Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings

the previously unreleased ones deemed too sensitive for release by the agency. Democratic investigators were upset to learn about the additional batch of records in recent visits to the department, according to a Senate aide who requested anonymity to talk freely about the standoff.

The aide said the Senate Judiciary Committee "has lodged objections several times" about not being given the new documents. They were discovered over the past two weeks as staff investigators for the House and Senate judiciary panels, working in a special office inside the Justice Department, reviewed the censored portions of e-mails and other records that had already been sent to Capitol Hill in redacted form, according to Justice Department and Senate aides.

Under an earlier agreement between Congress and the department, congressional aides are allowed to examine the uncensored documents but not to make copies or to take any notes.

The redactions were related to the U.S. attorneys who were "considered for possible replacement but not asked to resign," Richard A. Hertling, acting assistant attorney general, wrote to Leahy last week.

Another Justice Department official said the additional documents were not turned over to Capitol Hill because of "privacy issues" related to personnel matters involving some of the U.S. attorneys who were ousted and others who were not.

In particular, the official said, one document, several hundred pages long, was an internal administrative review of one of the fired prosecutors and was so sensitive that it would have been entirely redacted if it had been sent to Capitol Hill.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to issue a round of subpoenas next Thursday for these documents, as well as for all other documents the department has related to the firings. President Bush has objected to the issuance of subpoenas to White House advisers and for internal documents, allowing only the release of e-mail exchanges with the Justice Department or other third parties related to the firings.

The House Judiciary Committee has approved subpoenas for all Justice Department and White House records related to the firings. Leahy and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House panel, have been negotiating with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding regarding both staff testimony and document production.

Regardless of whether the Justice Department and White House documents are provided, Leahy plans to proceed with the April 17 hearing focusing on the attorney general. Gonzales is preparing intensively for the hearing, calling in outside advisers such as lobbyist Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, to help him get ready for the hearing.

Aides to Gonzales had been gearing up for the budget hearing before Mikulski as a warm-up to the Judiciary Committee testimony the following week, with White House officials saying weeks ago that they wanted the attorney general to make public appearances before April 17.

"The attorney general looks forward to testifying as soon as possible," Roehrkasse said.