Bush 'strongly' backs Gonzales

WASHINGTON — President Bush reaffirmed his support for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Saturday amid growing pressure for Gonzales' resignation.

The attorney general faces a difficult week after internal Justice Department e-mails released late Friday indicated that he was more involved than he has acknowledged in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Gonzales has insisted that he was essentially in the dark about the dismissals, but the e-mails showed that he participated in an hourlong meeting about the firings 10 days before they were carried out. The disclosure increased pressure for Gonzales' resignation.

Congressional investigators will get a chance to learn more about Gonzales' role in the dismissals on Thursday, when Kyle Sampson, the attorney general's former chief of staff, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Panel members want to know whether any of the prosecutors were fired because they failed to go after Democrats or were considered too tough on Republicans.

While Senate Democrats prepared their attack lines for the Sunday morning TV talk shows, Bush defended the firings and the attorney general in his Saturday radio address. Congressional investigators continued to examine e-mails and other documents that were delivered to Congress by the Justice Department Friday night.

Bush said the prosecutors were pushed out because "the Justice Department determined that new leadership in several of these positions would better serve the country."

"I strongly support the attorney general in this decision. I also appreciate the hard work and service of the U.S. attorneys who resigned," he added. "And I regret that their resignations have turned into a public spectacle."

All of the ousted prosecutors were Bush appointees.

Bush taped the radio address on Friday, before the latest document release, but a White House spokeswoman said the internal e-mails did not shake the president's support. Bush and Gonzales have a mutual loyalty that goes back more than a decade, when Bush was governor of Texas and Gonzales was his lawyer.

"The president continues to have confidence in the AG," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Saturday. She said the latest e-mails were "not inconsistent" with Gonzales assertion that he left the details of the firings to Sampson and other Justice Department officials.