In case you missed it, five of the seven U.S. Attorneys who were fired during the Bush administration spoke at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law earlier this week. (h/t TPMMuckraker)

They reflected on their experience, the fallout of which led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and talked about preserving the integrity of U.S. Attorneys.

The panelists included:

• Paul Charlton, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, and now a shareholder with the Phoenix law firm of Gallagher & Kennedy
• Bud Cummins, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, now a consultant
• David Iglesias, former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico, now a prosecutor for the Office of Military Commission in Washington, D.C.
• Carol Lam, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, now senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Qualcomm Inc. in San Diego
• John McKay, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, now a professor from practice at the Seattle University School of Law

We’re not sure the last time so many were in one place — perhaps in 2007, when they testified about their firings on Capitol Hill. See the video below.

Joe Arpaio (Gov)

A federal grand jury will decide whether to indict Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio next Wednesday, reports The Associated Press. Arpaio has been under investigation by both the FBI and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department for allegations of abuse of power and discrimination, respectively.

The Phoenix Business Journal reported that the grand jury will look at the abuse of power allegations against Arpaio and the sheriff’s office. The allegations of discrimination and are part of a separate investigation, and if the Civil Rights Division decides to pursue a case, it would be filed in civil court.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix declined to comment, writes the Phoenix Business Journal.

We reported in December that the Justice Department set up a telephone tip-line as part of its probe of the sheriff. Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “America’s toughest sheriff,” has gained notoriety for ordering his deputies to descend on Latino neighborhoods to arrest illegal immigrants. His deputies have arrested thousands of undocumented aliens during these roundups.

The federal case being investigated by the FBI, however, revolved around accusations that Arpaio retaliated against anyone who criticized him or his policies on illegal immigration.

One former Arizona U.S. Attorney fired during the 2006 purge is representing one of the targets of the state’s controversial sheriff. Ex-U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton’s client, Maricopa County, Ariz., supervisor Don Stapley, a Republican, has been arrested twice by deputies of Arpaio. Stapley has been a major critic of the sheriff’s tough stance on illegal immigration. Other Arpaio opponents who he is accused of retaliating against include Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, ex-New Times staffer John Dougherty, Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey, VVM CEO Jim Larkin, wrote the New Times blog back in October.

A local CBS news station in Arizona did a yearlong investigation of  Arpaio, which can be viewed below. It features David Iglesias, another Republican former U.S. Attorney for Arizona who was fired by the Bush administration during what an Inspector General report concluded was a politically motivated campaign. Iglesias says he couldn’t believe what Arpaio is accused of doing could happen in the United States.

Andrew Ramonas contributed to this report.

A former Arizona U.S. Attorney fired during the 2006 purge is representing a target of the state’s controversial sheriff, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Paul Charlton (Gallagher & Kennedy)

Ex-U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton’s client, Maricopa County, Ariz., supervisor Don Stapley, a Republican, has been arrested twice by deputies of the county’s sheriff, Joe Arpaio, according to the L.A. Times. Stapley has been a major critic of the sheriff’s tough stance on illegal immigration, the newspaper said.

The county supervisor was first arrested last December on charges stemming from an alleged failure to properly disclose business activities in an economic interest disclosure, according to the L.A. Times. Prosecutors dropped the case against him in September, the newspaper said.

Within days of the case dismissal, Arpaio deputies arrested Stapley again, according to the L.A. Times. This month, Stapley was charged with mishandling funds he raised to run for president of the National Association of Counties, the newspaper said.

Joe Arpaio (Gov)

“It’s just extraordinary, the kind of thing that takes place in Third World dictatorships,” Charlton told the L.A. Times.

The ex-U.S. Attorney, who is a shareholder at Phoenix law firm Gallagher & Kennedy, told the newspaper that he expected the most recent charges filed against his client would also be thrown out. “So many people are of one mind on a single issue — illegal immigration — that they are willing to ignore these misdeeds.”

Arpaio, who has strong support among county voters, dismissed the claims, according to the L.A. Times.

“We don’t abuse our power,” Arpaio told the newspaper. “We do what we have to do.”

We reported last week that the Justice Department set up a telephone tip-line as part of its probe of the sheriff. Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “America’s toughest sheriff,” has gained notoriety for ordering his deputies to descend on Latino neighborhoods to arrest illegal immigrants. His deputies have arrested thousands of undocumented aliens during these roundups.

A former Arizona U.S. Attorney joined the Native American law practice of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, the Cleveland-based firm announced today.

Diane Humetewa

Diane Humetewa, the first American Indian woman to be a U.S. Attorney, will work on natural resources, energy, water and real estate issues out of the firm’s Washington and Phoenix offices. She resigned as U.S. Attorney last month after serving almost two years as the top federal prosecutor in Arizona. Humetewa was nominated in 2007 to replace Paul Charlton, who was forced out during the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge.

Click here for our previous report about attempts by Bush White House officials to sink her nomination in 2007.  But Humetewa’s sponsor and former boss, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), refused to budge, and she was appointed to the U.S. Attorney post.

“Diane is joining us at an opportune time, given the increasing Native American demand for legal and legislative services in the Southwest and in Washington, D.C.,” Phoenix office managing partner Robert L. Matia said in a statement. “Her extensive background in these areas complements our existing practices. We are very excited to welcome her to Squire Sanders.”

