The Speech

So I had the "pleasure" yesterday of meeting the U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzalez. I don't know if anyone really wants to admit to meeting him with all the controversy that is around him right now with the U.S. Attorney firings and all. He came by my office around 9ish in the morning, and then we had a more formal gathering at 10 with all the DOJ agencies with food, etc. The Utah U.S. Attorney, Brett Tolman (my "boss"), when he was introducing Gonzalez before his speech, starting talking about how great our jobs are, etc., and how he loves to work here, and that you never know how long you can serve as a U.S. Attorney, then he adds, especially these days. All of our jaws dropped. I could not believe he said that in front of Gonzalez. Then followed the nervous laughter. Afterwards we went up to talk to him, and he just said, look, it's the elephant in the room, I just wanted to get it out in the open. His job is probably more secure than ever now in light of the firings. I don't think there is any chance another U.S. Attorney would be fired during the last 18 months that Gonzalez is serving. After his speech, we were "strongly encouraged" to take a picture with him. So I got a group photo with just the asset forfeiture unit with Gonzalez, then we got our individual pictures with him. It will probably be months before we actually see the photos. Either I'm really tall, or Gonzalez is really short, but he was just barely over my shoulder. So during my picture, I somewhat leaned in towards him to make him look taller/me look shorter.