Gonzales Admits Mistakes In DOJ Firings

Attorney General Defends Removal Of 8 Prosecutors, But Takes Blame For How They Were Fired

(CBS/AP)  U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged that mistakes were made and accepted responsibility Tuesday for the way eight federal prosecutors were fired.

At a news conference, Gonzales said he would find out what went wrong but said he would not resign. "I acknowledge that mistakes were made here. I accept that responsibility," Gonzales said amid growing calls for his own termination.

However, Gonzales said he was not fully aware of the actual discussions between the White House and his department regarding the firings, saying the task of evaluating U.S. attorneys' performance fell to his former top aide, Kyle Sampson, who resigned Tuesday.

"There are going to be decisions made that I am not aware of in real time. Many decisions are delegated," Gonzales said.

The attorney general added of the firings, "I stand by the decision and I think it was the right decision."

Authorities said Sampson failed to brief other senior Justice Department officials of his discussions about the firings with then-White House counsel Harriet Miers. Miers resigned in January and moved to Dallas.

E-mail correspondence between Sampson and Miers, made available at midday Tuesday in Washington, indicate they began two years ago to consider individual U.S. attorneys for possible dismissal. As the list took shape, their correspondence indicated possible political backlash from the attorneys and their congressional allies.

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Dept. Of Justice Report On F.B.I. Business Records

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Because Gonzales has no e-mail account at the Department of Justice, there will be no paper trail with his name on it, CBS News correspondent Stephanie Lambidakis reported.

In one important e-mail exchanged between Sampson and Miers last September was a chart dividing all 93 U.S. attorneys into three categories: "good performers," which were printed in bold; "not good performers," who had a strike through their names; and neutral names, which were listed without any comments, a Justice official told Lambidakis.

In a Sept 13, 2006, e-mail to Miers, Sampson listed one prosecutor, Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Ark., "in the process of being pushed out." Five other prosecutors — in Arizona, Nevada, Grand Rapids, Mich., San Diego and Seattle — were listed as U.S attorneys "we should now consider pushing out."

Four days later, Miers responded: "Kyle, thanks for this. I have not forgotten I need to follow up on the info but things have been crazy."

But nearly three months later, the Justice Department was still waiting for White House approval for the firings. "Still waiting for green light from White House," Sampson wrote in a Dec. 2, 2006, e-mail to Michael Elston, the top aide to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

The White House responded shortly thereafter.

"We're a go for the U.S. Atty plan," deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley wrote in a Dec. 4, 2006, e-mail to Sampson and Miers. "WH leg, political, communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes."

The term "WH leg" refers to the White House office of legislative affairs, which deals with Congress. Copies of dozens of Sampson's e-mails to various White House and Justice Department aides were released Tuesday by congressional judiciary oversight panels.

"The attorney general failed the department," Cummins, the former Arkansas federal prosecutor, told CBS News.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who is leading a Senate investigation of the firings, called for the second time in three days for Gonzales to step down.

"Today's staff resignation does not take the heat off the attorney general, in fact it raises the temperature," Schumer said at a news conference Tuesday. "Kyle Sampson," who Schumer suggested may have obstructed justice, "will not become the next Scooter Libby, the next fall guy."

Additionally, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Gonzales "ought to be shown the door — he ought not to be in this administration. We have got to end corruption in our government. It is not OK to be corrupt."

All 93 U.S. Attorneys — who serve in every state and territory — are political appointees, but they're supposed to operate beyond the reach of politics, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports. They have enormous power to go after crime, terrorism and corruption.

"They are the foot soldiers ... in the government's attempts to enforce the nation's laws. They are the ones who go into court and say, 'You have broken a federal law, and you deserve to go to jail,'" CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen said.

Critics say the fate of the eight who were dismissed last year appeared to have been politically motivated. Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike said they were outraged that Justice Department officials weren't forthcoming on how the firings unfolded — even when asked, under oath, by Congress.

A Justice Department official said Tuesday that Miers, in a February 2005 discussion with Sampson, suggested firing all of the U.S. attorneys. White House spokesman Tony Snow described the idea as a move to get fresh faces in the four-year term jobs, and said that it was not a firm recommendation by Miers.

The e-mails show that Sampson rejected the idea to fire all of the prosecutors but spent the next year drawing up a list of potential dismissals. On Jan. 9, 2006, Sampson sent Miers a memo listing what the official described as roughly 10 names of prosecutors who were viewed as underperforming in their jobs.

