#Gonzales throws first underling to the wolves

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Gonzales Throws Underling to the Wolves

--The Wolves, it turns out, are not Interested in Underlings

Laura Jakes Jordan and Deborah Riechmann, The Associated Press, March
13, 2007

http://salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8NRD6BG1.html

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales abruptly canceled
travel plans Tuesday amid growing calls for his ouster over the
firings of eight federal prosecutors during a White House-directed
housecleaning of U.S. attorneys.

Gonzales also accepted the resignation of his top aide, Kyle Sampson,
who authorities said failed to brief other senior Justice Department
officials of his discussions about the firings with then-White House
counsel Harriet Miers. Miers resigned in January.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who is leading a Senate investigation of the
firings, called for the second time in three days for Gonzales to step
down. Additionally, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said
Gonzales "ought to be shown the door -- he ought not to be in this
administration. We have got to end corruption in our government. It is
not OK to be corrupt."

Gonzales was expected to respond to the criticism as early as Tuesday
afternoon. Sampson declined comment.

The government's 93 U.S. attorneys are presidential appointees who can
be hired and fired at will. But critics say the fate of the eight who
were dismissed last year appeared to have been politically motivated.
And Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike said they were outraged
that Justice Department officials weren't forthcoming on how the
firings unfolded -- even when asked, under oath, by Congress.

A Justice Department official said Tuesday that Miers, in a February
2005 discussion with Sampson, suggested firing all of the U.S.
attorneys. White House spokesman Tony Snow described the idea as a
move to get fresh faces in the 4-year term jobs, and said that it was
not a firm recommendation by Miers.

Sampson, according to the Justice official, rejected the idea to fire
all of the prosecutors but spent the next year drawing up a list of
potential dismissals. On Jan. 9, 2006, Sampson sent Miers a memo
listing what the official described as roughly 10 names of prosecutors
who were viewed as underperforming in their jobs.

By September, Sampson began moving forward with the firings, the
Justice official said. The White House did not ask for names to be
added or removed from that list, the official said. Gonzales and
Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty signed off on the list around
that time, the official said.

Gonzales was aware of the discussions with the White House, but
McNulty and other senior department officials were not, the official
said.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the
House Judiciary Committee, called the Justice Department's management
dysfunctional for sending Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General
Will Moschella to testify before the panel last week "without knowing
all the facts."

"They're going to have to come up with some answers," Sensenbrenner
said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. "If they
don't, they're going to lose everyone's confidence."

"What I'd like to hear is the truth," he said, complaining about the
Justice Department's different explanations for the dismissals. If
that record is not corrected, Sensenbrenner said, "then the Justice
Department and the attorney general himself are going to die by a
thousand cuts."

President Bush made "no recommendations on specific individuals," Snow
said. "We don't have anything to indicate the president made any calls
on specific us attorneys."

On Monday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino acknowledged that
complaints about the job performance of prosecutors occasionally came
to the White House and were passed on to the Justice Department,
perhaps including some informally from Bush to Gonzales.

Some of the prosecutors who were fired have said they felt pressured
by powerful Republicans in their home states to rush investigations of
potential voter fraud involving Democrats.

Perino said deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, the president's top
political adviser, vaguely recalls telling Miers that he also thought
firing all 93 was ill-advised.

Dating back to mid-2004, the White House's legislative affairs,
political affairs and chief of staff's office had received complaints
from a variety of sources about the lack of vigorous prosecution of
election fraud cases in various locations, including Philadelphia,
Milwaukee and New Mexico, she said

Those complaints were passed on to the Justice Department or Mires'
office.

"The president recalls hearing complaints about election fraud not
being vigorously prosecuted and believes he may have informally
mentioned it to the attorney general during a brief discussion on
other Department of Justice matters," Perino said, adding that the
conversation would have taken place in October 2006.

"At no time did any White House officials, including the president,
direct the Department of Justice to take specific action against any
individual U.S. attorney," Perino said.

Congressional Democrats have also singled out Rove for questioning
about the firings of the eight prosecutors and whether the dismissals
were politically motivated.

Those demands to question Rove signaled anew Democrats' shifting focus
beyond the Justice Department and toward the White House in the
inquiry.

Last week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.,
said he would seek to interview Miers and deputy counsel William Kelly
for insight on their roles, if any, in the firings.

Rove emerged as the Democrats' newest target after weekend news
reports said the New Mexico Republican Party's chairman urged Rove to
fire David Iglesias, then the state's U.S. attorney.

In a statement Monday, Conyers said stories about Rove's alleged link
to Iglesias' dismissal "raise even more alarm bells for us."

"As a result, we would want to ensure that Karl Rove was one of the
White House staff that we interview in connection with our
investigation," said Conyers.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who is leading his chamber's probe into
the firings, said he also wants to question Rove.

In an interview this weekend with The Associated Press, New Mexico GOP
chairman Allen Weh said Iglesias' "termination had already occurred"
by the time he spoke with Rove at a holiday party last December. But
Weh made no secret of his dissatisfaction with Iglesias, in part from
the prosecutor's failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud
investigation.

The White House has said previously that Rove wasn't involved in the
firings, but did alert Miers to complaints about Iglesias. It was not
immediately clear whether Rove also told Gonzales about the
complaints.

Last week, Rove called the two-month controversy "a very big attempt
by some in the Congress to make a political stink about it."

--Associated Press Writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.
Riechmann contributed from Merida, Mexico.

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