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Kyle Sampson News, Republican Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, Kyle D Sampson News

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KYLE SAMPSON News:

20070830

Alberto Gonzales - Monica Goodling - Kyle Sampson - Political - Jobs - Government - US Attorneys - Death Penalty - Immigration - "Justice Department Probe Looking at Hiring Since 2004 (Update1)." ... "Justice Department investigators have expanded their probe into whether political considerations were improperly used in hiring, inquiring about personnel decisions as long as a year before Alberto Gonzales became attorney general [under Republican President Bush]." ... "Investigators have sent a letter to people who applied for jobs with the department, asking whether they were interviewed by any of four aides in the attorney general's office. The investigators want to know whether the applicants were questioned about such matters as who they voted for, their position on the death penalty and their favorite Supreme Court justice." ... "The investigators' questionnaire asked whether the applicants were interviewed by [Monica] Goodling or three other aides: Jan Williams, Goodling's predecessor; Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's former chief of staff; and Angela Williamson, who is now the Justice Department's deputy White House liaison." ... "She [Goodling] said she sometimes considered job candidates' political views when interviewing them for positions as immigration judges or assistant U.S. attorneys. Both jobs are covered by civil service laws prohibiting such assessments." -By Robert Schmidt -Bloomberg

20070615

Mike Elston - Paul McNulty - Alberto Gonzales - Monica M Goodling - Kyle Sampson - Mike Battle - US Attorneys - Law - "Official close to attorney firings quits." ... "A senior Justice Department official who helped carry out the dismissals of federal prosecutors said Friday he is resigning. Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, is the fifth Justice official to leave after being linked to the dismissals of the prosecutors." ... "Elston was accused of threatening at least four of the eight fired U.S. attorneys to keep quiet about their ousters. In a statement Friday, the Justice Department said Elston was leaving voluntarily to take a job with an unnamed Washington[DC]-area law firm." ... "The firings have led to congressional investigations, an internal Justice Department inquiry and calls on Capitol Hill for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales." ... "Other aides who have resigned in the wake of the firings include former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson and White House liaison Monica M. Goodling. A fifth official, Mike Battle, who ran the Justice office that oversees the U.S. attorneys, left in March." -By Lara Jakes Jordan -AP via -ADN.com

20070613

Karl Rove - Sara Taylor - Kyle Sampson - Alberto Gonzales - Paul McNulty - Tim Griffin - Ark - US Attorneys - Law - E-Mail - "Officials rebuked for disclosing Rove's connection to firing of U.S. attorney." ... "The White House's former political director was furious at Justice Department officials for disclosing to Congress that the administration had forced out the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., to make way for a protege of Karl Rove, [Republican] President Bush's political adviser, according to documents released late Tuesday." ... "Then-White House political affairs director Sara Taylor spelled out her frustrations in a Feb. 16 e-mail to Kyle Sampson, then the chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales." ... "She sent the message after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told the Senate that unlike other federal prosecutors, U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins wasn't fired for performance reasons, but to make way for former Republican political operative Tim Griffin. Griffin, serving as the interim U.S. attorney, then announced that he wouldn't seek confirmation to the Arkansas post, but would remain until the Senate confirmed someone else. Griffin has since resigned." ... ""Tim was put in a horrible position; hung out to dry w/ no heads up," Taylor lashed out in the e-mail, which was sent from a Republican Party account rather than from her White House e-mail address. "This is not good for his long-term career."" -By Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor -McClatchy via -RealCities
Secretive - Harriet E Miers - Karl Rove - Sara M Taylor - D Kyle Sampson - Gonzales - US Attorneys - Law - E-Mail - Calif - "Bush Aides Helped Respond to Firings, E-Mails Show." ... "Several high-ranking White House officials were closely involved in crafting a public response to the uproar over the firing of a group of U.S. attorneys, according to documents released late yesterday." ... "Then-White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and aides to presidential adviser Karl Rove were deeply enmeshed in debates over how to respond to the controversy as early as mid-January, when [California Democratic Senator] Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned the spate of prosecutor departures in a Senate floor speech, according to e-mails that the Justice Department turned over to the House and Senate judiciary committees." ... "The 46 pages of e-mails show that Miers and others --including her deputy, William Kelley, and the White House political affairs director at the time, Sara M. Taylor -- were involved in spirited and sometimes angry e-mail exchanges as the secretive firings operation began to unravel in public. Many of the exchanges also included D. Kyle Sampson, who coordinated the firings as Gonzales's chief of staff." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20070526