By September, Sampson began moving forward with the firings, the Justice official said. The White House did not ask for names to be added or removed from that list, the official said. Gonzales and McNulty signed off on the list around that time, the official said.

Gonzales was aware of the discussions with the White House, but McNulty and other senior department officials were not, the official said.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, called the Justice Department's management dysfunctional for sending Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Will Moschella to testify before the panel last week "without knowing all the facts."

"They're going to have to come up with some answers," Sensenbrenner said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. "If they don't, they're going to lose everyone's confidence."

"What I'd like to hear is the truth," he said, complaining about the Justice Department's different explanations for the dismissals. If that record is not corrected, Sensenbrenner said, "then the Justice Department and the attorney general himself are going to die by a thousand cuts."

President Bush made "no recommendations on specific individuals," Snow said. "We don't have anything to indicate the president made any calls on specific us attorneys."

On Monday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino acknowledged that complaints about the job performance of prosecutors occasionally came to the White House and were passed on to the Justice Department, perhaps including some informally from Mr. Bush to Gonzales.

On the last day of the president's trip to Latin America, Mr. Bush's aides admitted that the president asked Gonzales about the performance of certain prosecutors, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports. But they denied that the president directed anyone to be fired.

Some of the prosecutors who were fired have said they felt pressured by powerful Republicans in their home states to rush investigations of potential voter fraud involving Democrats.

Perino said deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, vaguely recalls telling Miers that he also thought firing all 93 was ill-advised.

Dating back to mid-2004, the White House's legislative affairs, political affairs and chief of staff's office had received complaints from a variety of sources about the lack of vigorous prosecution of election fraud cases in various locations, including Philadelphia, Milwaukee and New Mexico, she said

Those complaints were passed on to the Justice Department or Miers' office.

"The president recalls hearing complaints about election fraud not being vigorously prosecuted and believes he may have informally mentioned it to the attorney general during a brief discussion on other Department of Justice matters," Perino said, adding that the conversation would have taken place in October 2006.

"At no time did any White House officials, including the president, direct the Department of Justice to take specific action against any individual U.S. attorney," Perino said.

Congressional Democrats have also singled out Rove for questioning about the firings of the eight prosecutors and whether the dismissals were politically motivated.

Those demands to question Rove signaled anew Democrats' shifting focus beyond the Justice Department and toward the White House in the inquiry.

Last week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said he would seek to interview Miers and deputy counsel William Kelly for insight on their roles, if any, in the firings.

"As a result, we would want to ensure that Karl Rove was one of the White House staff that we interview in connection with our investigation," said Conyers.

The White House has said previously that Rove wasn't involved in the firings, but did alert Miers to complaints about Iglesias. It was not immediately clear whether Rove also told Gonzales about the complaints.

Last week, Rove called the two-month controversy "a very big attempt by some in the Congress to make a political stink about it."

[forthepeaple]

I THINK IT TIME FOR ALL AMERICANS TO START NOT PAYING ANY TAXES GO TO YOUR ADMIN OFFICE AND SAY DONT TAKE ANY TAXES OUT OF MY CHECK.. YOU CAN DO THIS IF THEY SAY YOU CANT THEN JUST PUT DOWN 15 DEPENDENCE IT TRUE WE AMERICANS ARE PAYING FOR ALL THESE NON-AMERICANS TO BE HERE RIGHT SO GET IT OUT THERE STOP PAYING TAXES WITH NO MONEY GOING TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL PUT A DAMPER ON THEM

[forthepeaple]

AND EVERYONE KNOW THIS RIGHT... ALL OUR SSN FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS HAS BEEN USE BY BUSH ALREADY YOU ALL KNEW THIS RIGHT?? THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO RIGHT TO USE MY SSN TO PAY FOR ANYTHING IT IS A TRUST FOR THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA..... AND ITS ALL GONE.. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO AMERICA....

[forthepeaple]

EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET IT OUT THERE DAVID A BELANGER FOR PRESIDENT BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE HES LIKE JFK AND READY TO TAKE ON WASHINGTON. VOTE FOR DAVID A BELANGER FOR PRESIDENT. UNDER PARTY AMERICANS FOR AMERICA....