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Dennis Burke, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s senior adviser on border security and law enforcement, to be the next Arizona U.S. Attorney. The Senate has yet to schedule a floor vote on the Burke nomination.

Rick Renzi

In 2006, then-Rep. Rick Renzi’s re-election was in serious jeopardy. Rumors were flying that Arizona Republican was the target of a federal criminal investigation. Reporters were picking up on them. Scott Jennings, a senior aide to Karl Rove, warned White House counsel Harriet Miers of the issue in 2006, according to according to emails released by the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday. Miers’s response? She called Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty to ask him to issue a statement to dispel the Renzi rumors. The only problem: The rumors were true. Read Murray Waas’s report in The Huffington Post here.

Harriet Miers

Arizona U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton, who was leading the investigation, already had found enough evidence of alleged criminal misconduct to warrant the Department of Justice approving a request  that Charlton seek an application from a federal judge to wiretap Renzi’s telephone.

In 2008, a federal grand jury indicted Renzi on 38 counts of money laundering, extortion, insurance fraud, and other alleged felonies. Renzi left office in January 2009, after announcing he would not seek another term in office.

Paul Charlton

Charlton, one of nine U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration, told Waas in an interview Tuesday: “It’s a great disappointment that the White House not only would ask that the Justice Department comment about an ongoing investigation but also lie about that investigation. And it is even a greater disappointment that the Gonzales Department of Justice and would comment at all about an ongoing investigation let alone make untruthful comments about an investigation.”

Paul McNulty

In June, career federal law enforcement officials involved in the Renzi investigation told Waas they wanted Attorney General Eric Holder to initiate a formal investigation of the Miers intervention. (At the time it was unknown that at least three of Bush’s top aides were involved in the control effort to protect Renzi’s reputation and re-election chances).

In his interview with Waas, Charlton said he hoped Nora Dannehy, the special prosecutor investigating the U.S Attorney firings, also would investigate the Bush White House’s damage control efforts on Renzi. “”It is my understanding that the new information and documents are almost certainly in the possession of the U.S. Attorney [Dannehy] and I expect that she will take the appropriate next steps,” Charlton told Waas.

Diane Humetewa

Senior Bush administration officials balked at nominating Diane Humetewa as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona two years ago, even though she had the support of both home state senators, according to emails released by the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

Scott Jennings, then the special assistant to President Bush, was unsparing in a Feb. 16, 2007 e-mail to Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, calling Humetewa “simply unacceptable.”

The e-mail, which was also sent to Rove’s executive assistant Taylor Hughes, said, “DOJ believes (and we concur) that Humetewa is not a viable candidate to be the U.S. Attorney for the following reasons.” (Oooh! What? Damn. The next page of the email giving the explanation is blacked out, we presume because it was a gratuitous trashing of Humetewa.)

Rove’s response?

“Replace Blanquita.” (Apparently intended as a racial epithet for the Hispanic-looking Humetewa.)

But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), for whom Humetewa once worked on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and who had been unable to mask his contempt for Bush after losing to him in the 2000 Republican presidential primary, refused to submit other names for the post, according to the e-mail. Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (R) joined his home state colleague in his recommendation.

Jennings wrote in an email that the White House counsel’s office and the Justice Department were asking Rove to “personally engage to move this process along.” Rove failed, apparently.

Humetewa, the first female Native American U.S. Attorney, was sworn in Dec. 17, 2007.  She replaced Paul Charlton, who was among the U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration in 2006. Daniel Knauss served as interim U.S. Attorney for one year between Charlton and Humetewa.

The emails were released as part of the House panel’s investigation of the Bush administration’s politicized firings of six U.S. Attorneys in late 2006.

In June, Humetewa received the “Women in Federal Law Enforcement Foundation President’s Award” — the highest award given by the Women in Federal Law Enforcement Foundation. McCain and Kyl had said they hoped President Obama would keep her on. They also said they would work with the Obama administration to select a new U.S. Attorney.

Humetewa resigned earlier this month. Dennis K. Burke, a senior advisor to former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who is now the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, has been nominated to replace her.

The Arizona Democratic congressional delegation urged President Obama to nominate Phoenix lawyer Dennis Burke to be the state’s next U.S. Attorney, The Arizona Republic reported today.

Burke, former chief of staff to then-Gov. Janet Napolitano, would succeed U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa who replaced Paul Charlton after the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge. The Republic said the decision to recommend Burke was a matter of “when, not if.”

“I’m glad President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder see what a fine man he is,” former Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) told The Republic. “I’m just surprised it didn’t come sooner.”

Burke told The Republic that he was contacted by the Justice Department about Burke, a former counsel to DeConcini on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The former senator said Burke helped him win support for a ban on automatic weapons almost 20 years ago, according to the newspaper.

Conservative Arizona blog Sonoran Alliance called the recommendation “cronyism.” Burke was chief of staff for more than 10 years before he left last year to campaign for Obama, according to The Republic.

“Burke is known for little other than carrying Napolitano’s water at the Attorney General’s Office, then at the Governor’s Office,” the bloggers wrote.

Prior to his posts in the Arizona governor’s office and on the Judiciary Committee, Burke served as a clerk in the Arizona Supreme Court, a special assistant in the DOJ Office of Legislative Affairs and the Arizona chief deputy attorney general, according to The Republic.

“He knows the judicial system inside and out,” DeConcini told the newspaper.