From Deseret News archives:
Gonzales to testify on attorney firings
Republicans said they wanted to hear Gonzales' testimony in the Senate today and other interviews by the committee staff before moving ahead, and the Democrats agreed.
Meanwhile, committee staff plowed ahead in its questioning of Utah native D. Kyle Sampson , Gonzales' former chief of staff who resigned last month after Congress began leveling accusations that Justice Department officials weren't truthful in disclosing the White House's involvement.
Congress is investigating the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year to know the level of the White House's and Gonzales' involvement in the process.
There are accusations that the attorneys were fired based on the political content of cases they were handling along with discrepancies between the meaning of "performance problems" as defined by the government and how the Justice Department rated the attorneys who were asked to resign.
According to his testimony, Gonzales will admit to the Senate Judiciary Committee today that he would have handled it differently but that he has "nothing to hide" about his involvement in the process or why they were fired, according to his prepared testimony.
Many Democrats have called for Gonzales' resignation over the issue and point to some inconsistencies in what Gonzales has said and Sampson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month.
House Judiciary Committee staff continued to interview Sampson Wednesday afternoon — a continuation of a confidential six-hour joint interview by House and Senate judiciary staffs on Sunday, congressional aides said.
Matt Iandoli, legislative director and counsel for Rep. Chris Cannon , R-Utah, sat in on Wednesday's meeting, according to Cannon's office. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, gets transcripts of the interviews, according to his office, but they are "committee confidential" documents. Both lawmakers sit on their chamber's judiciary committee.
Hatch said he plans to listen to Gonzales' testimony more than ask questions at today's hearing.
"I frankly don't see a conflict between (Sampson's) comments and those corrected comments of the attorney general," Hatch said.
Sampson spearheaded the department's list of which attorneys should be fired, according to thousands of pages of e-mails and his own testimony before the Senate committee. He discussed which attorneys should be on the list with Justice Department employees and White House counsel Harriet Miers, according to the e-mails, but it is not certain what criteria was used to determine who should stay or go.