[forthepeaple]

I STATED BEFORE GET IT OUT IN THE MEDIA SOME HOW VOTE FOR AMERICANS FOR AMERICA ONE NATION UNDER YOUR GOD. WE HAVE TO GET BACK TO THE BASIC PEOPLE. THROW OUT THE BAD THATS ALL OF THEM..START WITH ONLY PEOPLE THAT WANT TO HELP AMERICANS AND AMERICA..THE GOVERNMENT STILL HASN'T HELP KATRINA AND NOW THE GOVERNMENT USED OLD USED PART TO THAT ARE DEFECTED ON THE PUMPS ..CANT WAIT TO SEE THEM ALL SWIM AGAIN THAT WHAT BUSH IS SAYING. WE DONT HAVE TIME FOR AMERICA *** I HAVE TO WORRIE ABOUT ME AND MY FRIENDS MAKEING MONEY ON AMERICANS BLOOD.. GO AHEAD AMERICA ELECT THE SAME ***

[skyk-2009]

What a waste of my tax dollars.

Fire these idiots and elect someone that has an iota on compassion for the people of these United States instead of political pandering!!
Posted by pwrslm at 07:20 AM : Mar 14, 2007


LOL I think we already KNEW you didn't care about the Attorney General of the United States LYING to Congress. SIEG HEIL

[forthepeaple]

SO WHATS EVERYONE THINK OF THAT... SO IS EVERONE READY NOW FOR CHANGE...IF SO THE RIGHT CHOICE WILL BE AMERICANS FOR AMERICAS DAVID A BELANGER FOR PRESIDENT AND HE CANT WAIT TO GET IN OFFICE TO SAY YOUR FIRED YOUR FIRED YOUR FIRED AMERICANS RIGHT NOW HAVE NO SAY IN OUR GOVERNMENT WHEN ARE YOU AMERICANS GOING TO WAKE UP. HERE IS THE TOP ATTORNEY FOR AMERICA,, TO PROTECT US YA RIGHT, YES I LIED FOR BUSH MANY TIMES BUT THAT OK ITS CALLED A MISTAKE IN WASHINTON..CANT WAIT UNTIL I GET ARRESTED I'M GOING TO USE THE SAME ARGUMENT BUT SIR IT WAS ONLY A MISTAKE..

[pwrslm]

SO,they dont want to regulate the credit card industry thats full of theives and liars ripping of the private citizens that they supposed to protect, and instead thing they are going to accomplish something by investigating the firing of a few lawyers who were Federal Attorneys by the Bush Administration (whose job it is to fire and hire all Federal Attorneys no matter)?

What a waste of my tax dollars.

Fire these idiots and elect someone that has an iota on compassion for the people of these United States instead of political pandering!!

[skyk-2009]

I CAN NOT wait until they get that Slime Dog Rove on the stand UNDER OATH!! LOL It's going to happen folks! They can't claim any Privledge here, well they'll claim it but it won't stick. I can not wait to see some of these Senators who Rove have used over the years get him in their sights. LOL I'll give odds the slime puppy takes the 5th. Any takers?

[forthepeaple]

so bush said this to the americans. my TOP PRIORITIES WILL TO HIRE MEN AND WOMAN WITH THE GREATEST ABILITY AND GET THIS HIGHEST ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY, LIKE I HAVE STATED MANY TIMES ON HERE,THE WHOLE WASHINGTON DEMS/REPS/ ALL MUST GO. AND A NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BE PUT IN AGOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE. NO TWO PARTY JUST ONE FOR THE PEOPLE.THIS IS A STATEMENT MADE BY OUR LAST PRESIDENT THAT ONLY CAUGHT GETTING A ******* BIG DEAL..IF THE PERSONAL FREEDOMS GUARANTEED BY THE CONSTITUTION IS INHIBITING THE GOVERNMENT ABILITY TO GOVERN THE PEOPLE. THAN WE THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD LOOK TO LIMIT THOSE GUARANTYS..IN OTHER WORDS BURN ALL THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE. JUST LIKE THERE DOING..AND THE AMERICANS ARE JUST SITTING BACK AND TAKEING IT.. WANT ANOTHER OK- THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CANT BE SO FIXED ON OUR DESIRES TO PRESERVE THE RIGHTS OF ORDINARY AMERICANS..BILL CLINTON,PRESIDENT, BOSTON GLOBE,USA TODAY 1993, SO YOU STILL THINK THIS IS JUST BEEN GOING ON FOR A LITTLE WHILE WAKE UP AMERICA...AND I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST BECAUSE IT WILL REMIND YOU OF SOMEBODY WE ALL KNOW NOW..READY- I CAN DO ANY ********* THING I WANT, I'M THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.. BOSTON GLOBE, USA TODAY 1993.

