Truman fires Attorney General Howard McGrath

Truman fires Attorney General Howard McGrath on April 3, 1952, after a corruption investigation meant to clean up the Bureau of Internal Revenue breaks down into a dispute between McGrath and the investigator he appointed. Truman’s decision removed a trusted cabinet officer, but it did not rescue the inquiry: the effort instead ended in confusion and strengthened the impression that Washington’s management was in disarray.

The cleanup effort

For months, McGrath had appeared to be obstructing investigations into corruption in the Bureau of Internal Revenue. In January 1952, feeling betrayed by people he had trusted, Truman assigned McGrath the cleanup. That choice invited charges of a whitewash: McGrath had formerly chaired the Democratic National Committee, and the administration had placed a politically sensitive investigation in the hands of one of its own senior figures.

McGrath appointed Newbold Morris, a respected New York lawyer and a Republican, to direct the investigation. The appointment offered a measure of independence, but the relationship between the attorney general and the investigator soon deteriorated. Morris sent federal employees—including members of the Cabinet—a lengthy, intricate questionnaire demanding information about their assets and sources of income. McGrath objected that it invaded privacy and violated individual rights, and refused to complete it. After reviewing the questionnaire, Truman likewise decided it should not be used.

The dismissal

The dispute culminated on April 3, when McGrath announced that he had fired Morris, apparently believing that this was what Truman wanted. Truman responded by firing McGrath. The sequence made the dismissal more than a judgment on the investigation’s stalled progress: McGrath had acted against the investigator he himself appointed, and Truman acted against the attorney general who had been responsible for the cleanup.

Truman’s decision reflected frustration with McGrath’s inability to manage the assignment, not a belief that McGrath was personally dishonest. Truman later said he had found nothing personally wrong with him, even as he despaired of his performance. That distinction mattered to their relationship: Truman liked McGrath, and after the dismissal he wrote to assure him that his personal affection remained unchanged, while acknowledging that political circumstances could cause pain.

A failed housecleaning

The dismissal did not resolve the scandal. The investigation’s effort to clean up the administration seemed to have fallen apart, and the episode became a conspicuously poor ending to an already troubled exercise in executive management. Rather than demonstrating that the inquiry had restored accountability, the clash left the administration exposed to the charge that it could not manage its own investigation.

The episode unfolded amid mounting pressure on Truman. By then, telephone and telegraph strikes were underway, with another nationwide steel strike threatened. Those around him saw unusual signs of strain: he looked stern and deeply lined, admitted that he was tired, and postponed signing a stack of papers because he felt shaky. McGrath’s dismissal thus came not as an isolated personnel change but during a period when both the government’s cleanup effort and the President himself appeared overburdened.