www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/28/fired.attorneys.ap/index.html
Most Popular Attorney firings were political, former aide says Story Highlights NEW: US prosecutors failed to support president, Kyle Sampson says NEW: Political performance part of appointed attorneys' job, he says NEW: Comments are part of testimony to be given Thursday in Senate NEW: Justice Department admits giving Senators bad information Adjust font size: Decrease font Decrease font Enlarge font Enlarge font WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eight federal prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently support President Bush's priorities, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff says in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial," Kyle Sampson, who quit during the furor over the firings, says in the remarks, obtained by The Associated Press. "A US attorney who is unsuccessful from a political perspective ...
Read the full statement - PDF) Another Gonzales aide, Monica Goodling, has refused to testify and will invoke the Fifth Amendment to protect against incriminating herself while testifying under oath.
And both could clarify how involved Gonzales was in planning the dismissals. Justice Department e-mails given to Congress show Sampson and Goodling were both closely involved for at least a year by attending meetings, sitting in on conference calls and corresponding with White House officials in drawing up the plans to fire the prosecutors with as little political fallout as possible.
View a timeline of the firing of the US attorneys) Justice Department admits inaccuracies Meanwhile, the Justice Department admitted Wednesday it gave senators inaccurate information about the prosecutors' firings and about presidential adviser Karl Rove's role in them. Justice officials acknowledged Wednesday that a February 23 letter to four Democratic senators erred by asserting they were not aware of any role Rove played in the decision to appoint his former protege Tim Griffin to replace US Attorney Bud Cummins in Arkansas. "It appears that certain statements in the February 23 letter are contradicted by department documents included in our production," acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling wrote. The February letter, written by Sampson but signed by Hertling, emphatically stated that "the department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr Griffin." It also said that "the Department of Justice is not aware of anyone lobbying, either inside or outside of the (Bush) administration, for Mr Griffin's appointment." Those assertions are contradicted by e-mails from Sampson to White House aide Christopher G Oprison on December 19, 2006, about a strategy to deal with senators' opposition to Griffin's appointment. In the e-mail, Sampson says there is a risk senators might balk and repeal the attorney general's newly won authority to appoint US attorneys. "I'm not 100 percent sure that Tim was the guy on which to test drive this authority, but know that getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc," Sampson wrote. Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers was among the first people to suggest Griffin as a replacement for Cummins. In his prepared testimony, Sampson says inconsistencies in the department's account of the firings were innocent mistakes. "The decisions to seek the resignations of a handful of US attorneys were properly made but poorly explained," Sampson says in the conclusion of his statement. "This is a benign, rather than sinister story, and I know that some may be indisposed to accept it." Indeed, Democrats have described the firings as an "intimidation by purge" and a warning to remaining US attorneys to fall in line with Bush's priorities. Political pressure, Democrats say, can skew the judgment of prosecutors when deciding whom to investigate and which indictments to pursue. In his testimony, Sampson maintains that adherence to the president's and attorney general's priorities is a legitimate standard. He strongly denies Democrats' allegations that some of the prosecutors were dismissed for pursuing Republicans too much and Democrats not enough in corruption cases. "To my knowledge, nothing of the sort occurred here," Sampson says in the document. "As presidential appointees, US attorneys serve at the 'pleasure of the president' and may be asked to resign for almost any reason, with no public or private explanation." Gonzales says he had little involvement in firings Gonzales has largely blamed Sampson, who resigned March 12, for the botched way the firings were handled and incompletely described to Congress by top Justice officials under oath in two hearings. The attorney general says he had little direct involvement in the dismissals and relied on Sampson to help select the targeted prosecutors and plan for their departures. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said he fears Sampson has become the administration's "fall guy." "And yet we find so many e-mails that contradict what the attorney general has said, contradict what the deputy attorney general has said, contradict what the White House has said," Leahy said. Second aide may never testify Congress may never hear Goodling's version of how the firings unfolded. Her decision to take the Fifth Amendment is highly unusual for a current administration official -- and puts Gonzales in the awkward position of being unable to fulfill his pledge to make Justice Department employees available for questioning under oath.
Video ) In Chicago on Tuesday, Gonzales said he would not comment "on the decision by an employee of the department to exercise her constitutional rights." Goodling's attorney, John Dowd, said her refusal to testify was partly the result of a remarks by an unnamed senior Justice official who told an unnamed senator on the Judiciary Committee that "our client and others did not inform him of certain pertinent facts." Dowd called the congressional investigation a perjury trap.
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