Papers Shed Light on U.S. Attorneys' Firings

Mar 20, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Kevin Johnson and Alan Gomez

WASHINGTON -- The day after a key Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the abrupt dismissals of eight federal prosecutors, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales expressed concern that his top deputy provided "inaccurate" information to the congressional panel, according to newly disclosed documents the Justice Department turned over to Senate and House investigators late Monday.

A Feb. 7 e-mail from Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse was included in the 3,000 pages of documents. The e-mail suggests that Gonzales was not fully briefed about the reasons for the dismissals more than six months after the first of the eight were fired.

At the hearing, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said that all but one of the eight U.S. attorneys had been removed for reasons related to poor job performance.

The other prosecutor, Bud Cummins of Arkansas, was dismissed to make room for a former deputy to White House political strategist Karl Rove, McNulty told the panel.

"The attorney general was upset because he believed Bud Cummins' removal involved performance considerations," Roehrkasse said Monday night, explaining Gonzales' position.

Another series of e-mails showed that Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, was discouraging calls for Cummins to testify before the Senate committee over questions about the firings. "I don't think he should," Sampson said in a Feb. 1 e-mail to six Justice Department officials, including McNulty. "How would he answer: Did you resign voluntarily? Were you told why you were being asked to resign? Who told you? ... What did they say?" the e-mail said.

Sampson resigned his post last week.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said the disclosure of documents represented an "unprecedented" step by the department as it attempted to explain its reasoning for the dismissals. Scolinos said the documents would show that the department did not remove the prosecutors in retaliation for their choice of investigative targets.

The documents were released on a day when the White House appeared to offer lukewarm support for Gonzales.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said "we hope" Gonzales would stay on and he retains the confidence of President Bush, but "nobody is prophetic enough to know what the next 21 months hold." Asked whether Gonzales had offered his resignation, Snow said, "No, he hasn't."

In the wake of the firings, the Senate and House judiciary committees have launched separate investigations that have only intensified after it was disclosed last week that Justice Department officials provided incomplete information to Congress about the White House's role in the decisions.

Initially, the Justice Department said the dismissals were related to the prosecutors' poor performance. But last week it was revealed that former White House counsel Harriet Miers first proposed the idea two years ago when she asked whether all 93 U.S. attorneys should be removed to develop new party leadership.

Shifting explanations about White House involvement in the dismissals is expected to lead to a showdown this week between the White House and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democratic Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont has vowed to subpoena Rove and other White House officials if they don't agree to be interviewed by panel investigators.

In the newly disclosed documents, Justice officials are depicted in often raw discussions of how they would deal with some of the prosecutors targeted for dismissal. One series of July 8 e-mails regarding the dismissal of Carol Lam of California, Justice officials questioned whether Lam would say, "Okay. You got me. You're right, I've ignored national (prosecutorial) priorities and obvious local needs."

Gonzales and the White House have repeatedly said that none of the prosecutors were dismissed in retaliation for their choice of targets.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., suggested Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation that Lam was fired after informing the Justice Department of new developments in her continuing corruption investigation flowing out of last year's bribery conviction of former Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.