Subcommittee Votes to Compel Testimony on Firings

A House subcommittee voted today to compel testimony from four U.S. attorneys who were part of a wave of firings by the Justice Department, marking the first high-profile subpoenas from the Democratic-controlled Congress.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law approved the subpoenas for former prosecutors in Arkansas, New Mexico, Seattle and San Diego, all of whom will be required to appear for testimony at a hearing next Tuesday, officials said.

"Are these people being removed for doing their job and for it doing it too well?" said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the subcommittee.

Democrats on the panel voted 7-0 in favor of the subpoenas; no Republicans were present at the five-minute hearing.

The vote marks the latest escalation in the battle between congressional Democrats and the Justice Department over the firings of at least eight U.S. attorneys, nearly all of whom received positive job reviews and were not told of any reason for their dismissals.

One of the prosecutors, David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, fanned the controversy yesterday after alleging that two federal lawmakers from New Mexico had pressured him to speed up the prosecution of Democrats prior to the November elections. Iglesias said today that he does not want to identify the lawmakers for fear of retaliation.

The state's two Democrats and Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) have all denied calling Iglesias. The offices of Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) have not responded to repeated requests for comment.

Justice officials said Iglesias and six others were fired for "performance-related" reasons. Another prosecutor, Bud Cummins of Little Rock, was removed to make way for a former aide to presidential advisor Karl Rove.

Iglesias's office was conducting a probe into allegations involving construction contracts and a prominent Democratic former state senator. At least four of the other U.S. attorneys were presiding over probes targeting Republican politicians at the time they were told they were being removed.

The dismissals have angered Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill, in part because they followed a little-noticed change in federal law that lets Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales appoint interim prosecutors indefinitely.

But proposed legislation to repeal that provision has been blocked in the Senate by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and other Republicans, and Senate Democrats said they are no longer certain when they might be able to attempt to pass the legislation.