Monica M Goodling - Alberto R Gonzales - D Kyle Sampson - Political - US Immigration - US Attorneys - "Officials Say Justice Dept. Based Hires on Politics Before Goodling Tenure." ... "The Justice Department considered political affiliation in screening applicants for immigration court judgeships for several years until hiring was frozen in December after objections from department lawyers, current and former officials said yesterday." ... "The disclosures mean that the Justice Department may have violated civil service laws, which prohibit political considerations in hiring, for as long as two years before the tenure of Monica M. Goodling, the former aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales who testified about the practice this week." ... "Goodling told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that she "crossed the line" in considering political affiliation for several categories of career applicants at Justice, including immigration judges." ... "The attorney for D. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's former chief of staff, said yesterday that Sampson and other officials also forwarded names of politically connected applicants for the immigration courts, based on legal advice that Sampson was given and on common historical practice in the department." ... "The Justice Department said yesterday that its administrative immigration courts are covered by civil service laws that prohibit political considerations in hiring." ... "The department's hiring practices have come under scrutiny in the furor over the firings last year of nine U.S. attorneys." ... "Goodling testified that Sampson told her that the department's Office of Legal Counsel had concluded that immigration judges were not covered by civil service rules. The Justice Department said after her testimony that it had "located no record" of an OLC opinion that reached that conclusion." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20070525

Gonzales - Goodling - Sampson - US Immigration - Politics - "Inquiry widens into Justice Department hiring: The move follows testimony by a former Gonzales aide that she had considered politics in screening applicants." ... "The Justice Department has broadened an internal investigation into whether aides to Atty. Gen. [Republican Attorney General] Alberto R. Gonzales improperly took into account political considerations in hiring employees, officials familiar with the probe said Thursday." ... "The expanded inquiry, conducted by the department's inspector general and its Office of Professional Responsibility, comes after testimony Wednesday by former Gonzales aide Monica M. Goodling." ... "She told a House committee that she had considered party affiliation in screening applicants to become immigration judges." ... "She cited a conversation she had with another Gonzales aide, D. Kyle Sampson, who said the department's Office of Legal Counsel had declared the practice to be lawful." ... "Justice Department officials said no such opinion existed." ... "They also denied Goodling's assertion that the hiring of immigration judges had been frozen after the department's civil division raised concerns about using a political litmus test." -By Richard B. Schmitt -LAtimes

20070523

Monica M Goodling - Alberto R Gonzales - Kyle Sampson - Paul J McNulty - Political - US Attorneys - Jobs - Civil Rights - Environment - "Officials Describe Interference by Former Gonzales Aide." ... "When Jeffrey A. Taylor, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wanted to hire a new career prosecutor last fall, he had to run the idea past Monica M. Goodling, then a 33-year-old aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales." ... "The candidate was Seth Adam Meinero, a Howard University law school graduate who had worked on civil rights cases at the Environmental Protection Agency and had served as a special assistant prosecutor in Taylor's office." ... "Goodling stalled the hiring, saying that Meinero was too "liberal" for the nonpolitical position, said according to two sources familiar with the dispute." ... "The tussle over Meinero, who was eventually hired at Taylor's insistence, led to a Justice Department investigation of whether Goodling improperly weighed political affiliation when reviewing applicants for rank-and-file prosecutor jobs, the sources said." ... "Goodling's public troubles began in mid-March, when [Kyle] Sampson disclosed to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty and others that the plan to fire the U.S. attorneys had begun more than two years earlier in the White House, contrary to what McNulty and another official had testified to Congress." (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen and Carol D. Leonnig with contributions by Amy Goldstein and Jerry Markon -WashingtonPost

