U.S. attorney general coming to Seattle

SEATTLE – Next week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will make his first visit to Seattle since U.S. Attorney John McKay was forced out in a purge that prompted an ongoing congressional investigation.

Gonzales is scheduled to deliver a 45-minute speech Wednesday at the Westin Hotel’s Grand Ballroom on the Justice Department’s efforts to protect intellectual property and combat cyber-crime. Justice Department spokesman Evan Peterson declined to confirm details of Gonzales’ schedule, but he is also expected to visit the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle.

The speech, free and open to the public, is being sponsored by TechNet Northwest, a political coalition of technology executives, and promoted by the Discovery Institute, a think tank best known for its support of “intelligent design” as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

Gonzales has not been to Seattle as attorney general.

McKay, the Justice Department’s top lawyer in Washington since 2001, was ordered to resign last year along with eight other U.S. attorneys. Those fired included some of the department’s top performers, raising questions about whether some were canned because they refused to pursue claims of vote fraud – a favorite topic of White House strategist Karl Rove – or because of their handling of public corruption investigations.

Gonzales testified before Congress in April that McKay was fired because of concerns about his “judgment,” specifically in the way he pushed for better information sharing among law enforcement.

Last month, however, the House Judiciary Committee released a document showing that McKay was targeted for firing in March 2005 – more than a year before any concerns about McKay’s judgment had been raised, and during the height of the controversy over the gubernatorial election in Washington state. The Republican in the race, Dino Rossi, lost to Democrat Chris Gregoire after two recounts, and many in the state GOP had called on McKay to investigate whether fraud was involved.

McKay assembled a team to investigate any evidence that surfaced but has said there was none.