'05 e-mail implicates Rove in scandal

WASHINGTON — A January 2005 e-mail exchange with former Utahn Kyle Sampson implicates the White House in the scandal over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

Deseret Morning News graphic   Sampson memo(252kb .pdf file)

Karl Rove, a top adviser to President Bush, asked a White House attorney what they were going to do about replacing U.S. attorneys, according to a new e-mail released by the Justice Department Thursday.

Meantime, investigations are under way by the House and Senate Judiciary committees into whether the administration misled Congress in the White House's involvement with the firings.

Replacing U.S. attorneys is usually a matter of course for a president. But the inconsistent statements distancing the White House from the apparent political bungling of the firings earlier this year have caused a firestorm of controversy for the administration.

Sampson, a Utah native and Brigham Young University graduate who was a rising star in the Bush administration, resigned Monday over the scandal.

As the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee's Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, Utah Rep. Chris Cannon is involved in the House probe.

Cannon expects the committee will get the documents they need and a list of whom they will be able to interview about the situation next week.

"I suspect they will get everything out on the table," Cannon said. "My personal concern is to find out who misled us and why."

But Cannon believes it is premature to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' or anyone's resignation, according to his spokesman, Fred Piccolo.

"(Cannon) feels jumping to conclusions about the attorney general or anyone else before all the facts are known smacks of political opportunism," Piccolo said. "Let's wait until we know the truth, then let the chips fall where they may."

Cannon said if Sampson was the only one involved, then no one else will have to resign. But because of the "degree that we were misled here on the hill," others might have been involved.

"It's clear that the (Justice) Department was not forthcoming," he said.

Tasia Scolinos, the Justice Department public affairs director, released a statement Thursday that Gonzales "has no recollection of any plan or discussion to replace U.S. attorneys while he was still White House counsel."