D. Kyle Sampson (born in
Cedar City, Utah
Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County, Utah, United States. It is located south of Salt Lake City, and north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer Gam ...
) was the Chief of Staff and Counselor of
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales (born August 4, 1955) is an American lawyer who served as the 80th United States Attorney General, appointed in February 2005 by President George W. Bush, becoming the highest-ranking Hispanic American in executive governme ...
. He resigned on March 12, 2007, amid the controversy surrounding the
firing
Dismissal (also called firing) is the termination of employment by an employer against the will of the employee. Though such a decision can be made by an employer for a variety of reasons, ranging from an economic downturn to performance-related ...
of eight
United States Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
s in 2006 and was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in July 2010. In October 2007, Sampson joined the law firm of
Hunton & Williams LLP
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is an American law firm created by the merger of Hunton & Williams LLP and Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP on April 2, 2018. The firm has offices in 20 cities, primarily in the United States.
History
Hunton & Williams (formerl ...
as a partner in the firm's food and drug practice, where his practice focuses on FDA regulatory and enforcement matters.
Early career
As a young man, Sampson served a mission for
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
among
Hmong
Hmong may refer to:
* Hmong people, an ethnic group living mainly in Southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand
* Hmong cuisine
* Hmong customs and culture
** Hmong music
** Hmong textile art
* Hmong language, a continuum of closely related to ...
refugees who had emigrated from Laos to Minnesota. After graduating from
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
in 1993, Sampson earned a
J.D. degree with honors from
The University of Chicago Law School in 1996, serving as Articles Editor on the
law review
A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pro ...
. He clerked for Judge
Karen J. Williams
Karen Johnson Williams (August 4, 1951 – November 2, 2013) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, appointed in 1992 and served as its Chief Judge from 2007 until her retirement in 2009. W ...
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then joined the
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
law firm of Parr Waddoups Brown Gee & Loveless.
Government service
From 1999 to 2001 Sampson served as Counsel to Senator
Orrin G. Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator ...
(R-
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
) on the
Senate Judiciary Committee
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...
. After the 2000 election, Sampson "drew on a friendship he had built in law school with
Elizabeth Cheney
Elizabeth Lynne Cheney (; born July 28, 1966) is an American attorney and politician who has been the U.S. representative for since 2017, with her term expiring in January 2023. She chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest p ...
, the daughter of the vice president, to land a job making personnel decisions in the early days of the Bush administration." Later he worked under
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales (born August 4, 1955) is an American lawyer who served as the 80th United States Attorney General, appointed in February 2005 by President George W. Bush, becoming the highest-ranking Hispanic American in executive governme ...
as Associate Counsel to the President. From there, he served as Special Assistant
U.S. Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...
in the
Eastern District of Virginia
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (in case citations, E.D. Va.) is one of two United States district courts serving the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. It has jurisdiction over the Northern Virginia, H ...
, and then, in 2003, became Counselor to then-Attorney General
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th ...
. In 2005, he was promoted to be Chief of Staff and Counselor to
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
, Alberto Gonzales (who was sworn in as Attorney General on February 14, 2005). Sampson was "a trusted political advisor" to both Ashcroft and Gonzales.
In 2006, Sampson was a candidate for appointment to be the U.S. Attorney for the
District of Utah
During the American Civil War in the early 1860s, the District of Utah was a subordinate district of the U.S. Army's Department of the Pacific. The district was composed of territorial areas that later became parts of the modern U.S. states of Ida ...
.
White House and Justice officials backed Mr. Sampson in his bid to replace aul
An aul (; ce, oil; russian: аул) is a type of fortified village or town found throughout the Caucasus mountains and Soviet Central Asia, Central Asia.
The word itself is of Turkic origin and simply means ''village'' in many Turkic language ...
Warner, making that clear to the staff of Senator Hatch. But the senator wanted Mr. Bush to nominate Brett Tolman, a one-time Utah federal prosecutor who had spent the previous three years working on antiterrorism issues for the Judiciary Committee staff. . . . Mr. Hatch finally made a personal appeal to Mr. Gonzales to drop his bid to nominate Mr. Sampson. After a four-month delay, President Bush nominated Tolman for the position in June 2006.
The U.S. Attorneys dismissal controversy
Sampson and
Harriet Miers
Harriet Ellan Miers (born August 10, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party since 1988, she previously served as White House Staff Secretary f ...
created a list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired, as shown by emails produced for a Congressional investigation, and Sampson coordinated the execution of the plan. "Miers had pushed to fire them all," and Administration officials "were determined to dismiss those they considered the weakest performers." Sampson, "at the behest of the White House," conducted "a review to determine which of the ninety-three U.S. attorneys around the country should be let go." "Sampson had good political instincts, having worked on Capitol Hill for Senator
Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator ...
before moving to the White House counsel's office to work for Gonzales." Sampson wrote in an email to Miers that he was
:
concerned that to execute this plan properly we must all be on the same page and be steeled to withstand any political upheaval that might result. If we start caving to complaining US Attorneys or Senators then we shouldn't do it -- it'll be more trouble than it's worth. We'll stand by for a green light from you."
Sampson resigned after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales—under pressure from Congress—agreed that the Justice Department would turn those emails over to Congress and would make Department staff, including Sampson, available to testify about the firings. Sampson "was seen within the Justice Department as a workaholic chief of staff who managed to keep things moving for Gonzales. When Sampson resigned . . ., Gonzales was left . . . rudderless."
According to one commentator, "Had Republicans still been in power, there would have been no controversy, no investigation." After all, "United States attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president, and during changeovers in administration, they are replaced as a matter of standard practice." But in 2007, Republicans were no longer in power.
As a result of the dismissal of the eight U.S. Attorneys, many senators called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign as well. Senator Charles E. Schumer
Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...
, the first senator to call for Gonzales's resignation, believes Gonzales should have resigned, not Sampson. According to Schumer, "it raises the temperature. Kyle Sampson will not become the . . . fall guy.". The ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' reported that "Mr. Gonzales, who approved the idea of the group firing, has been under fierce criticism from lawmakers of both parties over the dismissals, which have provoked charges that they were politically motivated." Gonzales resigned on September 17, 2007.
On July 21, 2010, Nora Dannehy
Nora Riordan Dannehy (born March 13, 1961) is an American attorney. She was appointed Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut on April 4, 2008. She is the first woman to hold the office, which was established in 1789.
Legal ...
, the special prosecutor tasked with investigating the attorney dismissals, concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to establish that persons knowingly made material false statements to he Office of Inspector General
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
or Congress or corruptly endeavored to obstruct justice" and that no criminal charges would be filed against Sampson or Gonzales.
References
Further reading
Washington Post Profile of Sampson
Mother Jones (March 29, 2007)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sampson, Kyle
Living people
American Latter Day Saints
United States Department of Justice lawyers
Brigham Young University alumni
University of Chicago Law School alumni
Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
People from Cedar City, Utah
American Mormon missionaries in the United States
20th-century Mormon missionaries
Year of birth missing (living people)