Rove implicated in US attorney firing scandal

As more Republicans called last week on Alberto R. Gonzales to resign, President Bush's aides began to look beyond the attorney general and focus on preventing the controversy over the firing of federal prosecutors from spreading–and endangering Karl Rove, the president's top political advisor. Initially, the dispute centered on the Justice Department, Gonzales and his top aides. But documents released last week suggested that Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers were also involved in the decision to fire eight US attorneys after the 2004 election. That brought the issue to the threshold of the Oval Office and prompted reporters to ask whether Bush had been involved. White House political advisor Karl Rove more than two years ago began seeking input from the Department of Justice into how many US attorneys should be fired in the second Bush administration, according to emails released on Mar. 15 that show a deeper White House involvement in the dismissal of federal prosecutors last year. The three emails also show that presidential adviser Karl Rove asked the White House counsel's office in early January 2005 whether it planned to proceed with a proposal to fire all 93 federal prosecutors. Officials said on Mar. 15 that Rove was opposed to that idea but wanted to know whether Justice planned to carry it out. Finally, the emails also show that the Justice Department was willing to defer to Rove on the matter. None of the three new emails is from Rove himself. They are part of a string of email correspondence between other officials prompted by Rove's inquiry. D. Kyle Sampson, a Justice official and soon-to-be deputy chief of staff to Gonzales–who was then the White House counsel–responded to Rove's question with a point-by-point strategy on how the administration might proceed. As an operational matter, Sampson wrote, "we would like to replace 15 to 20 percent of the 93 US attorneys," those they considered to be underperforming. The others, Sampson said, "are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies." But as a political matter, he cautioned that "when push comes to shove," home-state senators who supported their prosecutors likely would resist the firings. Nevertheless, Sampson said, "if Karl thinks there would be political will to do it, so do I." White House officials have said that former Miers initially floated the idea of firing all the prosecutors. But they said her idea was scrapped by Gonzales and others who thought it impractical. Under the constitution, federal prosecutors are nominated by the president. Although they are formally confirmed by the Senate, they can be dismissed by him at any time. However, a little noticed clause in a bill last year allowed the White House to name "temporary" replacements, without the need for immediate approval. This has fanned the belief that the administration was seeking to tighten its grip on the judiciary by bypassing Congress altogether. Many critics also believe the firings were a politically motivated effort to remove prosecutors who defied the Bush administration. This accusation has gained credibility since it was discovered that nearly all of the fired attorneys received positive performance evaluations, calling into question the administration's claim that they were fired due to performance-related problems. Fired San Diego, CA attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent an email that said Lam needed to be fired, US Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said on Mar. 18. Feinstein said the timing of the email suggested that Lam's dismissal may have been connected to the corruption probe. "There were clearly US attorneys that were thorns in the side for one reason or another of the Justice Department," Feinstein said. "The attorney general has said he did not know what was going on.... That is very difficult for me to believe." Feinstein said Lam notified the Justice Department on May 10, 2006, that she planned to serve search warrants on Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, who'd resigned two days earlier as the No. 3 official at the CIA. On May 11, 2006, Sampson sent an email to deputy White House counsel William Kelley, asking Kelley to call to discuss "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires." The email did not spell out what the "real problem" was, and it was unclear whether Kelley and Sampson talked later. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse denied in an email that there was any link. Until now, lawmakers have focused on two of Lam's other inquiries into Republicans as possible ways in which she may have chafed the administration. Lam oversaw the investigation that led to the corruption conviction of then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA), who pleaded guilty in late 2005 to accepting $2.4 million in bribes. He was sentenced in March 2006 to eight years and four months in prison. On the same day last year as the Sampson email, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Cunningham probe was being expanded to look at the actions of another California Republican, then-House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis. Sampson, who resigned last week, declined to comment through his lawyer. Feinstein's office also declined interview requests. Several leading Republicans said they expected Gonzales to resign in the next few weeks. They asked to speak on condition of anonymity because their comments conflicted with Bush's public position that his attorney general does not need to leave. Two Republican senators, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, and one Republican congressman, Dana Rohrabacher of California, have publicly called on Gonzales to resign. Others have said privately that the attorney general should leave. And no leading Republican in Congress has stepped forward to defend Gonzales–a sign that any political support he once enjoyed has virtually disappeared. Regardless of Gonzales' fate, questions will be asked under oath of his aides, including Sampson, and most of the prosecutors he fired. The Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas for five Justice officials on Mar. 15 as a safeguard against the attorney general retracting his permission for them to testify voluntarily. The Senate panel also authorized subpoenas for six of the eight fired US attorneys. Democrats in the Senate and House have said they want Miers and Rove, President Bush's chief political strategist, to testify about their roles in the decision to fire the prosecutors. Rove, Miers and Gonzales have been among the president's closest aides for more than a decade; all worked for him when he was governor of Texas in the 1990s. Snow said the White House has not decided whether Rove or Miers should testify or whether to release internal documents to Congress, which has the power to subpoena witnesses–Justice Department officials and others. "This is one more chapter in the defense of Karl Rove," said one leading GOP figure who insisted on anonymity because he was speaking ill of the president's most powerful aide. "This isn't accountability, it's damage control, and it's protection for Karl."