Justice Dept. Releases Documents, E-Mail

Republican officials – at the request of the White House – have reportedly begun interviewing candidates to succeed U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

According to CBS News partner Politico.com, the candidates being considered by administration officials to replace Gonzales include Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and White House anti-terrorism coordinator Frances Townsend.

That report late Monday was followed several hours later by the Justice Department turning over to Congress, as had been expected, some 3,000 pages of documents related to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

The documents released by the Justice Department Monday night include an e-mail discussion of top officials discussing how to break the news to the soon-to-be axed attorneys.

In one such e-mail chain, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Paul J. McNulty – who spent six years himself as a federal prosecutor – says he's "a little skittish" about one to-be-fired U.S. attorney and adds: "He has been with DOJ since 1990 and, at age 50, has never had a job outside of government... I'll admit have not looked at his district's performance."

The prosecutor discussed in that e-mail is Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden, who the Washington Post – quoting an aide to a Nevada GOP senator – reports is now talking to the Justice Department about the possibility of being hired for a new job.

Another e-mail - from Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse to a spokeswoman for the department and Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson, who resigned last week - talks about Gonzales being "extremely upset" at media reports of the firings. Roehrkasse suggests that someone write a "clearly worded op-ed" piece and goes on to say "I think from a straight news perspective we just want the stories to die."

The documents also include e-mails from U.S. attorneys scrambling to find new jobs, including one who repeatedly protested being asked to resign, citing her competence on the job and pointing to the impact this could have on her career, and demanding to be told the real reason for her dismissal.

CBS News Justice Department producer Stephanie Lambidakis reports as the documents were being sent to Capitol Hill, the Justice Department released to the media a very small set of documents which they say help to illustrate that the firings were not for any kind of political purpose.

Tasia Scolinos, a Justice Department spokeswoman who is also a lawyer, describes the release of the documents as a "virtually unprecedented step" and stresses that the "Department did not remove the U.S. Attorneys for improper reasons, such as to prevent or retaliate for a particular prosecution in a public corruption matter."

Gonzales, says Scolinos, "wants the Congress and the American people to understand both the reasons for the Department's decisions and its efforts to inform Congress about this matter."

She adds that the Justice Department has offered to make its officials available voluntarily for "on the record" interviews and hearings.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr., in a statement reacting to the release of the documents, says there is still more to know.

"While I appreciate the Department's willingness to make these voluminous documents regarding the U.S. Attorney firings available to us for review, I am disappointed that they are denying other important information to Congress without any real authority to do so," said Conyers.

"This investigation has uncovered serious charges of misleading Congress, obstructing justice, and abuse of power," Conyers continued. "I hope we can resolve the outstanding issues over redactions [portions of documents intentionally blacked out to conceal information], but if necessary, we are prepared to press ahead to get to the bottom of this growing scandal, using subpoenas if necessary."

Gonzales' hold on his job grew more uncertain Monday as the Senate debated removing his authority to unilaterally name U.S. attorneys. The White House said it merely hoped he would survive the tumult.

Asked if Gonzales had contained the political damage from the firing of eight federal prosecutors, White House spokesman Tony Snow said, "I don't know."

Snow declined to predict how long Gonzales would stay in his job but reiterated President Bush's support of him.

"No one's prophetic enough to know what the next 21 months hold," Snow said. "We hope he stays."

"This administration has really been rattled," says CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. "Whether or not crimes have been committed, clearly political games were being played — and worse for the administration, it leaves the impression of incompetence, that nobody is running the store."

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said that President Bush had full confidence in Gonzales and that the attorney general has not offered to resign.

But Gonzales faces a tough week. The Senate Tuesday is to continue debating on rescinding his authority to appoint replacement U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation.

"We need to close the loophole exploited by the White House and the Department of Justice that facilitated this abuse," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Monday, as he opened the debate.

In other trouble for the administration, the Justice Department's inspector general is to testify Tuesday and Wednesday before House and Senate committees on what he says was Justice's misuse of its power to secretly go through people's financial, Internet and other records in terrorism cases.

Gonzales himself is the star witness Thursday before a House panel considering his department's budget request. That will be his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush told him last week to quickly patch up relations with lawmakers.

There was no indication that would happen anytime soon. Not a single Republican in Congress has come to Gonzales' defense, though some have stated the administration's right to replace prosecutors without offering a reason.

One Republican senator has called for Gonzales' resignation and another has said the attorney general has lost the confidence of Congress. In the House, one GOP member has stepped forward to call for his replacement while another says he will do the same this week. Democrats widely have called for Gonzales to step down, including presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards.

However, many Democrats — like most Republicans — are waiting to see what happens next.

Democrats kept up their effort to find out why eight U.S. attorneys were fired after Dec. 7 — noting that six were involved in public corruption cases at a time when Republicans were still smarting from being stripped of their congressional majority in the November elections.

Some of those fired had pursued Republicans in corruption cases; one, David Iglesias of New Mexico, said he had refused political pressure to rush indictments that would hurt Democrats.

"If any U.S. attorney were removed because of a public corruption investigation or prosecution, this could well comprise obstruction of justice," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Feinstein said U.S. attorney Carol Lam was fired after she sent a notice to the Justice Department that she had a case against Dusty Foggo, a defense contractor.

"The next day, an e-mail went from the Justice Department to the White House saying 'We have a real problem with Carol Lam,'" Feinstein told Schieffer. "All I'm saying, as the evidence comes in, as we look at the e-mails, there were clearly U.S. attorneys that were thorns in the side — for one reason or another — of the Justice Department. And they decided, by strategy, in one fell swoop, to get rid of seven of them on that day, December the 7th."

The White House is expected to announce this week whether it will let political strategist Karl Rove and other officials testify in congressional hearings. White House counsel Fred Fielding was to meet Tuesday on that issue with leaders of two judiciary committees.

Some of Bush's staunchest allies urged the administration to stem the political damage by being more clear about the White House's role in the dismissals.

"I've told the attorney general that I think this has been mishandled, that by giving inaccurate information ... at the outset, it's caused a real firestorm, and he better get the facts out fast," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Sunday.

Leahy has scheduled a vote by his Judiciary Committee for Thursday on whether to issue subpoenas for Rove, former counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, William Kelley.

"I want testimony under oath. I am sick and tired of getting half-truths on this," Leahy said Sunday.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the committee, said he had a long talk with Fielding on Friday and was reserving judgment. Specter said he also would like to see Rove and Miers testify in public.

Gonzales initially had asserted the firings were performance-related, not based on political considerations.

But e-mail between the Justice Department and the White House contradicted that assertion. The e-mail shows that Rove, as early as Jan. 6, 2005, questioned whether the U.S. attorneys should all be replaced at the start of President Bush's second term.