A report issued today by the Justice Department's offices of the Inspector General and Professional Responsibility did not find that Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, who testified about the firings of nine fellow top prosecutors before investigators for the House and Senate judiciary committees last year, did anything wrong.

The 392-page report did not call for criminal charges to be filed against anyone involved in the long-running debate over whether the dismissals were politically motivated.

However, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey did say in a news release that he was appointing Nora R. Dannehy, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, to oversee an investigation into whether any prosecutable offenses occurred.

"[The] report makes plain that, at a minimum, the process by which nine U.S. Attorneys were removed in 2006 was haphazard, arbitrary and unprofessional, and that the way in which the Justice Department handled those removals and the resulting public controversy was profoundly lacking," Mr. Mukasey said. "[The] leaders of the Department owed it to those who served the country in those capacities to treat their careers and reputations with appropriate care and dignity."

Ms. Buchanan, appointed as the U.S. attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania in September 2001, served as the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys from May 2004 to June 2005.

According to the report issued today, the most involvement Ms. Buchanan had with one of the fired U.S. attorneys was Kevin V. Ryan, in the Northern District of California.

She met with Mr. Ryan in March 2005 about morale issues in his office. Media reports at the time showed several top prosecutors had left his office, and the Department of Justice received a letter from the chief judge in the district complaining about how Mr. Ryan ran his office. Ms. Buchanan reported that she told Kyle Sampson, then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, that she viewed Mr. Ryan unfavorably.

She testified for six hours before congressional investigators in June 2007. However, her testimony revealed that she had little involvement in the firings.

First Published: September 29, 2008, 5:30 p.m.