Former Supervisor Extols Fired Prosecutors

The House and Senate Judiciary committees are also conducting parallel inquiries into the prosecutor firings and are continuing to interview Justice officials in advance of a scheduled appearance by Gonzales before the House committee next Thursday.

David Margolis, the top career official at the Justice Department, told congressional investigators Tuesday that in late 2004 or early 2005 he had a conversation with Justice aide D. Kyle Sampson and identified two of the fired prosecutors -- Margaret M. Chiara of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Kevin V. Ryan of San Francisco -- as having trouble managing their offices, according to congressional aides familiar with Margolis's account.

In November 2006, Margolis said, Sampson, then Gonzales's chief of staff, showed him a list of six prosecutors the department intended to fire. It included Chiara but not Ryan, and Margolis said he was surprised that Ryan and another unidentified prosecutor were not on the list, according to the aides. Ryan was subsequently added.

Both Margolis and Comey dispute Sampson's characterizations that they were closely involved in the firings.

Comey testified that he had a 15-minute conversation with Sampson in February 2005 about prosecutors Comey considered weak performers. He said he had no idea until recently that the conversation was related to an effort by Sampson and the White House to identify and remove prosecutors considered insufficiently loyal.

Comey was effusive in his praise of several of the fired prosecutors, saying that only Ryan had serious management difficulties.

He described Paul K. Charlton of Arizona as "one of the best," said he had a "very positive view" of David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, and called Daniel G. Bogden of Las Vegas "straight as a Nevada highway and a fired-up guy." Of John McKay of Seattle, Comey said: "I was inspired by him."

Perhaps most damaging to the Justice Department was Comey's description of Carol C. Lam of San Diego as "a fine U.S. attorney." He acknowledged that he was concerned about Lam's record on firearms cases but said he had discussed the issue with her and did not see it as a firing offense.

Comey said that while he was deputy attorney general he did not have much interaction with fired prosecutor Bud Cummins of Little Rock. But he called Cummins a "good man" in a recent e-mail exchange released yesterday, adding that he "will not sit by and watch good people smeared."

Staff writer Amy Goldstein and washingtonpost.com staff writer Paul Kane contributed to this report.