[formrusmcsgt]

YAWN - this is SO MINOR!
Posted by badaxmofo at 09:33 PM : Mar 13, 2007

Only to those who have no problem with an administration interested in corrupting the independence of the US Attorneys of this country and instead using them to do the administration's partisan bidding....

[skyk-2009]

It seems like every other day SOMEONE in this Administration comes out admitting "Mistakes were made". They then proceed to get someone under them to admit they were responsible, throw them under the bus and think we should just go on, business as usual. This is either the most INCOMPETENT bunch to ever be in Washington or the most Corrupt. Either way it all starts and stops at the top with Bush and Cheney.

[coffeehead-2009]

oh - this time it is again the "so much regretted" subliminal stuff. How many weak minded believers left?



"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security ...
To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it -- please try to believe me -- unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, regretted.
Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.
Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we did nothing) ... You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair. "
German professor after World War II describing the rise of Nazism to a journalist

[mcvet]

YAWN - this is SO MINOR!
Posted by badaxmofo at 09:33 PM : Mar 13, 2007

LOL I don't think Herr Gonzales would agree! LOL

[mcvet]

You need to tell the truth. When Clinton was in office he fired ALL the U.S. Attorneys. So, Bush only fired 9. What's the bid deal.
Posted by mimitx05 at 10:43 PM : Mar 13, 2007

You're going to find out. You fascist are given a talking point, a short line that you can remember and that's supposed to address the whole issue. NO PRESIDENT has ever made the Justice Department Political. The American People have a right under our constitution to KNOW that they are going to see justice done regardless of the party. NO Attorney General has gone before Congress and outright LIED. I'm tired of the Bush Gang, their FASCISM and their LYING. They think they can throw one of the underlings under a bus and everyone will be happy. Like the Senator said yesterday, NOT THIS TIME. All Presidents fire the Attorney's at the begining of their term NOT in the middle and NOT for Political Reasons. Sieg Heil

[elz523]

Just their attempt to murder law with courtroom politics. Nothing is sacred to them and we all pay the price.

[kaliveotin]

Wake up america. Everyone of the worst Bush administration scandals has involved ONE man, Carl Rove. Abromoff's previous chief-of-staff is now Carl Roves'. He was involved in Enron, Libby, voter fraud in Florida 2000, swift boat lies, and many others, and now, the Friday night Massacre of U.S. Attourneys for political payback. Of course, in this latest scandal Democrats have blood on thier hands too. They went along with the Unconstitutional Patriot Act, and are equally responsible for the change in the law which inspired this fascist-like event.

[l8c6]

jbinthe757, I realized very early on AOL was a pig...that organization showed its face as a big unethical pig capitalist that tried to dominate the internet as if they owned the intellectual property rights to something that all of us collectively built through the university system paying our taxes. Another example of corporate theft was the 1 dollar a tree our corrupt and pimped politicians handed over big companies like Weyerhauser so they could sell uncut logs from public forests to Japan at a profit. The Japanese processed the logs into wood products and sold the product back to us. The american people could have managed to round up the vessels needed to ship these logs to Japan and kept the profits for our countries infrastructure but instead this went into the hands of a private company. We have committed business idolatry....the real corporate efficiency rests in putting huge sums of cash into the hands of a small number of traitors and threatens to strip us of a representative government.

[l8c6]

Gonzales says he's accountable like any CEO of any major organization. Apparently this guy doesn't see himself as a public servant or he would say he is accountable to the citizens of the United States of America. Multinational corporations have dangerously infiltrated our government and are replacing a representative government with one that serves big corporate multinational fascist's interests. Whether you are democrat or republican you must conform to this groupthink ideology. You cannot think outside the box these androids are building. You are either with them or against.

[jbinthe757]

markjessup..be careful, ,the fbi has programs to get inside your harddrive through your internet connection, if your using AOL, thats even easier for them, cause they work fist in glove with the govt.

[jbinthe757]

rove is a child rapist
Posted by markjessup at 01:05 AM : Mar 14, 2007


this is the same thing he said about the King of Thailand. i dont like Karl Rove one little bit, but comments like this are unacceptable, against a king of another country, or the jester to our king in washington!