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Former interim U.S. attorney says he would not take job again Friday, Jun 15, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Former interim U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin said Thursday that given a chance to do things over, he would not accept his controversial appointment in Arkansas. "It's not worth it. It's not worth it because I'm married now, I'm about to have a kid. ... I'm sorry that I put my wife through this," Griffin told a crowd of about 120 people at the University of Arkansas' Clinton School of Public Service. Griffin, 38, became teary-eyed several times while discussing his experience as federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin was named to the position in December under a provision of the Patriot Act that allows interim U.S. attorneys to be appointed and serve indefinitely without Senate confirmation. He resigned June 1 amid a firestorm of controversy over his appointment and the firing of his predecessor, Bud Cummins, and several other prosecutors. Griffin, a native of Magnolia, said although some in the media have treated him fairly, many false things have been said about him. In the latter category, according to Griffin, are reports that he helped disenfranchise black voters in Florida in 2004. Writer Greg Palast has claimed Griffin, former research director for the Republican National Committee, was involved in a scheme to suppress votes by sending letters to black soldiers who were overseas, then challenging their voter registration after the letters came back "undeliverable." "I'm not going to litigate it here in this forum, but it's completely false," Griffin said in answer to a question from a member of the audience. "I would never do that, No. 1, because it's wrong, and I would never do it, No. 2, because it would dishonor what my father did." Griffin said that in 1972 his father, then the pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Charlotte. N.C., stood up to threats from the Ku Klux Klan over his policy of allowing black children to play in the church gymnasium. Griffin also said that during his brief term as prosecutor his office indicted a person who allegedly used threatening, racist language to try to keep a black person from living in the person's neighborhood. Also false, Griffin said, are reports that describe him as a protege of Bush political adviser Karl Rove and claims that he was dispatched to Arkansas to take the U.S. attorney position. Griffin said that throughout his career he has wanted to live and work in Arkansas, though financial and career-related concerns have often lured him away. Griffin said he was serving as a military lawyer in Iraq in April 2006 when Cummins, under whom he had worked as a special assistant, told him he planned to resign. Griffin said he was not surprised when he later learned Cummins was leaving the office. Cummins initially told reporters he chose to resign but later said he was fired to make room for Griffin. "... No one promised me the U.S. attorney position, nor could they, because the president personally decides that," Griffin said. Griffin said he originally wanted to be confirmed by the Senate, "but I was amenable to accepting an appointment that met the requirements of the law." Congress is seeking to remove the provision of the Patriot Act that allows interim attorneys to serve without confirmation. Griffin chose to resign rather than go through the confirmation process. "In the end, I did not think it would serve my young family nor the state I loved so much and tried to serve honorably ... to subject them to such a process," he said Thursday. Griffin said his plans are to stay in Arkansas "for good" and practice law. He said he is in the process of opening a bipartisan political consulting firm in Arkansas but did not say whether he is - or wants to be - involved in any political campaigns. |