20070510

Karl Rove - Timothy Griffin - D Kyle Sampson - Alberto Gonzales - Harriet Miers - US Attorney - E-Mail - Law - Politics - Arkansas - "Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas." ... "The withheld records show that D. Kyle Sampson, who was then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, consulted with White House officials in drafting two letters to Congress that appear to have misrepresented the circumstances of Griffin's appointment as U.S. attorney and of Rove's role in supporting Griffin." ... "In one of the letters that Sampson drafted, dated February 23, 2007, the Justice Department told four Senate Democrats it was not aware of any role played by senior White House adviser Rove in attempting to name Griffin to the U.S. attorney post. A month later, the Justice Department apologized in writing to the Senate Democrats for the earlier letter, saying it had been inaccurate in denying that Rove had played a role." ... "Brad Berenson, an attorney for Sampson, said in an interview that his client did not intend to mislead Congress. Sampson, he said, signed off on the February 23 letter based on representations made by the White House that it was accurate." ... "The withheld e-mails show that Sampson's draft was forwarded for review to Chris Oprison, an associate White House counsel, who approved the language saying that Justice was not aware of Rove having played any role in supporting Griffin. But an earlier e-mail from Sampson to Oprison that has already been made public indicates that the two men discussed Rove and then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers as being at the forefront of Griffin's nomination." ... "Two senior administration officials told National Journal they were frustrated with decisions by Gonzales not to release some of the documents held by the Justice Department. One of the officials charged that "Gonzales is doing this to save his own neck," at the expense of the administration. The same official said that senior aides to Gonzales have been refusing to turn over many relevant documents to Congress, and that the attorney general's top aides have been selectively leaking portions of them to the media to portray themselves in a favorable light." -By Murray Waas -NationalJournal
Karl Rove - Alberto Gonzales - Kyle Sampson - Bradley Schlozman - Political - US Attorneys - Law - Enforcement - 2006 Election - New Mexico - Pennsylvania - Wisconsin - MO - "White House sought investigations of voter fraud allegations before elections." ... "Only weeks before last year's pivotal [2006] midterm elections, the White House urged the Justice Department to pursue voter-fraud allegations against Democrats in three battleground states, a high-ranking Justice official has told congressional investigators." ... "In two instances in October 2006, [Republican] President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, or his deputies passed the allegations on to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' then-chief of staff, Kyle Sampson." ... "Sampson tapped Gonzales aide Matthew Friedrich, who'd just left his post as chief of staff of the criminal division. In the first case, Friedrich agreed to find out whether Justice officials knew of "rampant" voter fraud or "lax" enforcement in parts of New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and report back." ... "But Friedrich declined to pursue a related matter from Wisconsin, he told congressional investigators, because an inquiry so close to an election could inappropriately sway voting results. Friedrich decided not to pass the matter on to the criminal division for investigation, even though Sampson gave him a 30-page report prepared by Republican activists that made claims of voting fraud." ... "While it was known that Rove and the White House had complained about prosecutors not aggressively investigating voter fraud, Friedrich's testimony suggests that the Justice Department itself was under pressure to open voter fraud cases despite a department policy that discourages such action so close to an election." ... "Another former U.S. attorney, Todd Graves of Kansas City, Mo. [Missouri], revealed this week that he was asked to step aside for another candidate. He also said he had refused to sign off on a voting-rights lawsuit, which another Justice Department official later approved in Washington. The official, Brad Schlozman, later became Graves' temporary replacement." -By Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor -McClatchy via -RealCities
Alberto Gonzales - D Kyle Sampson - Missouri - US Attorney - Law - "Number of Fired Prosecutors Grows: Dismissals Began Earlier Than Justice Dept. Has Said." ... "The former U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. [Missouri], Todd P. Graves, said yesterday that he was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006, months before eight other federal prosecutors would be fired by the Bush administration." ... "Graves said he was told simply that he should resign to "give another person a chance." He said he did not oppose the department's request, because he had already been planning to return to private practice. He did appeal to Missouri's senior senator to try to persuade the White House to allow him to remain long enough to prosecute a final, important case -- involving the slaying of a pregnant woman and kidnapping of her 8-month fetus. Justice officials rejected the request." ... "The former prosecutor's disclosure, in an interview on the eve of a second appearance today by [Republican] Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales before lawmakers investigating the firings, means that the administration began moving to replace U.S. attorneys five months earlier than was previously known. It also means that at least nine prosecutors were asked to resign last year, a deviation from repeated suggestions by Gonzales and other senior Justice officials in congressional testimony and other public statements that the firings did not extend beyond the eight prosecutors already known to have been forced out." ... "The same month he was asked to step down, Graves's name was included in a Jan. 9, 2006, list assembled by Gonzales's then-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, of seven U.S. attorneys the administration was considering forcing from their jobs. That April, Sampson sent another e-mail noting that two of the prosecutors on that list had already left. Three names, including Graves's, were redacted when Justice officials released the January list." (1, 2) -By Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen with contributions by Paul Kane -WashingtonPost

