Washington – Eight federal prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently follow President Bush’s priorities, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ former chief of staff says in remarks prepared for delivery to Congress today.
Separately, the Justice Department admitted Wednesday that it gave senators inaccurate information about the firings and presidential political adviser Karl Rove’s role in trying to secure a U.S. attorney’s post for one of his former aides, Tim Griffin.
In a letter accompanying new documents sent to the House and Senate Judiciary committees, Justice officials acknowledged that a Feb. 23 letter to four Democratic senators erred in asserting that the department was not aware of any role Rove played in the decision to appoint Griffin to replace U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Ark.
Gonzales’ former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, in remarks obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, spoke dismissively of Democrats’ condemnation of what they call political pressure in the firings.
“The distinction between ‘political’ and ‘performance-related’ reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial,” he said. “A U.S. attorney who is unsuccessful from a political perspective … is unsuccessful.”
Democrats have described the firings as an “intimidation by purge” and a warning to remaining U.S. 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.
Sampson, who resigned this month because of the furor over the firings, is to testify today before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He strongly denied Democrats’ allegations that some of the prosecutors were dismissed for pursuing Republicans too much and Democrats not enough in corruption cases.
The White House said it will withhold comment on Sampson’s testimony until he testifies.
Statements contradicted
In a letter accompanying documents sent to lawmakers Wednesday, acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling said that certain statements in last month’s letter to Democratic lawmakers appeared to be “contradicted by department documents included in our production.”
The Feb. 23 letter, which was 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 administration, for Mr. Griffin’s appointment.”
Those assertions are contradicted by e-mails from Sampson to White House aide Christopher G. Oprison on Dec. 19 about a strategy to deal with senators’ opposition to Griffin’s appointment. In the e-mail, Sampson says there is a risk that senators might balk and repeal the attorney general’s newly won broader authority to appoint U.S. 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.
Also Tuesday, Gonzales endured blunt criticism from federal prosecutors who complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion.
About a half-dozen U.S. attorneys voiced their concerns at a private meeting with Gonzales in Chicago. Several of the prosecutors said the dismissals caused them to wonder about their own standing and distracted their employees, according to one person familiar with the discussions.
While Gonzales’ trip was part of a long-scheduled tour, he has been meeting in recent days with prosecutors in an effort to repair the damage caused by the dismissals.
At a meeting in Denver on Monday, attended by about a dozen prosecutors mainly from Western states, Gonzales was told that the dismissals had cast a cloud over all the U.S. attorneys’ offices, not only over the prosecutors who were removed.
But at that meeting, according to one official briefed on the discussion, prosecutors focused on steps to improve communications between the attorney general and U.S. attorneys.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
