No evidence of election crime, former U.S. attorney says

No evidence of election crime, former U.S. attorney says
By Richard Roesler
Staff writer
May 20, 2007

WENATCHEE - Fired U.S. Attorney John McKay said Sunday that the 2004 razor-thin governor’s election in Washington "smelled really bad," but that an extensive, little-publicized investigation by FBI agents and federal prosecutors found no evidence of a federal crime.

"As a citizen and as someone who watched it, I didn’t like it," the Republican former official said. "I didn’t like what happened at all. Through incompetence, through a mistake, whatever it was, I didn’t like the way the election was handled." But a public-corruption case, he said, needed "conclusive evidence of a conspiracy" – something the federal task force was unable to find.

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Although some political observers have speculated that McKay, a longtime Republican at odds with an unpopular Bush administration, could be a strong crossover political candidate, he said today that he has no imminent political aspirations.

"I have no intention of running for political office now…And I don’t expect to anytime soon," he said.

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"I still don’t know why the Department of Justice fired me," McKay told the group today. Although U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, he, several of his former colleagues and members of Congress have questioned whether they were illegally targeted due to political motives. In McKay’s case, the theory – denied by Justice officials – is that the administration was unhappy with McKay’s decision not to bring election charges. Federal prosecutors, McKay says, are supposed to be insulated from political considerations, especially in election fraud or public-corruption cases.

more:http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=9951