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20070504

Cunningham - Renzi - Gibbons - Jerry Lewis - Miers - Sampson - Griffin - Rove - Noteworthy - Secret - US Attorneys - Law - Money - Politics - Los Angeles - California - Arizona - Nevada - Arkansas - "The U.S. Attorney, the G.O.P. Congressman and the Timely Job Offer." ... "There is yet another United States attorney whose abrupt departure from office is raising questions: Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles [California]." ... "Carol Lam, the United States attorney in San Diego [California], was fired after she put [California Republican Representative] Randy Cunningham, known as Duke, in prison. Paul Charlton, in Arizona, was dismissed while he was investigating [Arizona Republican Representative] Rick Renzi. Dan Bogden, in Nevada, was fired while he was reportedly investigating [Republican] Jim Gibbons, a congressman who was elected [Nevada] governor last year." ... "Ms. Yang was investigating [California Republican Representative] Jerry Lewis, who was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee." ... "Ms. Yang says she left for personal reasons, but there is growing evidence that the White House was intent on removing her. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department staff member in charge of the firings, told investigators last month in still-secret testimony that Harriet Miers, the White House counsel at the time, had asked him more than once about Ms. Yang. He testified, according to Congressional sources, that as late as mid-September, Ms. Miers wanted to know whether Ms. Yang could be made to resign. Mr. Sampson reportedly recalled that Ms. Miers was focused on just two United States attorneys: Ms. Yang and Bud Cummins, the Arkansas prosecutor who was later fired to make room for Tim Griffin, a Republican political operative and Karl Rove protégé." ... "Press reports say she [Ms. Yang] got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties." ... "Gibson, Dunn was defending Mr. Lewis in Ms. Yang’s investigation." -By Adam Cohen -NYTimes

20070430

Secret - Gonzales - Kyle Sampson - Monica Goodling - US Attorneys - Government - Law - Politics - "Secret Order By Gonzales Delegated Extraordinary Powers To Aides." ... "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed a highly confidential order in March 2006 delegating to two of his top aides -- who have since resigned because of their central roles in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys --extraordinary authority over the hiring and firing of most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department. A copy of the order and other Justice Department records related to the conception and implementation of the order were provided to National Journal." ... "In the order, Gonzales delegated to his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, and his White House liaison "the authority, with the approval of the Attorney General, to take final action in matters pertaining to the appointment, employment, pay, separation, and general administration" of virtually all non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department, including all of the department's political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation. Monica Goodling became White House liaison in April 2006, the month after Gonzales signed the order." ... "The existence of the order suggests that a broad effort was under way by the White House to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department, not just at the U.S.-attorney level. Department records show that the personnel authority was delegated to the two aides at about the same time they were working with the White House in planning the firings of a dozen U.S. attorneys, eight of whom were, in fact, later dismissed." ... "The senior administration official who had firsthand knowledge of the plan said that Gonzales and other Justice officials had a "clear obligation" to disclose the plan's existence to the House and Senate Judiciary committees -- but the official said that, as far as he knew, they had not done so. When the committees began to inquire into the firings of the U.S. attorneys, the official said, Congress had a right to know that the firings were part of an ambitious effort to install administration loyalists throughout the department." ... "The official added, "The president of the United States [Republican George Bush] has said it was imperative for the attorney general, and the attorney general alone, to re-establish trust with the Congress to keep his job … and you have, even after the president has said that, the attorney general and his men stiffing Congress."" -By Murray Waas -NationalJournal

