Thread: Gonzales Aide Floated Replacements Early On

Gonzales aide floated replacements early on
E-mails appear to contradict DOJ statements on genesis of attorney firings

Susan Walsh / AP

E-mails sent to the White House by Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, that name potential replacements for several U.S. attorneys appear to contrast with previous statements from Sampson and Justice officials on the ouster of of seven U.S. attorneys.
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Updated: 11:06 p.m. ET April 13, 2007
WASHINGTON - The attorney general's former top aide identified five Bush administration insiders as potential replacements for sitting U.S. attorneys months before those prosecutors were fired, contrary to repeated suggestions from the Justice Department that no such list had been drawn up, according to documents released yesterday.

E-mails sent to the White House in January and May of 2006 by D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, name potential replacements for U.S. attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco, Little Rock and Grand Rapids.

The disclosures contrast with previous statements from Sampson and other Justice officials. They have said that only Tim Griffin, a former aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove who was later appointed the top federal prosecutor in Little Rock, had been identified as a replacement candidate before the dismissals of the sitting U.S. attorneys.

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"These documents uncover one of the most central and disconcerting contradictions we've seen so far," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). "We have been told that there were no backups in mind to replace the fired U.S. attorneys, and these documents make it clear that there were."

‘Sampson's initial thoughts’
Sampson's attorney and a Justice spokesman said yesterday that the candidates listed were only tentative suggestions and were never seriously considered. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the list "reflects Kyle Sampson's initial thoughts" and "in no way contradicts the department's prior statements" about the lack of a candidate list.


Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that on Dec. 7, when seven U.S. attorneys were sacked, "I did not have in mind any replacements for any of the seven who were asked to resign."

The names of the potential replacements were part of nearly 2,400 pages of documents related to the firings released by the Justice Department yesterday. They include more complete versions of e-mails and memos previously released.

The documents provide new details about a range of topics, including the Justice Department's focus on its prosecutors' conservative political credentials and the evolving justifications for the firings.

The release came as Gonzales continued intensive preparations for testimony next Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Democrats plan to focus on the Justice Department's numerous conflicting statements about the firings and on Gonzales's shifting explanations of his role. A number of Republicans have joined Democrats in demanding that Gonzales resign.

List included administration insiders
Seven U.S. attorneys were fired in December, and another was dismissed earlier in 2006, as part of a plan that originated in the White House to replace some prosecutors based in part on their perceived disloyalty to President Bush and his policies. The uproar over the removals has grown amid allegations that some Republican lawmakers improperly contacted prosecutors about investigations and assertions by Democrats that the firings may have been an attempt to disrupt public-corruption probes.


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The possible replacements listed by Sampson in early 2006 were all high-level administration officials, including two suggestions for San Diego who were later given other U.S. attorney postings: Jeffrey A. Taylor, now chief prosecutor in the District, and Deborah Rhodes, now the U.S. attorney in Alabama. Both were career prosecutors in San Diego before taking senior Justice jobs.

Other candidates included Rachel L. Brand, head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy, who was considered to replace western Michigan's prosecutor, and Daniel Levin, a former senior Justice and White House official who was listed as a San Francisco candidate, the memos show.

Sampson, who resigned as Gonzales's top aide last month, said in prepared Senate testimony last month that "none of the U.S. attorneys was asked to resign in favor of a particular individual who had already been identified to take the vacant spot," except for the prosecutor in Little Rock.




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18100126/

Ex-Gonzales Aide Disputes Prosecutor Firing Accounts (Update1)

By James Rowley

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's former chief of staff has offered fresh contradictions of accounts by the Justice Department's top two officials about last year's firings of eight U.S. attorneys, a Democratic lawmaker said.

The Gonzales aide, D. Kyle Sampson, was interviewed yesterday by Senate Judiciary Committee lawyers as the panel prepares to hear from Gonzales later this week. Senator Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat heading the committee's probe into the firings, discussed Sampson's latest account in a news conference today. Sampson's new testimony conflicts with accounts by Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, Schumer said.

For example, Gonzales told NBC News in a March 26 interview that he couldn't recall discussing U.S. attorneys with President George W. Bush. Just three weeks earlier, Sampson said, the attorney general had recounted to him a conversation with the president about David C. Iglesias, one of the fired federal prosecutors, Schumer said.

