys in certain districts.

“They were concerned about the elections,” Reid, D-Nev., said of the Bush administration in Nevada. “They were afraid they were going to lose them fair and square and they wanted to try to tilt them unfair and unsquare.”

Rove was “hoping there would be something out there, and there was nothing,” said Reid, the Senate majority leader.

Tracy Schmaler, a spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel likely will look further into whether the voter fraud matter played a role in the firing of Nevada U.S. attorney Daniel Bogden in December.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Gonzales told reporters he relied heavily on his deputy to oversee the firings of U.S. attorneys, appearing to distance himself from his departing second-in-command.

Gonzales’ comments came the day after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said he would step down by the end of summer, a decision that people familiar with his plans said was hastened by the controversy over the chief prosecutors.

“At the end of the day, the recommendations reflected the views of the deputy attorney general. He signed off on the names,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales, a longtime friend and adviser to President Bush, has so far survived calls for his own resignation. “At the end of the day, that really is a question for the president of the United States,” the attorney general said anew Tuesday.

Bogden was among nine chief federal prosecutors removed last year but reasons behind his firing have remained fuzzy. Four of the prosecutors were in districts where Rove or other Bush administration officials complained about lax enforcement of voter laws.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Tuesday voter fraud is a serious issue that should be chased. But he said it was not brought to his attention that the White House or the Justice Department had worries about election law enforcement in Nevada.

“If they did have a problem with that, if they were not being aggressive enough on voter fraud, they should have talked to Bogden,” Ensign said, adding Justice officials never mentioned it as a factor in Bogden’s dismissal.

“The bottom line is, talk to the guy, but nothing was ever communicated to him,” Ensign said. “That is basic management.”

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said in a statement that Bogden “served with impartiality. I have confidence that Bogden pursued every investigation he was able to pursue to the best of his ability.”

Based on interviews and handwritten notes by one of the participants, investigators learned of a conversation in October between Justice Department officials in which the chief of staff of the criminal division said Nevada was “bad” on enforcement trends for voter fraud.

Bogden said Tuesday that was news to him.

Bogden said he contacted Camille Damm, an assistant U.S. attorney in Las Vegas who was the designated contact for voter and election fraud, to confirm his recollection that the Nevada district was relatively problem-free.

“I always thought the state did a very nice job handling the elections,” Bogden said.

Bogden confirmed the FBI received complaints in 2004 about irregularities in Nevada voter registration. He said that matter was handled in Washington because it involved civil rights issues and multiple jurisdictions.

Unlike reports from other districts where administration officials were complaining of performance in pursuing voter cases, “I have never heard of anything, seen such a thing, or have anyone contact me or alert me to an issue about voter fraud,” he said.

“I can only say I don’t know why all this happened as far as me being asked to step down,” Bogden said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.