20070425

Renzi - Gonzales - Miers - Kyle Sampson - Arizona - 2006 Election - US Attorneys - Political - Government - Land - Business - Enforcement - "Delays in Renzi Case Raise More Gonzales Questions." ... "As midterm [2006] elections approached last November, federal investigators in Arizona faced unexpected obstacles in getting needed Justice Department approvals to advance a corruption investigation of [Arizona Representative] Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, people close to the case said." ... "The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after the election, raise new questions about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations. The Arizona U.S. attorney then overseeing the case, Paul Charlton, was told he was being fired in December, one of eight federal prosecutors dismissed in the past year. The dismissals have triggered a wave of criticism and calls from Congress for Mr. Gonzales to resign." ... "Investigators pursuing the Renzi case had been seeking clearance from senior Justice Department officials on search warrants, subpoenas and other legal tools for a year before the [2006] election, people close to the case said." ... "Mr. Renzi is the subject of a criminal inquiry into land deals, among other things. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that federal agents are focusing on a $200,000 cash payment Mr. Renzi received from a former business partner in 2005 following a land sale that was to be part of a proposed government land-exchange bill." ... "In September, [Republican] President Bush hosted a fund-raiser in Scottsdale [Arizona] on his behalf. About the same time Mr. Charlton was added to a list of prosecutors "we should now consider pushing out," wrote Mr. Gonzales's then-chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, in a Sept. 13, 2006, email to then-White House counsel Harriet Miers." -By John R. Wilke and Evan Perez -WSJ.com

20070413

Gonzales - Kyle Sampson - Miers - US Attorneys - Politics - Michigan - California - Arkansas - New York - "Gonzales Aide Suggested Replacements for Attorneys." ... "A Justice Department e-mail released today shows that the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales proposed replacement candidates for seven United States attorneys nearly a year before those prosecutors were fired, in contrast to testimony last month in which the aide said that no successors were considered before the firings." ... "The e-mail written by D. Kyle Sampson, who resigned last month as the top aide to Mr. Gonzales, provides the first evidence that the Justice Department wanted to appoint its own candidates, despite the insistence of Justice Department officials in recent weeks that the eight prosecutors, with one exception, were removed in December 2006 for performance reasons, without regard to who might succeed them." ... "The Jan. 9, 2006, e-mail was sent by Mr. Sampson to Harriet Miers, the former White House Counsel, and William Kelley, another White House lawyer." ... "The United States Attorneys identified for removal are four who were ultimately dismissed: Margaret Chiara in Michigan, Kevin Ryan in San Francisco [California], Carol C. Lam in San Diego [California] and H. E. Cummins III in Arkansas." ... "“If a decision is made to remove and replace a limited number of U.S. Attorneys, then the following might be considered for removal and possible replacement,” Mr. Sampson’s e-mail said." ... "But Mr. Sampson testified under oath on March 29 [2007] at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had no candidates in mind to replace any of the fired prosecutors." ... "At one point in the hearing, Charles E. Schumer, a Democratic Senator from New York, asked Mr. Sampson, “Did you or did you not have in mind specific replacements for the dismissed U.S. Attorneys before they were asked to resign on December 7th, 2006.”" ... "Mr. Sampson, who was testifying under oath, replied, “I personally did not. On December 7th, I did not have in mind any replacements for any of the seven who were asked to resign.”" (1, 2) -By David Johnston -NYTimes

20070329

Gonzales - Kyle Sampson - Miers - Cheney - Libby - US Attorneys - Intelligence - Politics - "CIA leak prosecutor’s job was threatened: Ex-Gonzales aide says in testimony he suggested removing Fitzgerald." ... "D. Kyle Sampson, the former top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, said in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that he suggested removing prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who oversaw the CIA leak case involving White House staff, from his post." ... "Sampson's statements on Thursday came amid controversy over U.S. attorneys who were fired without warning. His testimony for the first time put Gonzales at the heart of the firings amid ever-changing Justice Department accounts of how they were planned." ... "He said that he discussed removing Fitzgerald at a meeting last year with [President Bush's former counsel Harriet] Miers and her deputy, William Kelley." ... "Fitzgerald served as special counsel in the trial over who revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, which ended in a perjury and obstruction conviction for Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby." -By Joel Seidman -MSNBC

