Justice aide tells Judiciary Committee Gonzales signed off on attorney firings

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former White House counsel Harriet Miers made the final decision last year to fire eight federal prosecutors, a former Justice Department chief of staff told a Senate committee Thursday.

“The decision makers in this case were the attorney general and the counsel to the president,” Kyle Sampson told the Judiciary Committee in the first testimony from someone inside the administration with firsthand knowledge of the matter. “I and others made staff recommendations, but they were approved and signed off on by the principals.”

Initially, Gonzales denied any involvement in the firings of the U.S. attorneys. Later, the Department of Justice provided documentation showing that, in fact, Gonzales was present at meetings where the matter was discussed and ultimately decided.

The controversy has prompted Democrats to call for the removal of Gonzales and has tested the loyalty of Republicans who are exhausted from defending the Bush administration for its conduct of the Iraq war.

Sampson confirmed suspicions that the eight attorneys were fired for, more or less, political reasons.

“I would be the first to concede that this process was not scientific, nor was it extensively documented,” he told senators. “That is the nature of presidential personnel decisions.”

Such presidential appointees are judged on a wide variety of subjective criteria, including whether they are successful from a political perspective, he said.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., peppered Sampson with highly detailed questions based on information handed over by the Justice Department.

“U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, but justice does not serve at the pleasure of the president or any president,” he said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said “the list of contradictions, contortions and contractions grows longer everyday.”

“Maybe no one has anything to hide and everyone acted honorably, but it is sure hard to come to that conclusion based on the events of the past seven weeks,” he told Sampson.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of the administration’s staunchest backers, told Sampson that “there’s some inconsistencies in comments that have been made.”

He said, “I think the attorney general deserves a fair shake, but there will be hearings and we will get facts and, in the end, I think the truth will come out.”

Sampson acknowledged mistakes on his part but said they were made in good faith.

“The decisions to seek the resignations of a handful of U.S. attorneys were properly made but poorly explained,” he said.

churt@dcexaminer.com