New Story for Firing Emerges

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said an "inadvertent mistake," led to the release of a document that did not show McKay being recommended for removal in early 2005. A corrected copy was later sent to Congress but apparently not released to the public.

Roehrkasse declined to comment on Gonzales's testimony about McKay. Officials have said that Gonzales relied on Justice documents in reviewing the reasons behind the firings.

In his congressional interview, Sampson suggested that he heard complaints about McKay from former deputy attorney general Larry D. Thompson, who served from 2001 to 2003. Thompson, now an executive at PepsiCo, was out of the office yesterday and did not respond to a telephone message.

Sampson said he was not aware of GOP complaints about McKay's handling of vote fraud allegations, congressional aides said. McKay has said that he was called about the probe in late 2004 by a staff member to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), and quizzed about his alleged "mishandling" of the case two years later during a White House interview for a judgeship.

Sampson's attorney, Bradford A. Berenson, declined to comment beyond confirming his client's general remarks to investigators.

The alleged connection between the Wales investigation and McKay's firing was first raised Thursday during questioning of former deputy attorney general James B. Comey at a congressional hearing and received wide notice in Seattle news media yesterday. Comey said that McKay "cared very passionately about finding the person who killed" Wales.

Charles Mandigo, who at the time of Wales's murder was special agent in charge of Seattle's FBI office, recalled that McKay, his staff and FBI agents all felt "a little bit neglected" because they did not receive the support they expected for the Wales murder investigation.

McKay's advocacy for the investigation was never "more than normal interplay," said Mandigo, who retired in 2003. "Did he push it? Yeah, he pushed it. Was he ardent? Yeah, he was ardent about it, and I think he should have been."

No Justice official traveled from Washington for Wales's memorial service, Mandigo said, "which I don't think set a very good tone."

Last October, Gonzales was invited to attend the fifth anniversary commemoration of Wales's death, but sent Michael A. Battle, director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. Battle was the official who made the calls two months later, firing McKay and the other prosecutors.

Battle has since left the Justice Department. Officials yesterday named Kenneth E. Melson, the first assistant prosecutor in Alexandria, as his successor.

Staff writer Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.