20070328

Gonzales - Kyle Sampson - Rove - Timothy Griffin - Harriet Miers - US Attorneys - Law - Ark - "Ex-Aide: Prosecutor Firings Were Political: Gonzales' Former Chief Of Staff To Testify U.S. Attorneys Were Dismissed For Not Supporting Bush Agenda." ... "Eight federal prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently support President Bush's priorities, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff [Kyle Sampson] says in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday to Congress." ... "Separately, the Justice Department admitted Wednesday it gave senators inaccurate information about the firings and presidential political adviser Karl Rove's role in trying to secure a U.S. attorney's post for one of his former aides, Tim Griffin." ... "In a letter accompanying new documents sent to the House and Senate Judiciary committees, Justice officials acknowledged that a Feb. 23 letter to four Democratic senators erred in asserting that the department was not aware of any role Rove played in the decision to appoint Griffin to replace U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Ark [Arkansas]." ... "The Feb. 23 letter, which was written by Sampson but signed by [Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard] Hertling, emphatically stated that "the department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin." It also said that "the Department of Justice is not aware of anyone lobbying, either inside or outside of the administration, for Mr. Griffin's appointment."" ... "Those assertions are contradicted by e-mails from Sampson to White House aide Christopher G. Oprison on Dec. 19, 2006, about a strategy to deal with senators' opposition to Griffin's appointment. In the e-mail, Sampson says there is a risk that senators might balk and repeal the attorney general's newly won broader authority to appoint U.S. attorneys." ... ""I'm not 100 percent sure that Tim was the guy on which to test drive this authority, but know that getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc," Sampson wrote. Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers was among the first people to suggest Griffin as a replacement for Cummins." -AP via -CBSNews

20070325

Gonzales - Kyle D Sampson - Rove - US Attorneys - Law - Politics - 2004 Election - New Mexico - Arkansas - "For Gonzales, More Records, and Questions." ... "An accumulating body of evidence is at odds with the statements of [Republican President Bush appointed] Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that he played little role in the deliberations over the dismissal of eight United States attorneys." ... "Mr. Gonzales has said he did not take part in any discussions of the dismissal effort, and left the planning and execution of the removals up to D. Kyle Sampson, his former chief of staff." ... "But e-mail messages and other documents released by the Justice Department in recent days suggest that Mr. Gonzales was told of the dismissal plan on at least two occasions, in 2005 when the plan was devised and again in late 2006 shortly before the firings were carried out." ... "Justice Department officials first said the White House approved the ouster plan only after it was initiated by Justice, but e-mail messages have shown that officials at the White House initiated the effort, shortly after the 2004 elections." ... "Justice Department officials at first gave no reasons for the firings, then cited performance problems with the prosecutors, and, finally, acknowledged that performance could not be cited in each of the cases as the rationale for the firings." ... "Officials have said that politics played no role in the firings. But they later acknowledged that they had received repeated telephone calls from one Republican senator who sought the ouster of the New Mexico prosecutor, and that a second United States attorney, in Arkansas, was dismissed to make room for a former aide to Mr. Rove." ... "Mr. Gonzales also said, more explicitly: “I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood.”" ... "This directly conflicts with documents released late Friday, which show he headed an hourlong meeting on the ouster plan with key members of his senior staff 10 days before the firings." ... "Even before Mr. Gonzales left his position as White House counsel in February 2005 to become attorney general, Mr. Sampson told him that an effort had been initiated to examine which prosecutors, if any, should be ousted, e-mail messages released as part of the investigation show." (1, 2) -By Eric Lipton and David Johnston with contributions by Jim Rutenberg -NYTimes

