Gonzales Defends Actions on U.S. Attorney Firings

He said Iglesias was added to the list of U.S. attorneys to be dismissed sometime between Oct. 17 and Dec. 15, 2006. He said he was "not responsible for compiling that list," but that he was "not surprised" that Iglesias was added to it "because I had heard concerns about the performance of Mr. Iglesias" from Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and from Rove.

Gonzales said that at a meeting on Oct. 11, 2006, Bush himself "relayed to me similar concerns about pursuing election fraud in three jurisdictions."

Seven of the eight dismissed prosecutors were fired on one day, Dec. 7, 2006: Iglesias in New Mexico, Lam in San Diego, Paul K. Charlton in Phoenix, John McKay in Seattle, Daniel G. Bogden in Las Vegas, Margaret Chiara in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Kevin V. Ryan in San Francisco. Another prosecutor, Bud Cummins, was fired earlier to make way for the appointment of a former aide to Rove as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark.

Under questioning, Gonzales said that at the time he signed off on the firings, he did not know the reasons for dismissing two of the prosecutors -- Bogden and Chiara -- but that he accepted the recommendations of senior department staffers in their cases.

Gonzales said he had "no recollection" of a key meeting on Nov. 27, 2006, in which, his former chief of staff has testified, the impending dismissals were discussed in some detail. Sampson's testimony about that meeting contradicted Gonzales's initial assertions -- at a March 13 news conference -- that he had not been involved in any discussions or deliberations about the firings and had not attended meetings or seen memos about the matter.

In a testy exchange with Specter, Gonzales apparently became irritated when the senator alluded to his weeks of preparation for today's hearing. "I prepare for all my hearings," the attorney general interjected.

"Do you prepare for all your press conferences?" Specter shot back.

"I already conceded that I misspoke at that press conference," Gonzales replied.

Gonzales also said that he supported a change in federal law in November 2005 that gave him the ability to replace U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. The change was inserted into a reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act without debate and apparently without the knowledge of many lawmakers.

Gonzales said he did not support the provision with the intention to avoid Senate involvement in confirming U.S. attorneys but to take interim appointments out of the hands of federal judges when there were vacancies.

He insisted that he "never liked the idea" of using the provision to bypass the Senate and that "quite frankly I thought it was a dumb idea."

Gonzales came under sharp questioning on this point from Schumer, who pointed to other testimony indicating that he did not initially reject a plan to use the provision in precisely that way.

The attorney general said he could not say who came up with the idea of changing the law in the first place. Congress has since voted to repeal the provision.

Asked by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) whether the final decision to fire the U.S. attorneys was based more on "trust" of his aides' recommendations than on "knowledge" of their performance, Gonzales said, "I think that's a fair assessment."

Calling the rationales for the dismissals mostly "a stretch," Graham said it was clear to him that some of the fired prosecutors "just had personality conflicts" with Bush administration officials and that the Justice Department "made up reasons to fire them." Gonzales responded, "I respectfully disagree with that."

Staff writer Dan Eggen contributed to this report.