Milwaukee-based U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, a Marquette graduate and current adjunct law professor, has found himself in the middle of the U.S. attorney firing controversy taking place in Washington, D.C.
A Senate committee will be questioning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today regarding the U.S. attorney firings.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) sent a letter to the Justice Department Monday requesting Biskupic and three other U.S. attorneys be interviewed in conjunction with Congress' investigation into the firings of eight other U.S. attorneys.
Biskupic has said he would cooperate fully with the requested voluntary interview.
Biskupic's name appeared on a Justice Department firing list, which rated U.S. attorneys across the country based on their loyalty to President Bush, McClatchy News Service reported Friday. But Biskupic's name was taken off the list, which prompted some to question whether the Republican-appointed attorney prosecuted last year's Georgia Thompson case for political purposes.
Biskupic stood behind his prosecution of Thompson, a former state employee convicted of illegally steering a travel contract to a local firm whose executives contributed to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's 2006 campaign.
A three-member U.S. Court of Appeals panel overturned Thompson's conviction April 5.
"We brought the case in good faith, and we certainly believe there was sufficient evidence to find her guilty," Biskupic said. "But we also have tremendous respect for the Court of Appeals. You want to do your job right, and when somebody says you didn't, you take that very seriously."
Biskupic said he prosecuted the case with the backing of two Democrats – then-Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard.
Critics have said the evidence against Thompson was lacking.
Biskupic said he is anticipating the written decision from the appeals court, and wants to know whether the case was insufficient on factual or legal grounds.
Reports from Talking Points Memo, a liberal Internet blog, suggested senior Bush adviser Karl Rove "wanted evidence that there had been a Democratic criminal conspiracy to stuff the ballot box in Milwaukee" during the 2004 presidential election.
Biskupic said it was "determined there were isolated instances of suspected fraud, but that there certainly was not evidence of a conspiracy to steal the election."
He added that he worked on voter fraud cases with Democratic Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann after the 2004 election. Biskupic said he and McCann knew there would be partisan criticism regarding their investigation of voter fraud, which prompted their bipartisan investigation.
"You try to build in safeguards to make sure that you're looking at things from all perspectives," Biskupic said. "The way we tried to build in safeguards on voter fraud was to work together."
If Rove did pay particular attention to Milwaukee regarding voter fraud, Biskupic said it would not have had any effect on how he did his job.
"I do my job based on the evidence and not based on political factors," Biskupic said. "Let the chips fall where they may."
Wisconsin Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, both Democrats, and four other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Gonzales a letter April 10 requesting the release of documents surrounding Biskupic's prosecution of Thompson and voter fraud cases in Wisconsin. The six senators also requested documents regarding the Justice Department's evaluation of Biskupic's performance.
Kohl spokesman Joe Bonfiglio was unsure what questions Kohl would ask Gonzales, but said the hearing would "continue to explore" the role Biskupic's prosecutions had on his performance evaluation in the Justice Department.
Biskupic was recommended to President Bush to become the Wisconsin Eastern District U.S. attorney in 2002 by Kohl and Feingold, along with Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Brookfield).
Biskupic said he understands Kohl and Feingold's inquiry into his prosecutions, and said they would do the same in investigating any other attorney appointed by any other president.
"I just think they're doing their job, and I'm doing my job," Biskupic said. "It sort of comes with the territory that when U.S. attorneys are under scrutiny, that's the nature of the scrutiny."
Biskupic said he never thought his job security was threatened with his name appearing on the Justice Department list.
"You do this job because you enjoy it, not because you feel that you're beholden to anybody, and I would never do that in my job," Biskupic said. "I try to prosecute the cases based on the evidence, whether people in Washington liked it or disliked it. It didn't really matter to me."
As an adjunct professor of law since 2005, Biskupic has taught a course on terrorism and federal law for the past three spring semesters. Law School Dean Joseph Kearney called Biskupic "a well-regarded prosecutor, lawyer and instructor."
Despite the reversal of Thompson's conviction, Kearney said Biskupic is still a good prosecutor. The very purpose of appellate courts, he said, is to find if there are any mistakes made by prosecutors, juries and/or trial courts.
"I have a high regard for Steve," Kearney said. "I believe that he has sought, by the best lights available to him, to apply the law in an even-handed, dispassionate and non-political manner."
Biskupic graduated from Marquette Law School in 1987 and was an assistant U.S. attorney for 13 years prior to his current position. He earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from Marquette in 1983.
