No fresh insights from Gonzales

WASHINGTON — Another grilling of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Capitol Hill turned up little new information Thursday as Democrats demanded answers and Republicans came to his defense.

The House Judiciary Committee had a general oversight hearing of the Justice Department, and the predominant topic was the firing of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006 that have been at the heart of a congressional investigation for months.

The hearing room was tense as Democrats battled Republicans, while committee staff and Capitol police officers had to handle a group of Code Pink protesters who were asked to leave.

Gonzales made statements similar to those he made last month before the Senate Judiciary Committee, including that the firings of the attorneys stand and they were "not based on improper reasons." He said the process may not have been conducted as it should have been but no one was fired to influence a particular case.

Such claims escalated opposition to Gonzales among senators in both parties, and the same could be said of House Democrats after Thursday.

Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., wanted to know who was responsible for putting names on the list that circulated among Justice Department and White House staff — as illustrated through a series a e-mails made public by the committee — of which attorneys would be asked to resign.

Gonzales said that his former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson, a Cedar City native who resigned over the firings from the Justice Department last month, built the list based on a "consensus recommendation," but the attorney general named no other individuals.

"I take full responsibility for this," Gonzales said.

In a heated exchange, Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., asked the attorney general who put New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, one of the attorneys forced to resign, on the list. Gonzales said Wexler would have a better chance of finding out that information.

"I would? Are you the attorney general? Do you run the Department of Justice?" Wexler said.

"Yes, I do," Gonzales said. "It is frustrating to me to not be able to ask these kinds of questions."

Gonzales said he has not been able to look into the matter more because he is a witness in the case and does not want to interfere with the ongoing investigations into the firings.

But Wexler suspects Gonzales knew who was involved with this before the investigation started.

"You know who put them on the list, but you won't tell us," Wexler said.

But Republicans on the panel — including Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah — came to Gonzales' aid, saying the investigation should come to an end quickly.

"As we have gone forward the list of accusations has mushroomed, but the evidence of genuine wrongdoing has not," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the committee's top Republican.

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E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com