For Gonzales, a Familiar Cast at the Table

Like Ullyot and several other senior aides at Justice, Sampson is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, the alma mater of many prominent conservatives.

· Robert D. McCallum , 59, associate attorney general, arrived at Justice the week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Although he had not worked closely with Gonzales in the past, the Yale Law School alumnus has enjoyed a higher public profile in recent months than he did during the Ashcroft years.

McCallum also has found himself at the center of controversy in recent weeks over the department's decision to drastically scale back a proposed penalty in the government's tobacco lawsuit.

McCallum echoes the comments of others who have worked with Gonzales, saying he "encourages a very vigorous internal debate and deliberation" on issues.

· Tasia Scolinos , 33, is the director of public affairs and, like all of Gonzales's closest aides, a lawyer. She is directly involved in mapping out public relations strategies and in preparing the attorney general for media events, Hill testimony and other public appearances.

Scolinos came to Justice from the Department of Homeland Security, where she was senior director of communications.

"The Department of Justice has a wide portfolio, and many of those issues are very important," said Scolinos, a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and Georgetown University law school. "We try to use the prestige of the attorney general's office to talk about and focus on issues that need attention."

· Raul F. Yanes , 39, senior counselor, worked with Gonzales as an associate counsel at the White House from 2003 until he moved to Justice to work for the new attorney general.

Yanes spent most of his career in private practice at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

· Jeffrey Taylor , 40, a Harvard Law graduate, is also a counselor to Gonzales. Taylor previously worked in private practice and as a federal prosecutor in San Diego.

Like Sampson, Taylor worked for Hatch in the Senate and first came to Justice as a counselor to Ashcroft in 2002.

· Courtney Simmons Elwood , 37, another counselor, worked with Gonzales at the White House counsel's office from 2001 to 2002 and then served as deputy counsel in Vice President Cheney's office from 2003 until arriving at Justice in February.