``Kyle Sampson appeared to contradict'' Gonzales's ``blanket statements with regard to his involvement in the Iglesias firing,'' Schumer said. ``Sampson had been aware of specific concerns raised about Mr. Iglesias, not only from Karl Rove,'' Bush's top political adviser, ``but also from the president,'' Schumer said.

Gonzales's account of his role in the dismissals has been challenged before. The attorney general told reporters on March 13 he hadn't attended meetings on the firings. Subsequently, documents revealed that Gonzales held a Nov. 27 meeting to discuss the dismissals.

Postponed Testimony

Gonzales's Senate testimony was postponed for two days because of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University today that killed at least 32 students and faculty. The attorney general will now appear on April 19.

In Senate testimony on March 29, Sampson said Rove had relayed complaints that Iglesias, who was U.S. attorney in New Mexico, and two other prosecutors weren't aggressively pursuing voter fraud complaints.

Sampson also disputed Gonzales's statements that he didn't participate in discussions about firing U.S. attorneys. Sampson, 37, resigned last month as Gonzales said he had delegated responsibility for removing the prosecutors to his chief aide.

During the NBC interview, Gonzales was asked about a White House statement that Bush had also relayed complaints about Iglesias and the two other prosecutors.

``I don't remember that conversation,'' Gonzales told NBC.

Schumer said Sampson specifically recalled that, ``in early March, the attorney general related a conversation he had back in October about Mr. Iglesias.''

Talking to Gonzales

Sampson told investigators ``that he did recall a discussion with the attorney general where the attorney general mentioned that the president mentioned these concerns,'' Schumer said.

In recalling to Sampson the conversation with Bush, ``Mr. Gonzales remembered the substance to be about concerns with Mr. Iglesias,'' Schumer said.

Iglesias was the target of complaints by New Mexico Republicans, including Senator Pete Domenici, that he hadn't aggressively pursued voter fraud and local corruption involving Democrats. Domenici complained to Gonzales and McNulty, Sampson testified.

Schumer said Sampson and William Mercer, another Justice Department official interviewed by Senate investigators, contradicted Gonzales's denial of any involvement in discussions about dismissing Carol Lam, the former U.S. attorney in San Diego.

June Meeting

Both Mercer, now acting associate attorney general at the Justice Department, and Sampson recall Gonzales attending a meeting last June in the attorney general's conference room to discuss Lam, Schumer said. Lawmakers in both parties had said Lam was lax in cracking down on smuggling of illegal aliens.

Gonzales's statements ``seemed inaccurate'' or at least ``not complete,'' Schumer quoted Sampson as saying. Also, a page from Mercer's desk calendar that was turned over to Congress shows that he was to meet with Sampson and Jeff Taylor, another Gonzales aide, on June 5 to discuss immigration enforcement by Lam's office. Both Mercer and Sampson recalled Gonzales being at the meeting, Schumer said.

At the time, the Justice Department was responding to complaints that Lam failed to bring enough cases against smuggling of aliens from Mexico.

In a June 1 e-mail to Mercer, Sampson wrote that Gonzales ``has given additional thought'' to Lam and ``now believes we should adopt a plan'' that included telling her ``about the urgent need to improve immigration enforcement.''

If Lam ``balks'' or ``otherwise does not perform in a measurable way'' the agency would ``remove her,'' Sampson wrote.

More Contradictions

Sampson also contradicted Feb. 26 testimony by McNulty that performance wasn't a factor in the dismissal of H.E. ``Bud'' Cummins III, the U.S. attorney in Little Rock who was replaced by a former aide to Rove.

Sampson told investigators that ``Cummins hadn't distinguished himself,'' Schumer said. He gave ``no specific reason as to how he hadn't or why he hadn't.''

Meanwhile, the Justice Department didn't turn over documents subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee by a 2 p.m. deadline, the panel said. ``We will review all available legal options to secure compliance with the subpoena,'' the panel's chairman, Michigan Democrat John Conyers, said in a statement.

Conyers, meanwhile, requested interviews with U.S. attorneys in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Republicans had also pressed for more vigorous investigations of voter fraud, the panel said in a statement.

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