[JURIST] Former US Attorney Todd P. Graves [firm profile] was forced to resign from his post with the Western District of Missouri last year after he expressed a difference of opinion with the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on politically sensitive cases, Graves told the New York Times Wednesday. Graves said that while he was planning to go into private practice, he did not know that his name appeared on a list of US Attorneys that the DOJ was contemplating firing. Director of the Executive Office for US Attorneys Michael Battle [official profile], the same man who informed the other eight US Attorney's fired [JURIST news archive] last year of their dismissal, suggested to Graves in early 2006 that he was also going to be fired.

Graves is now the ninth known US Attorney to be fired last year for alleged political reasons. On Monday, the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] sent a letter to former US Attorney Bradley Schlozman to answer questions about a possible link between the firing scandal and voter fraud prosecutions [JURIST report]. Also Monday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that it would not try to block [JURIST report] a House decision to grant immunity to former DOJ official Monica Goodling [JURIST news archive] in exchange for her testimony about whether politics played a role in the dismissal of eight US Attorneys. Goodling told the committee in March that she would not speak to the committee about her role in the firings [JURIST report]. The New York Times has more.