Dems press AG Gonzales to step down

Senior Democrats, reacting to revelations that White House officials planned the purge of eight U.S. attorneys and later misled members of Congress, vowed yesterday to pursue their probe of the firings, including likely subpoenas, all the way to the president’s doorstep.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) joined three Judiciary Committee senators in calling on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign in order to restore the Justice Department’s credibility on both sides of the aisle. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the panel chairman, did not demand Gonzales’s ouster but added to pressure on President Bush to replace him.

“Does this reflect what [Bush] wants in [terms of] openness and candor in his administration?” Leahy asked, voicing frustration and anger over Justice’s initial dismissal of the prosecutor firings as routine personnel decisions. Leahy listed several witnesses whom he plans to question publicly, including Gonzales and his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, who resigned yesterday, as well as senior Bush adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

{mosads}Asked whether he would also consider questioning Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), who are said by one U.S. attorney to have exerted pressure on a pending corruption case, Leahy responded with a signal that both chambers’ ethics committees are looking into the matter.

“There are presently discussions being held in the House and Senate ethics committees … [The consensus is] that they should not discuss the matter until it’s done,” Leahy said.

Senate legislation to reverse the Patriot Act provision that allows the administration to sack prosecutors without seeking confirmation of their replacements is headed for a floor vote tomorrow. Reid and Republican leaders agreed to allow one GOP amendment, from Conference Chairman Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a Gonzales ally.

Gonzales, at a terse press conference at Justice headquarters, denied knowledge of the firings but accepted responsibility for them. “Like every CEO of a major organization,” he said, “I am responsible for what happens at the Department of Justice. I acknowledge that mistakes were made here.”

Few Republicans came to his defense as his department reeled from both the firings scandal and a damning inspector general’s report tracking misuse of national security letters, documents used in anti-terrorism investigations. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a Judiciary member, said he is “supporting the attorney general at this point,” while Kyl declined to comment.

Judiciary panel member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), calling the department’s handling of the matter an embarrassment, said, “I’ve got a great relationship with [Gonzales], but he will have to answer for this.”

GOP Whip Trent Lott (Miss.) rebuffed one reporter who observed that he called for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation, adding, “I’m not sure for members of Congress to be jumping out there and calling for resignations is productive.”

Lott declined to express confidence in Gonzales, describing the issue as “a personnel matter.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), Judiciary’s ranking Republican, took to the floor to urge Democrats to dial down their heated response. He expressed concern that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, led by Caucus Vice Chairman and Gonzales critic Charles Schumer (N.Y.), has targeted Domenici on its website since the scandal broke.

Senate Democrats were briefed during yesterday’s policy luncheon on the copious documents released by the White House to House Judiciary investigators late Monday, but several caucus members said they wanted to learn more before deciding whether Gonzales should stay in office.

Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), lead sponsor of the U.S. attorneys bill, were among those not yet echoing Reid.

“I believe we ought to finish our investigation, do our hearings, our due diligence” before declaring Gonzales unfit, Feinstein said.

In the House, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), head of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the prosecutors, concurred with their Senate colleagues. Sanchez referred to one of the most explosive White House e-mails disclosed this week, which said one of the U.S. attorney firings was motivated by “importan[ce] to Harriet, Karl, etc.”

“We are continuing our investigation, in part, because we want to find out who is ‘et cetera,’” Sanchez said.

The Bush administration historically has cited executive privilege in declining to provide documents or testimony sought by Congress, likely presaging White House resistance to any subpoenas issued, particularly to Rove and Miers. Leahy hinted that he and other leaders are keeping that likelihood in mind.

“I don’t want to get into a big battle over executive privilege,” Leahy said, adding, “There is only one person who can exert executive privilege. … Watch who we subpoena.”

The documents released by the House Judiciary panel offer a view on internal administration discussions about how to “push out” the attorneys, as several e-mails from Sampson put it. One January 2006 memo from Sampson to Miers listed several problems with removing all 93 U.S. attorneys, as she had suggested.

“Wholesale removal of U.S. attorneys would cause significant disruption to the Department of Justice,” Sampson wrote. He also discussed senators’ objections to the removal of U.S. attorneys from their states, background checks for replacements, and Senate confirmation of new prosecutors.

The e-mails given to House investigators also show that the White House was planning to replace Arkansas prosecutor H.E. “Bud” Cummins with former Rove aide Tim Griffin as early as January 2006. Another e-mail relates that Cummins, who has alleged receiving vague threats from one Justice official following the first media reports on the scandal, had offered to help Justice avoid criticism for the Griffin installation.

Carol Lam, the San Diego U.S. attorney ousted after indicting former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) and two allies in a broad corruption investigation, also appears in the e-mails. House GOP lawmakers had indicated displeasure with her office’s rate of prosecuting immigration cases, leading Sampson to ask whether anyone had “woodshedded” her.

Meanwhile, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal-leaning watchdog group, called for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the case. Several Democrats said that is possible.

The House ethics committee did not return a request for comment on the status of an inquiry into Wilson’s conduct.

Heidi Bruggink contributed to this report.