20070323

Rove - Gonzales - Miers - US Attorneys - Law - Enforcement - Politics - Arkansas - E-Mails - "E-Mails Show Machinations to Replace Prosecutor: Administration Worked for Months to Make Rove Aide U.S. Attorney in Arkansas." ... "Two months before Bud Cummins was fired as U.S. attorney in Little Rock [Arkansas], a protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove was maneuvering with the Justice Department to take his place." ... "Last April, Tim Griffin, a Rove aide and longtime GOP operative, sent the attorney general's chief of staff a flattering letter about himself written by Cummins, the prosecutor he was trying to replace, internal e-mails released this week show. Rove and Harriet Miers, then the White House counsel, were keenly interested in putting him in the position, e-mails reveal." ... "New documents also show that Justice and White House officials were preparing for President Bush's approval of the appointment as early as last summer, five months before Griffin took the job." ... "The e-mails show how D. Kyle Sampson, then the attorney general's chief of staff, and other Justice officials prepared to use a change in federal law to bypass input from Arkansas' two Democratic senators, who had expressed doubts about placing a former Republican National Committee operative in charge of a U.S. attorney's office. The evidence runs contrary to assurances from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that no such move had been planned." ... "By June 13, about a week before Cummins would be told he was losing his job, Sampson wrote to Monica Goodling, senior counsel to Gonzales, to tell her that a colleague had the necessary pre-nomination paperwork for Griffin. He said that he would speak the following morning with Michael A. Battle, chief of the office that oversees U.S. attorneys, and make sure that Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty's office "knows that we are now executing this plan."" ... "Sampson's note suggests the plan was not new: "I did tell them this was likely coming several months ago."" (1, 2, 3) -By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein with contributions by Michael Abramowitz -WashingtonPost

20070315

Gonzales - Rove - Law - Politics - E-Mail - Arkansas - "Statements On Firings of Prosecutors Are Key Issue." ... "In testimony on Jan. 18, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department had no intention of avoiding Senate input on the hiring of U.S. attorneys." ... "Just a month earlier, D. Kyle Sampson, who was then Gonzales's chief of staff, laid out a plan to do just that. In an e-mail, he detailed a strategy for evading Arkansas Democrats in installing Tim Griffin, a former GOP [Republican] operative and protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove, as the U.S. attorney in Little Rock [Arkansas]." ... ""We should gum this to death," Sampson wrote to a White House aide on Dec. 19. "[A]sk the senators to give Tim a chance . . . then we can tell them we'll look for other candidates, ask them for recommendations, evaluate the recommendations, interview their candidates, and otherwise run out the clock. All of this should be done in 'good faith,' of course."" ... "Democrats and Republicans are demanding to know whether Gonzales, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty and other Justice officials misled them in sworn testimony over the past two months." ... "The inconsistencies between Justice's positions and the documents are numerous. On Feb. 23, for example, a Justice legislative affairs aide wrote to [New York Democratic Senator] Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) that the department "was not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin." But internal Justice e-mails show that "getting him appointed is important" to Rove and was closely monitored by political aides in the White House." ... "Last week, senior Justice official William E. Moschella told a House Judiciary subcommittee that the White House was not consulted on the firings until the end of the process." ... "But the documents released this week show that the plan began more than two years ago at the White House counsel's office [Harriet Miers], which initially suggested firing all 93 U.S. attorneys. Gonzales rejected that idea, and Sampson wrote back in January 2006 that Justice and the White House should "work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of U.S. Attorneys."" ... "McNulty told the committee that there was no plan to use Gonzales's appointment powers to evade Senate oversight, that accusations of "politicizing" the hiring and firing process were "completely contrary to my daily experience," and that the dismissals of everyone but the Arkansas prosecutor were purely "performance-related."" ... "Each of those contentions is called into question by the 143 pages of internal e-mails and other documents turned over to the House and the Senate on Tuesday. Most had been sent or received by Sampson." ... "Political considerations, for example, figured prominently in who was chosen to be fired. Sampson ranked all 93 U.S. attorneys in part on whether they "exhibited loyalty" to Bush and Gonzales or "chafed against Administration initiatives etc."" (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost

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