Reid wants Bogden returned to U.S. attorney’s post

Dan Bogden

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has asked the White House to rehire Dan Bogden as the U.S. attorney for Nevada.

Reid told reporters today that Greg Brower, who currently holds the post, has done a fine job, but Bogden deserves to have back the job that was taken from him in an alleged power grab by the Bush administration.

"I just think it is so unfair what happened to him," Reid said of Bogden.

Reid said he had talked to federal judges in Las Vegas and employees of the U.S. attorney's office to get a full understanding of the situation. "I didn't just do this as a whim," he said. "I have gone into it in some detail."

Bogden, he said, deserves to be fully vindicated. "It is just not fair to have Bogden with this mark, this scarlet letter, like he is a bad U.S. attorney. Everyone who knows him knows he was not a bad U.S. attorney, he was a good guy."

Bodgen was fired as the chief federal prosecutor for Nevada in 2006 along with eight other U.S. attorneys from other states.

A report released in October by the Office of Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility was critical of then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and officials under him who compiled lists of U.S. attorneys to be removed and carried out the dismissals. But the investigation could not come up with a specific reason why Bogden, who served in the post six years, was let go.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 292-783-1760.